Claudius [Paperback]

Barbara Levick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 1993

In the first book on Claudius written in English in over fifty years, Barbara Levick provides a major reassessment of the man and his reign. Drawing on recent research, Levick offers a provocative reconsideration of Claudius's political objectives and activities within the constitutional, political, social, and economic development of Rome. A history of political and domestic intrigue as well as an investigation into the limits of a Roman emperor's power, her book will be essential reading for historians of the Roman Empire. "Barbara Levick provides a new treatment of the reign of Claudius; it is a biography and much more. His reign was the turning point in the establishment of the permanent monarchy, and Levick is excellent in showing how Claudius worked throughout his reign to secure his position. . . . This stimulating book is the best we have on Claudius and among the best current treatments of any Roman emperor."-Ronald Mellor, American Historical Review "A must read, Claudius has force and wit."-Donald G. Kyle, Classical World "[In this] authoritative but highly readable book the defects and achievements of the . . . Emperor are assessed critically and with full exploitation of the nonliterary sources-epigraphical, archaeological, and, especially important, numismatic-that often throw light on or raise doubts about the evidence provided by the ancient writers."-Bernard Knox, The Atlantic "[An] excellent study of the . . . important reign of Claudius. . . . The . . . general reader, as well as the scholar, will study [this book] with pleasure as well as with instruction."-Hugh Lloyd-Jones, New York Review of Books

Editorial Reviews

Review

'This study, with its balanced judgementis well organised, well argued and well written.' - The Classical Review

'Barbara Levick succeeds in [her] task admirably.' - Times Literary Supplement

'It must rank as one of the best studies of the Julio-Claudians This book will probably remain the best treatment of Julio-Claudian government for a long time to come.' - David Potter, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

'A must read, - Claudius has force and wit.'

'A biography and much more ... this stimulating book is the best we have on Claudius and among the best current treatments of any Roman emperor.' - Ronald Mellor, American Historical Review --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (September 10, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300058314
• ISBN-13: 978-0300058314
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,417,259 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Will the real Claudius please stand up?, June 13, 2003

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Claudius (Paperback)

Barbara Levick's 'Claudius' is a good resource to use when falling under the Claudian spell of such works as Graves' 'I, Claudius' and 'Claudius the God', or the 'I, Claudius' BBC production. This will help put a proper historical perspective on the man and emperor, Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus. Get used to the panoply of names-each noble Roman shares many names with the others in his family, thus making history often confusing.

Among the things Graves' readers might miss (and certainly the television-only set will miss) is that Claudius was married four times, had five children, and was much more less of a dolt in these matters than one would realise.

Levick explores some of the intrigues of the Julii Caesares as well as the Claudii Nerones; she explores the history from all angles. She looks to the politics and the sociological realities of family and court life to explain what ambitions Claudius really had, and what he might actually look forward to accomplishing in his life. 'Seneca's scathing comment on Claudius after his death was that `nobody thought he had ever been born'. In connection with this a remark of his mother Antonia recorded by Suetonius may be relevant. He claims that Antonia used to speak of her son (she need only have said it once for it to be presented as a leitmotiv!) as `a monstrosity of a human being, one that Nature began and never finished'. Antonia's hostility to her `unfinished' youngest child was probably intensified when she almost immediately lost her husband, and, a quarter of a century later, her even more brilliant elder son: now primacy was lost to her family.'

Levick explores Claudius' childhood and education, which continued past the usual age, given his apparent deformities. His tutors attended him well past the usual age of tutelage. She spend a little time also writing of his princeps under Tiberius and Gaius Caligula, which shows he was not universally ignored or despised, and so his accession, though unlikely, was by no means improbable.

C.E. Stevens makes the claim that Claudius was the first Roman Emperor; Augustus put together a bundle of offices and powers, which Tiberius variously held and let lapse; Caligula informed the senate of his accession and took all honours almost instantly, so perhaps Stevens is incorrect in his assessment. However, Claudius helped to formalise this automatic transfer of powers and offices as a right of imperial position, such that all future emperors, upon taking the name Caesar as a title (Claudius took it as a name, the prestigious cognomen of his illustrious ancestor) would also instantly have the array of offices and powers at their disposal.

Levick continues to explore Roman society and body politic under Claudius by segment: social classes (senate, equestrian order, and aristocracy), the legal machinery (with which he was particularly interested in, and made a shift from tradition to that of individual welfare, a novel approach for the day), finance and the economy (including Claudius' ambitious public works projects), and she gives particular attention to Claudius' military campaigns and progresses, especially his triumphant battles in Britain.

Levick concludes with an examination of the legacy of Claudius over the ages. Beginning with Nero's accession speech to the Senate, drafted by Seneca (who hated Claudius) which listed in great number and detail all of Claudius' failings, to the uneven revisions during the later Flavians (who took seriously Claudius' social legislation and deification at the expense of Nero's memory), then later historians, then being dropped from all but a few official functions by the third century. Fifth and sixth century historians such as Orosius and Malalas showed Claudius through the lens of their own agenda, to show God at work in the world through his clemency and care for stricken cities. By the time of George Syncellus in the eighth century, he was portrayed as a bloodthirsty man with some courage (given his battles in Britain, Germany and Thrace).

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Claudius' reign has been revised in view once more, by work such as that of Mommsen, Momigliano, and others studying his achievements, proclaiming him as the emperor who was `the great establisher of norms', and paying particular attention to his organisational ability with regard to civil and military matters.

Claudius, alas, was a usurper, and seen as such all through his reign, and even after (often as a model by which others used the army to seize power). He was never really secure. But he was successful against high odds, and a source of stability in a era which needed such.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A different interpretation of a significant reign., July 14, 1998

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[e-mail] (Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Claudius (Paperback)

Ms. Levick's biography of the emperor is to be recommended as an excellent and in-depth study of the limits of any Roman emperor's power. She tends to paint a somewhat untraditional and cynical view of the emperor, even suggesting that he played a part in the assasination of Caligula. In Levick's eyes, Claudius is a politician struggling to retain the very basis of his power, his ultimate failure being his inability to command respect in the eyes of his contemporaries or posterity. Some of her views are certainly matters of interpretation; indeed, it seems that she sometimes misrepresents ancient authors to strengthen her opinion of the Caesar; it should be remembered that Levick's Claudius is not THE Claudius, but a new and somewhat untraditional interpretation of one of history's most enigmatic figures.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Levick on Claudius, April 12, 2010

By 

Katie Mac (IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Claudius (Paperback)

Claudius was written to be a biographical work on the life little-known Claudius, by means of compiling the scattered primary sources that offer a window into the life of the ancient Emperor. Relevant to all who research Claudius or the works of his freedmen, Levick presents the most recent extensive work on his life, along with new historiographical interpretations that without, one's research cannot be effective. Levick, being a well-known Roman historian, has written many great works on the Emperors in biographical form, her most recent being this very book, written in 1990, fairly new considering the ancient topic.
Many of her sources come from the primary documents of Tacitus and Suetonius, along with other historians such as Josephus and Seneca, while her secondaries relate many of the great works on Claudius, hers being the first in fifty years. Personal research has revealed that she has not wronged these historians in her interpretations of their written work, presenting a reliable account of the life of Claudius. In regards to her organization, she is unique as she does not follow chronological order, but divides the book into sections of his reign. While recording his reign, she covers it in the aspects that her sources allow, containing greatly to his reign, and little to his life before Though I would recommend having an ample background on Roman history, as Levick sometimes takes for granted her vast knowledge of the time, all who research Claudius would be remiss rule out this book.