Claudius further insisted that the Senate should work with efficiency. He thus enforced attendance. In an interesting fragment from a speech he delivered on procedure in trials, which is preserved on papyrus, he put forward proposals designed to break ‘the tyranny of the accusers’ and urged the Senate to vote honestly on them: ‘If you disapprove, find another solution, but here and now … it is unbecoming to the majesty of this assembly that one man alone, the consul-designate, should repeat the remarks of the consuls word for word as his opinion and that the rest of you utter only one word, “I agree” and then when you leave say, “We debated”.’5 This denunciation of ‘yesmen’ reveals the increasing inadequacy of the Senate, and it was this, not a desire to humiliate it, that led Claudius to encroach on its activities in various ways. Chief among these was his creation of a centralized administrative machine, staffed by freedmen, which is described below, but a few other specific examples may be mentioned. Thus he abolished the senatorial quaestores classici because the prefects of the fleets at Misenum and Ravenna could do their work; an imperial ‘procurator portus Ostiensis’ replaced the quaestor Ostiensis; in 44 Claudius himself nominated two quaestors to administer the Aerarium for three years; imperial officials relieved the quaestors of the care of the roads in Rome: Claudius may on occasion have interfered in the appointment of governors to senatorial provinces; and in 53 powers of jurisdiction in financial questions in senatorial provinces were transferred from the proconsul to imperial procurators.6 He may also have made some adjustments in the distribution of corn.7 All changes of this kind were no doubt made by him in an attempt to secure greater administrative efficiency, and in part the Senate may have had only itself to blame for its losses, but clearly such measures would increase the difficulty of friendly co-operation between the Princeps and Senate. In fact by infringing senatorial administrative duties, by interfering with the composition of the Senate, and by his attacks on individual senators (Claudius is said to have executed thirty or thirty-five during his reign), he alienated still further a body with which he wished to be on good terms. He perhaps underestimated the resentment of some of the older aristocratic families when they found their members being turned, through his drive for efficient administration, from independent officers of state into officials of an emperor.
To some extent the Equestrian Order benefited from Claudius’ policy towards the Senate and from his provincial policy: there were more posts for equestrian officials. But although his outward relations with them continued to be friendly and he was careful to preserve the integrity of the Order (his reorganization of their cursus honorum was short-lived), they too found themselves often overshadowed by him, even in commercial activities, and they were increasingly becoming merely his agents. Their discontent sometimes resulted in conspiracies, and Claudius is said to have put to death up to three hundred Equites.
3. CLAUDIUS’ CENTRALIZED ADMINISTRATION
One of the fundamental causes of Claudius’ difficulties with the Senate and the Equestrian Order was that beside making them more dependent on himself he was at the same time becoming more independent of them through the creation of a private secretariat. Augustus, following the normal Roman practice, had used the freedmen and slaves of his own household as secretaries and clerks, and his successors had perhaps slightly increased their staff. But it was Claudius who first developed a centralized bureaucracy by creating specialized departments, each under a freedman, which were miniature Ministries and formed the basis of an Imperial Civil Service, which was independent of the older authorities, the Senate and Knights. Further, this chancery was staffed with men, mostly of non-Italian origin, who were not imbued with the Roman tradition and who owed loyalty to the Princeps alone. Thus in the interest of more efficient administration Claudius unwittingly sowed the seeds from which was to spring that gigantic bureaucratic machine which two or three centuries later began to choke the free life of the whole Roman world.
The immediate cause of this development was the growing complexity of the business which the emperor had to handle, arising in part from the great increase of imperial property and estates and the addition of new provinces. The new departments and their freedmen heads were: Narcissus, the chief secretary (praepositus ab epistulis), through whose office all official correspondence must have passed; Pallas, the financial secretary (a rationibus);8 Callistus, a secretary (a libellis) who dealt with petitions to the emperor and also (unless this was the work of a separate department) with judicial inquiries (cognitiones); and Polybius (a studiis) whose functions probably included those of librarian and literary adviser. The new imperial freedmen, by fair means or foul, gained great wealth and power, but during most of the reign they remained essentially the servants of the master who appointed them. Their existence caused continual annoyance to the old senatorial aristocracy and at the same time greatly increased the personal power of the Princeps. Greater efficiency in administration was thus obtained at a high cost.
