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Claudius Caesar: Image and Power in the Early Roman Empire
The story of Claudius has been often told before. Ancient writers saw the emperor as the dupe of his wives and palace insiders; Robert Graves tried to rehabilitate him as a far shrewder, if still frustrated, politician. Josiah Osgood shifts the focus off the personality of Claudius and on to what his tumultuous years in power reveal about the developing political culture of the early Roman Empire. What precedents set by Augustus were followed? What had to be abandoned? How could a new emperor win the support of key elements of Roman society? This richly illustrated discussion draws on a range of newly discovered documents, exploring events that move far beyond the city of Rome and Italy to Egypt and Judea, Morocco and Britain. Claudius Caesar opens up a new perspective not just on Claudius himself, but all Roman emperors, the Roman Empire, and the nature of empires more generally.
374 pages, Hardcover
First published November 18, 2010
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About the author
Josiah Osgood
13 books17 followersJosiah Osgood is Professor of Classics at Georgetown University. His teaching and research cover many areas of Roman history and Latin literature, with a special focus on the fall of the Roman Republic.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 22, 2020
"The story of Claudius has often been told before," begins the blurb, but there aren't many books about him in print besides Robert Graves's novels, so I bought this one after rereading Suetonius's account in Latin. The author tells a rather different story than do the ancient authorities he perforce chiefly relies on, but he is no more sympathetic towards Claudius than they were. I spotted a few errors, including confusion of the names of some minor characters and Greek towns, some typos, and spelling mistakes. Licinius Mucianus could not have read "a letter of Sarpedon written from Troy - on paper!" (p. 115) if for no other reason because paper did not reach the West from China until the 13th century AD. Nero's mother did not marry Agrippina (p. 219); she WAS Agrippina, she married Claudius, and they would have clasped hands in marital (not "martial") concord. Some Latin terms are misleadingly translated throughout into English, e.g. for "Domus Augusta" he has "the August House," which I consider a misleading name for what was merely Augustus's family. The book does fill in some details that have come to light from archaeology, and I can recommend it if you've already read what others have to say about Claudius and are keen to learn more.
October 26, 2020
Osgood thematically looks at Claudius to explain how he changed the principate, and thus, how this affected the position of emperorship going forward. Osgood also observes that a few problems Claudius encountered were there even in Augustus’ time—for one, the power of the military and their affect on the position and power of imperator, and for another, the decline of senatorial political power.
It is too strong of a point to state that Osgoods’ work is the culmination of Millar’s and Zanker’s work. On the one hand, Osgood focuses on the legacy (the archaeological evidence) of Claudius in order to understand better his reception and relationship with the people of the Roman Empire. Many of Osgood’s main arguments indirectly stated that Claudius was not like Augustus, especially in how they each handled imagery. Zanker stresses that Augustus actively articulated the imagery he wanted the people to perceive—this was also true of Hekster’s take on Commodus—meanwhile, Osgood tended to illustrate that the people of Rome were the ones who were in control of Claudius’ iconography and imagery. To Osgood, the people directed the perception of the emperor, while to Zanker and Hekster, Augustus and Commodus controlled their own visual program.
On the other hand, Osgood like Millar focuses on the role of emperorship. While Millar focused in general on emperorship as a whole, Osgood zoomed in on the roles that Claudius performed as emperor to contextually get a better understanding of what emperorship looked like. While Millar argued that emperors played a passive role in their positions, Osgood argues quite the opposite by showing many things that Claudius actively did and changed within the principate.
Fundamentally, because Claudius was not adopted, was not privy to the political sphere, nor was he ever a senator or consul, or held any title for that matter, his background is what changed the principle and position of succession. This changed the principate by showing that the emperor did not need senatorial experience, a political background, or to be named successor by his predecessor. All a man needed was the military to proclaim him emperor. The military had the power to elevate someone to imperator. The senate was no longer the most politically powerful group anymore. Osgood subtly points out that Claudius’ reign was not the starting point for the decline in senatorial power, this decline began during Augustus’ reign. The decline in senatorial power and this change to the principate was also experienced in Trajan’s reign, as well as, Commodus’. With these snippets, Osgood attempts to convey to his audience that a lot of the problems Claudius dealt with were not his own making, instead they were issues of the position of emperorship, in general.
