CLAUDIUS, a French writer of uncommon abilities and immense erudition, descended from an ancient and noble family, and born at or near Semur in 1596. His mother, who was a Protestant, infused her notions of religion into him, and he at length converted his father: he settled at Leyden; and in 1650 paid a visit to Christina queen of Sweden, who is reported to have shown him extraordinary marks of regard. Upon the violent death of Charles I. of England, he was prevailed on by the royal family, then in exile, to write a defence of that king; which was answered by our famous Milton in 1651, in a work intitled Defensio pro Populo Anglicano contra Claudii Salmasii Defensionem Regiam. This book was read over all Europe; and conveyed such a proof of the writer's abilities, that he was respected even by those who hated his principles. Salmasius died in 1653; and some did not scruple to say, that Milton killed him by the acuteness of his reply. His works are numerous, and of various kinds; but the greatest monuments of his learning are, his Note in Historiae Auguifae Scriptores, and his Exercitationes Pliniiane in Solinum.