Finance in particular was closely concentrated in the hands of Claudius and his servants. It is perhaps not likely that he established a centralized Fiscus in Rome (in the sense of a Treasury where he kept public money), but the development of the office of a rationibus (which had existed under Tiberius, and probably even under Augustus) will have led to a closer organization of the imperial provincial fisci (see p. 187). The emperor also had a vast private fortune, and this was contained in a treasury known as a fiscus; the accounts of these personal monies (the ratio patrimonii) were kept by a procurator a patrimonio, a post perhaps first created by Claudius. He also established an official procurator vicesimarum hereditatum to control the inheritance tax, while the procurators secured more financial authority in senatorial provinces (p. 245). He himself gained greater control over the Aerarium when he received the right to appoint quaestors to administer it (p. 245), and in practice he would presumably not be held accountable for monies that he drew from it, because any formal vote of funds to the emperor would be made without a time limit, since all emperors from Tiberius onwards at their accession were given their powers for life (and not for specific periods, as with Augustus).
A similar desire for efficiency is shown in Claudius’ judicial administration. He had so great a personal interests in jurisdiction that he was mocked for the time that he spent in the courts, but he set right many abuses in the judicial system, not least by expediting the transaction of business (cf. his speech mentioned on p. 291). Here as elsewhere his actions were inspired by a spirit of equity. A less pleasant aspect was that he himself often judged criminal cases such as his predecessors might have remitted to the Senate. The hearing of such trials intra cubiculum principis became unpopular, especially when it was thought that they were used by Claudius’ freedmen or wives as a means of getting rid of their personal enemies by playing upon his fears of conspiracy: sometimes uncertainty of himself, combined with a touch of naïveté, may have misled him into acts of cruelty. But his essential sense of justice is shown in a considerable body of minor legislation for which he was responsible. Details cannot be given here, but two examples may illustrate its humanity and equity: usurers were forbidden to lend money to a son in expectation of a father’s death; and sick slaves, for whom Roman masters sometimes callously disclaimed responsibility by exposing them in the temple of Aesculapius, were, if they recovered, to obtain their freedom.
Claudius was not backward in his public help and works. An S. C. Hosidianum punished those who purchased and demolished buildings for profit; the bill aimed especially at preventing the destruction of farms and the consequent reversion of the farmland to grazing. Claudius helped the corn supply by insuring ships and cargoes against damage by storm, and by granting privileges to aliens who built ships. At Ostia, the port of Rome, where the Tiber mouth was silting up, he built a harbour some two miles to the north, linked to the Tiber by canal, and constructed moles, a lighthouse and granaries.9 He completed two aqueducts for Rome which Gaius had started: remains of the
Aqua Claudia still stride across the countryside outside the city. Thirty thousand men, working for eleven years, tunnelled a three-mile long emissarium which drained the Fucine Lake into the river Liris and reclaimed a large area in central Italy for agriculture, though this was later partly lost again through the choking of the channel. Both in this work and in his harbour works at Ostia, Claudius was following earlier schemes of Julius Caesar. He built roads in Italy (continuing the Via Valeria as the Via Valeria Claudia to the Adriatic) and in Alpine districts (e.g. the Via Claudia Augusta from Altinum to the Danube). And, as will be seen, he was no less concerned about the well-being of the provinces.