Osgood also showed with many examples, that the position of emperorship was active. At the beginning of his work, Claudius needed to be active in order to secure his position and authority. He needed the Praetorian Guards. Therefore, he gave them donatives and minted coins displaying iconographically on the reverse, the Praetorian camp and him being received as imperator. He needed to be the first one to reach the Temple of Saturn to secure the treasury. By securing the imperial treasury, he could fund the army, who proclaimed him imperator, and he could also fund his work and the state with whatever policies he wanted to carry out, such as his campaign in Britannia later on in his reign. Finally, he needed the imperial property on the Palatine to be his headquarters. The instructions on this unique succession were a gray area. Thus, Claudius needed to actively secure his position and authority by taking possession of the treasury and imperial estates.
Yet as his reign continued, Osgood used evidence to show that Claudius wanted to be actively involved. Claudius grew a communal relationship with the people by intervening on their behalf, and this too was a fundamental change to emperorship. Claudius was quite liberal with granting citizenship. He intervened by pronouncing judgement and seeking justice, especially when provincial and local officials were corrupt. He wanted to reform the judicial system with better legal proceedings and to get rid of the “tyranny of the prosecutors.”
Claudius also changed imperial cult practices of the principate. The people of the Roman Empire were accustomed to worshipping the current emperor as divine. Augustus associated himself with Apollo, and his wife was also exalted after her death; Trajan was associated with Jupiter, and Commodus went a step too far in proclaiming to be the demi-god himself, Hercules. While it may not have been a lasting change to the principate (since Trajan and Commodus came after Claudius), Claudius shifted the focus of ‘divine emperor’ off of himself and steered that reverence to the continuity of Augustus. He preferred temples and buildings to not be consecrated to him, instead he allowed them to be dedicated to the House of Augustus.
In closing, for Osgood, which is opposite of Millar’s argument, an emperor that emerges is an active one; he intervenes for the people, cares about justice and fighting corruption, and rewards service and merit by bestowing citizenship. Claudius was an emperor who cared more about getting good work done than who did the work—he neglected social and political status by employing freedmen. He used freedmen because they were skilled, had been in their positions a long time, and were good at their jobs. The use of the freedmen is a fundamental change of the prinicipate that Osgood raised throughout the book, although Augustus also used them in his own household for imperial tasks and administration. While the role of the freedmen fuels the decline of senatorial powers, Osgood actually connects the start of the decline of senatorial powers to the reign of Augustus, which can be seen in Zanker’s book and in the various articles in Edmondson’s work.
Lastly, Claudius understood like all emperors before and after him that imperial cult practices were important to establishing and continuing the ideology of divine rule, which Zanker, Hekster, and Osgood investigate just that—the power of images and their reception. Divine authority was always an important element to the position of emperor, and Claudius made an interesting shift by turning the people’s idolization to something more lasting than himself and his reign—to the divinity of Augustus and the imperial family.
It is too strong of a point to state that Osgoods’ work is the culmination of Millar’s and Zanker’s work. On the one hand, Osgood focuses on the legacy (the archaeological evidence) of Claudius in order to understand better his reception and relationship with the people of the Roman Empire. Many of Osgood’s main arguments indirectly stated that Claudius was not like Augustus, especially in how they each handled imagery. Zanker stresses that Augustus actively articulated the imagery he wanted the people to perceive—this was also true of Hekster’s take on Commodus—meanwhile, Osgood tended to illustrate that the people of Rome were the ones who were in control of Claudius’ iconography and imagery. To Osgood, the people directed the perception of the emperor, while to Zanker and Hekster, Augustus and Commodus controlled their own visual program.
On the other hand, Osgood like Millar focuses on the role of emperorship. While Millar focused in general on emperorship as a whole, Osgood zoomed in on the roles that Claudius performed as emperor to contextually get a better understanding of what emperorship looked like. While Millar argued that emperors played a passive role in their positions, Osgood argues quite the opposite by showing many things that Claudius actively did and changed within the principate.
