Editing Claudius (section)

==Scholarly works and their impact==
Claudius wrote copiously throughout his life. [[Arnaldo Momigliano]] states that during the reign of Tiberius, which covers the peak of Claudius's literary career,  it became impolitic to speak of republican Rome. The trend among the young historians was either to write about the new empire or about obscure antiquarian topics. Claudius was the rare scholar who covered both.{{sfn|Momigliano|1934|pp=4–6}}

Besides his history of Augustus' reign that caused him so much grief, his major works included ''[[Tyrrhenika]]'', a twenty-book [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] history, and ''Carchedonica'', an eight-volume history of [[Carthage]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harvey Sir Paul|title=The Oxford Companion To Classical Literature |date=1937 |publisher=Oxford At The Clarendon Press|chapter=Claudius|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont030316mbp/page/106|page=107}}</ref> as well as an [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]] dictionary. He also wrote a [[De arte aleae|book on dice-playing]].  Despite the general avoidance of the topic of the Republican era, he penned a defense of [[Cicero]] against the charges of [[Gaius Asinius Gallus Saloninus|Asinius Gallus]]. Modern historians have used this to determine the nature of his politics and of the aborted chapters of his civil war history.

[[File:Claudian letters.svg|thumb|The [[Claudian letters]]]]
He proposed a reform of the [[Latin alphabet]] by the addition of [[Claudian letters|three new letters]]; he officially instituted the change during his censorship but they did not survive his reign. Claudius also tried to revive [[Interpunct|the old custom of putting dots]] between successive words (Classical Latin was written with no spacing). Finally, he wrote an eight-volume autobiography that Suetonius describes as lacking in taste.{{sfn|Suetonius|loc=Claudius 41}} Claudius (like most of the members of his dynasty) harshly criticized his predecessors and relatives in surviving speeches.<ref>See Claudius's ''[[Tabula clesiana]]'', in which he refers to the "obstinate retirement" of Tiberius. See also {{harvnb|Josephus|loc=''Ant Iud.'' XIX}}, where an edict of Claudius refers to Caligula's "madness and lack of understanding."</ref>

None of the works survived, but other sources' reference to him provide material for the surviving histories of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Suetonius quotes Claudius's autobiography once and must have used it as a source numerous times. Tacitus uses Claudius's arguments for the orthographical innovations mentioned above and may have used him for some of the more antiquarian passages in his annals. Claudius is the source for numerous passages of Pliny's ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]''.<ref>See {{harvnb|Momigliano|1934|loc=Chap.&nbsp;1, note&nbsp;20 (p.&nbsp;83)}}. {{harvnb|Pliny the Elder}} credits him by name in Book VII 35.</ref>

The influence of historical study on Claudius is obvious. In his speech on Gallic senators, he uses a version of the founding of Rome identical to that of Livy, his tutor in adolescence. Many of the public works instituted in his reign were based on plans first suggested by [[Julius Caesar]]. Levick believes this emulation of Caesar may have spread to all aspects of his policies.{{sfn|Levick|1978}}

His censorship seems to have been based on those of his ancestors, particularly [[Appius Claudius Caecus]], and he used the office to put into place many policies based on those of Republican times. This is when many of his religious reforms took effect; also, his building efforts greatly increased during his tenure. In fact, his assumption of the office of Censor may have been motivated by a desire to see his academic labors bear fruit. For example, he believed (as most Romans did) that Caecus had used the power of the censorship office to introduce [[R|the letter "R"]] and so used his own term to introduce his new letters.<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|1993}} refers to the historian [[Varro]]'s account of the introduction</ref>