In his religious policy Claudius, though conservative by nature and antiquarian in interest, did not avoid all novelty. He did much to restore the old religion of the State, e.g. he reorganized the college of haruspices, and in 47 he managed to celebrate the Secular Games by reckoning their start from 613 B.C. instead of 666 B.C., the date used by Augustus; the Games were thus made to coincide with the eight-hundredth anniversary of the foundation of Rome. In another ceremony in 49 he extended the old sacred boundary of Rome (the pomerium) to include the Aventine and part of the Campus Martius; this privilege belonged to generals who had extended the imperial frontiers, within which Claudius had brought Britain, Mauretania and Thrace. Towards emperor-worship, in reaction against the wild extravagances of Gaius, Claudius reverted to the sensible attitude of Tiberius. In the famous letter that he wrote to the Alexandrians in 41 he said that he did not want a high priest or temples, ‘for I do not wish to be offensive to my contemporaries’, but naturally he did not in general receive less honours than had Tiberius. Towards foreign religions he was tolerant where he regarded them as harmless to older Roman ideas. Thus he thought of transferring the Eleusinian Mysteries to Rome, but he expelled astrologers from Italy. Towards Druidism he went further than his predeccessors (see p. 235): if Tiberius had not already done so, Claudius decreed its complete suppression. Towards the Jews he reverted to the more generous attitude prevailing before Gaius, and restored to them throughout the Empire freedom of worship and exemption from the imperialcult. But in Rome he was more severe. Though Tiberius’ expulsion order had not been revoked, a large Jewish colony had re-established itself in Rome: in 41 Claudius denied them the right to hold meetings (other than those of the individual synagogues?), presumably to stop them proselytizing and perhaps as the result of some disturbance; at any rate in this same year he wrote angrily to the Alexandrine Jews, accusing them of ‘fomenting a universal plague’.10 In 49 there was a further clash with the Jews in Rome, and they were apparently expelled; whether the emerging new religion of Christianity had nay influence on these events is uncertain, but Suetonius says that a riot was provoked ‘impulsore Chresto’.11 Claudius also admitted the festival of Attis into the Roman calendar and reorganized its priestly colleges: the cult was robbed of some of its wilder features and was ‘romanized’; the chief priest, the archigallus, now had to be a Roman citizen and not an eastern eunuch.
4. THE PROVINCIAL POLICY OF CLAUDIUS
Undeterred by the advice of Augustus that the Empire should be kept with the limits that he had established for it, Claudius added no less than five provinces: Mauretania (two provinces), Britain, Thrace and Lycia. This policy arose partly from the legacy that he had received from Gaius of a Mauretania in revolt and of a Britain proclaimed as ripe for annexation, but also in part from his belief that the time had come to advance and to replace client-states by direct rule in some areas.
The revolt of Mauretania, which followed the murder of its ruler Ptolemy by Gaius (see p. 241), was led by one of his freedmen Aedemon, but it could not last long. The conquest of the country was begun by C. Suetonius Paulinus (41–2), who in a bold march became the first Roman to cross the Atlas mountains and reach the Sahara; it was completed by Cn. Hosidius Geta by 44. Two provinces were created, Mauretania Caesariensis and Tingitana with capitals at Caesarea (Cherchell) and Tingis (Tangiers) respectively; both towns, together with Tipasa and Lixus, received colonies of Roman veterans.11a The conquest of Britain is described below (pp. 252 ff.): in 43 Claudius hastened to join his general Aulus Plautius, who had forced the Thames, and witnessed the defeat of Caratacus. South-east Britain became a Roman province with a colony of veterans established at Camulodunum (Colchester) and its frontiers guarded by client-kings. Claudius himself, who returned to Rome to celebrate a triumph in 44, named his young son Britannicus. In Thrace, which had long been restless, the reigning king was murdered by his wife, and Claudius decided that the time had come to annex it (46). Lycia, which also had been disturbed, was made a province in 43.
In Gaul, where some whole tribes received Latin rights and many individuals were given Roman citizenship, there was much development. The legate of Lower Germany, Cn. Domitius Corbulo showed his military efficiency be reducing the Frisii who were again restless (47) and by checking raids of the Chauci who were organizing piracy in the North Sea under the leadership of Gannascus who had served formerly in the Roman Auxilia. After killing Gannascus and destroying his ships Corbulo was ordered by Claudius to withdraw westwards over the Rhine: the emperor had no intention of adopting a new policy towards Germany and the Rhine frontier. A colony was established at Cologne, named Colonia Agrippinensis in honour of Claudius’ wife, and colonial status was given to Augusta Treverorum (modern Trier or Treves), an important centre in the Moselle valley between the Rhineland and Gaul. The administration of Noricum was entrusted to an equestrian procurator in place of the praefectus whom Augustus had employed, while control of Achaea and Macedonia was given back to the Senate.
In the East also, especially in Asia Minor, road-building and other development proceeded apace. Claudius rewarded his friend Herod Agrippa for his past services (see p. 243) by installing him as ruler of Judaea, which since A.D. 6 had been a Roman province. But when Agrippa died in 44, Claudius judged that it might be too risky to leave such a key position under any other native ruler, and so Judaea reverted to provincial status, governed again by procurators. But Agrippa’s brother, Herod, who had been installed in the little principality of Chalcis, received the right to nominate the High Priests and to supervise the Temple of Jerusalem and its funds. Commagene was restored in 41 to its king Antiochus IV, whom Gaius had first installed and then deposed; Antiochus reigned until 72 when Vespasian incorporated Commagene into the province of Syria. Towards Parthia Claudius at first showed a firmer hand than Gaius had done and managed to gain some control over Armenia owing to the dynastic dissensions in Parthia, but near the end of his reign a new king, Vologeses I, established himself on the throne of Parthia and his brother Tiridates on that of Armenia (52–4); thus it was left to Nero to tackle the Armenian question once again.
In some respects Claudius’ line of thought followed Julius Caesar rather than Augustus. He set less store on the privileges of Rome and Italy and tried to raise the status of the provinces by generous grants of Roman citizenship and municipal rights, not least in the less romanized parts of the Empire. This policy is well illustrated by his treatment of Volubilis in Mauretania, which is known to us from an inscription.12 This town, which had helped Rome during the war, received Roman citizenship, municipal status and exemption from taxation for ten years; further, the native tribes (incolae) living within the territory of the municipium were ‘attributed’ to it. By this wise provision the more backward inhabitants of an area could be introduced to the responsibilities of city life by gradual stages: in this case, the incolae were probably given the right to vote for the municipal magistrates but not to hold office themselves. Rome thus gave citizenships to those who were ripe for it and trained the less civilized peoples of the empire in the responsibilities of citizenship before they were raised to this status. The colonies that Claudius established in Mauretania, Britain, Gaul and Germany have already been mentioned; there were others in Thrace, Cappadocia and Syria.
Claudius’ generous attitude to Roman citizenship, wh
ich is summed up in Seneca’s gibe that ‘constituerat enim omnes Graecos, Gallos, Hispanos, Britannos togatos videre’, is illustrated in another inscription containing an edict of Claudius granting citizenship to the Anauni and some other Alpine tribes.13 Difficulty had arisen because these peoples had been assuming citizen rights in the belief that they were members of the municipium of Tridentum (modern Trento), whereas an enquiry showed that some of them were only ‘attributed’ to the municipium and others had not even this status. When Claudius found that many of them had made good use of their supposed citizenship (some were serving in the Praetorian Guard, others as centurions), he wisely granted them citizenship and thus showed that he believed this should be the reward given for service to those who had attained an adequate degree of Romanization. The extent to which in practice he granted citizenship to communities or individuals must not be exaggerated: what is important is that he realized that the Empire had now had time to settle down, that Latin culture was being more widely assimilated, and that further extension of rights was desirable.
The possession of Roman citizenship by a provincial gave him many social and economic advantages, but it also enabled him, in theory, to stand for office in Rome and seek entry into the Senate: prejudice, rather than law, stood in his way. This issue became alive when some Gallic chieftains sought admission. During his censorship (47–8) Claudius outlined his policy in a speech to the Senate which is partly preserved in an inscription (the so-called Lyons Tablet found at Lugdunum) and also in the version given by Tacitus in the Annals.14 Drawing on his knowledge of Rome’s history Claudius emphasized that the Republic had flourished because it had welcomed foreign elements into the citizen body and because it had adjusted the constitution to meet each fresh need. Thus he persuaded a reluctant Senate to proclaim the right of all Roman citizens in Gallia Comata to stand for office in Rome. At the same time as censor he probably added some of the nobles of the Aedui to the Senate by virtue of his right of adlectio, thus saving them from the need to go through the minor qualifying offices. This was a great step forward: under Augustus the Senate had become more representative of tota Italia, and now Claudius opened the way to the Senate House for more provincials, though at the cost of alienating some of the older senatorial families.
From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 B.C. to A.D. 68 Page 40