Templum Divo Claudio Constitutum

Abstract

The standard view of the great temple at Camulodunum is that it served an early provincial cult which paid outright divine worship to the reigning emperor Claudius. ‘The British cult … was a personal cult of the Emperor Claudius, to whom it accorded divinity during his lifetime with an emphasis which went well beyond previous Roman practice.’ So entrenched has this belief become that discussion has centred almost entirely upon how such an anomalous situation is to be explained. Had Claudius' officials exceeded their orders in a fit of over-enthusiasm? Or should one rather suppose a more moderate cult, for example of the emperor's numen, that quickly merged into unadulterated divine veneration? Even in Rome the trend was more and more to regard the emperor as a praesens deus; so much so that a medical writer could boldly refer to Claudius as ‘our god Caesar’. Perhaps, then, one should think in terms of a provincial experiment, justifiable for local reasons but still too far ahead of its time to be risked in the political climate of the capital. Whatever explanation recommends itself, the temple of Claudius, as now interpreted, presents major difficulties that have never been satisfactorily resolved. I should like to reconsider the problem here by openly dissenting from the main tenets of present doctrine. Was Claudius ever the object of a purely personal cult at Camulodunum? Did a temple to the god Claudius even exist there within his own lifetime?