Fundamentally, because Claudius was not adopted, was not privy to the political sphere, nor was he ever a senator or consul, or held any title for that matter, his background is what changed the principle and position of succession. This changed the principate by showing that the emperor did not need senatorial experience, a political background, or to be named successor by his predecessor. All a man needed was the military to proclaim him emperor. The military had the power to elevate someone to imperator. The senate was no longer the most politically powerful group anymore. Osgood subtly points out that Claudius’ reign was not the starting point for the decline in senatorial power, this decline began during Augustus’ reign. The decline in senatorial power and this change to the principate was also experienced in Trajan’s reign, as well as, Commodus’. With these snippets, Osgood attempts to convey to his audience that a lot of the problems Claudius dealt with were not his own making, instead they were issues of the position of emperorship, in general.
Osgood also showed with many examples, that the position of emperorship was active. At the beginning of his work, Claudius needed to be active in order to secure his position and authority. He needed the Praetorian Guards. Therefore, he gave them donatives and minted coins displaying iconographically on the reverse, the Praetorian camp and him being received as imperator. He needed to be the first one to reach the Temple of Saturn to secure the treasury. By securing the imperial treasury, he could fund the army, who proclaimed him imperator, and he could also fund his work and the state with whatever policies he wanted to carry out, such as his campaign in Britannia later on in his reign. Finally, he needed the imperial property on the Palatine to be his headquarters. The instructions on this unique succession were a gray area. Thus, Claudius needed to actively secure his position and authority by taking possession of the treasury and imperial estates.
Yet as his reign continued, Osgood used evidence to show that Claudius wanted to be actively involved. Claudius grew a communal relationship with the people by intervening on their behalf, and this too was a fundamental change to emperorship. Claudius was quite liberal with granting citizenship. He intervened by pronouncing judgement and seeking justice, especially when provincial and local officials were corrupt. He wanted to reform the judicial system with better legal proceedings and to get rid of the “tyranny of the prosecutors.”
Claudius also changed imperial cult practices of the principate. The people of the Roman Empire were accustomed to worshipping the current emperor as divine. Augustus associated himself with Apollo, and his wife was also exalted after her death; Trajan was associated with Jupiter, and Commodus went a step too far in proclaiming to be the demi-god himself, Hercules. While it may not have been a lasting change to the principate (since Trajan and Commodus came after Claudius), Claudius shifted the focus of ‘divine emperor’ off of himself and steered that reverence to the continuity of Augustus. He preferred temples and buildings to not be consecrated to him, instead he allowed them to be dedicated to the House of Augustus.
In closing, for Osgood, which is opposite of Millar’s argument, an emperor that emerges is an active one; he intervenes for the people, cares about justice and fighting corruption, and rewards service and merit by bestowing citizenship. Claudius was an emperor who cared more about getting good work done than who did the work—he neglected social and political status by employing freedmen. He used freedmen because they were skilled, had been in their positions a long time, and were good at their jobs. The use of the freedmen is a fundamental change of the prinicipate that Osgood raised throughout the book, although Augustus also used them in his own household for imperial tasks and administration. While the role of the freedmen fuels the decline of senatorial powers, Osgood actually connects the start of the decline of senatorial powers to the reign of Augustus, which can be seen in Zanker’s book and in the various articles in Edmondson’s work.
Lastly, Claudius understood like all emperors before and after him that imperial cult practices were important to establishing and continuing the ideology of divine rule, which Zanker, Hekster, and Osgood investigate just that—the power of images and their reception. Divine authority was always an important element to the position of emperor, and Claudius made an interesting shift by turning the people’s idolization to something more lasting than himself and his reign—to the divinity of Augustus and the imperial family.
October 23, 2020
Not what I was hoping for. Osgood does a decent job of describing the empire at different points and times during the reign of Claudius. Using this sort of tangential approach to telling the story of Claudius was good in some of the chapters and not so good in others. I was hoping for something a bit more chronological in terms of Claudius' life. I did, however, end up with a better understanding of the life of the emperor. I still prefer the Claudius of "I, Claudius" over the real thing.
November 1, 2023
That was a fun biography and gave a great overview of the important questions about the material from his reign. I learned a lot!
September 15, 2025
All in all I think this is a great book, the chapters are named and thought out very cleverly and the author just goes into it all of it in a profound, enjoyable manner.
August 10, 2016
This book was written to keep it engaging and interesting. While some sections were better than others, the thematic chapters and pictures made it easy to follow and easy to pick out what you are looking for.
May 19, 2015
A great new biography of Claudius and for once not necessarily a chronological account, but a well argued and fact rich treatise on the various themes of the Claudian reign.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews