Claudius Caesar: Image and Power in the Early Roman Empire (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Claudius Caesar: Image and Power in the Early Roman Empire Laura A. De Lozier Josiah Osgood . Claudius Caesar: Image and Power in the Early Roman Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. xv + 357 pp. 63 black-and-white ills., 5 maps, 4 tables. Cloth, $80; paper, $32.99. This book explores the changes to the political culture of the principate caused by the Praetorian Guard's acclamation of Claudius as imperator in 41 C.E. Osgood approaches his subject through an art-historical model informed by Kaisergeschichte. He studies Claudius' symbolic role, what he calls the "powerful fiction" of the emperor (26), a focus that distinguishes Osgood's book from previous studies. The book is intended to be accessible to students from all disciplines (xi). Quotations in the original languages are avoided, except in an appendix (105-6). Brief surveys of imperial practices precede the laying out of [End Page 330] evidence. A bibliographic essay for each section of endnotes contextualizes the chapter's discussion. The book is attractively illustrated, and Osgood writes in a clear and engaging style. After sketching in the prologue what the imperial system looked like in 41 C.E., Osgood reviews in the introduction how the study of Claudius has evolved. He takes issue with Fergus Millar's formulation of the Roman emperor as merely the sum of his deeds; Osgood argues that the emperor actively disseminated policies and images (25-26). Twelve chapters follow tackling a problem or opportunity for image-making at a given moment in Claudius' principate. Osgood embraces discrepancies and hostility in his sources and concedes that some things are nearly impossible to recover. He does not shy from following more speculative lines of interpretation but acknowledges when he does so in the text and directs the reader to further literature in the endnotes. The first three chapters treat Claudius' accession and immediate responses to its legitimacy. The first chapter, "Claudius Caesar," emphasizes the extra-constitutional means Claudius used to secure power as the first Caesar who was not a Julius. In acquiring Caligula's residence Claudius obtained the empire's financial and military records as well as the slaves and freedmen who kept them and irrevocably altered the practice of letting these materials pass under private law to the legitimate heirs of the princeps (38-40). The second chapter, "A Statue in Silver," examines the visual culture from Claudius' first years: his coins and portraits; the pageantry for the consecration of his grandmother Livia (perhaps depicted on the "Reliefs of the Vicomagistri," 57-58); and monuments to his family in Rusellae and Ravenna. These early images highlighted Claudius' maturity; underscored his connections to Augustus through Livia, his mother Antonia, his father Drusus, and his brother Germanicus; and compensated for his inexperience by suggesting that he had inherited their skills and virtues, particularly constantia from his mother (56-61). In the third chapter, "Imperial Favors," communities and groups outside of Italy strategically deploy embassies to the new emperor to increase their visibility, to affirm his legitimacy through honors, and to secure his confirmation of their rights and privileges. The subsequent five chapters explore how Claudius began to fulfill the promises about his potential made in his earliest images. "Subduing the Ocean," the fourth chapter, considers the invasion of Britain. Osgood is sensitive to the campaign's planning and to how its successes were shared with potential successors (Claudius' son-in-law Pompeius, prospective son-in-law Silanus, and infant son Britannicus) and his wife Messallina. Osgood draws on the Villa Medici reliefs traditionally attributed to an Ara Pietatis Augustae to reconstruct lost visual elements from Claudius' victory celebrations (94-95). The acquisition of geographic knowledge and its ideological implications are the subjects of the fifth chapter, "Lists of Peoples and Places." Annexations in Mauretania, Lycia, Thrace, and Judea and the scrupulous avoidance of wars in Germany, Dacia, and Parthia illustrate a core concern for security (114). Imposing order was part of Roman self-identity, but Claudius and his officials matched [End Page 331] ideology with a genuine ability to bring stability. In drawing administrative units, setting each unit's status and fiscal responsibility, building roads, and lining them with...