Editing Claudius (section)

==Legacy==

===Divine honours===
[[File:6828_-_Claudio_(Museo_Pio-Clementino)_-_Foto_Giovanni_Dall%27Orto,_10_june_2011.jpg|thumb|upright|Bust of Claudius, circa 50 AD, [[Museo Pio-Clementino]]]]
Already, while alive, he received the widespread private worship of a living ''[[princeps]]''<ref>Gradel I. ''Emperor worship and Roman religion''. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2002. {{ISBN|978-0-19-927548-9}}{{page needed|date=January 2023}}</ref> and was worshipped in [[Britannia]] in his own [[Temple of Claudius, Colchester|temple in Camulodunum]].

Claudius was deified by Nero and the Senate almost immediately.{{sfn|Suetonius|loc=[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Nero*.html Nero, 9]}}

===Views of the new regime===
Agrippina had sent [[Tiberius Claudius Narcissus|Narcissus]] away shortly before Claudius's death, and now had the freedman murdered.

The last act of this secretary of letters was to burn all of Claudius's correspondence – most likely so it could not be used against him and others in an already hostile new regime. Thus Claudius's private words about his own policies and motives were lost to history. Just as Claudius had criticized his predecessors in official edicts, Nero often criticized the deceased Emperor, and many Claudian laws and edicts were disregarded under the reasoning that he was too stupid and senile to have meant them.{{sfn|Suetonius|loc=[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Nero*.html Nero, 33]}}

[[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]]'s [[Apocolocyntosis]] mocks the deification of Claudius and reinforces the view of Claudius as an unpleasant fool; this remained the official view for the duration of Nero's reign. Eventually Nero stopped referring to his deified adoptive father at all. Claudius's temple was left unfinished after only some of the foundation had been laid down. Eventually the site was overtaken by Nero's [[Domus Aurea|Golden House]].{{sfn|Levick|2015}}

===Flavian and later perspectives===
The [[Flavians]], who had risen to prominence under Claudius, took a different tack. They needed to shore up their legitimacy, but also justify the fall of the Julio-Claudians. They reached back to Claudius in contrast with Nero, to show that they were associated with a good regime. Commemorative coins were issued of Claudius and his son [[Britannicus]], who had been a friend of Emperor [[Titus]] (Titus was born in 39, Britannicus was born in 41). When Nero's [[Domus Aurea|Golden House]] was burned, the [[Temple of Claudius]] was finally completed on the Caelian Hill.{{sfn|Levick|2015}}

However, as the Flavians became established, they needed to emphasize their own credentials more, and their references to Claudius ceased. Instead, he was lumped with the other emperors of the fallen dynasty. His state-cult in Rome probably continued until the abolition of all cults of dead Emperors by [[Maximinus Thrax]] in 237–238.<ref name="Gradel">Gradel I. ''Emperor worship and Roman religion''. Clarendon Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-927548-9}} pp. 356–341, 367</ref> The ''[[Feriale Duranum]]'', probably identical to the festival calendars of every regular army unit, assigns him a sacrifice of a [[Cattle#Terminology|steer]] on his birthday, the [[Kalends]] of August.<ref>{{Cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6mce147Z_EEC&q=Feriale+Duranum&pg=PA127 | title = Rome and Its Empire, AD 193–284 | isbn = 978-0-7486-2304-4 | last1 = Hekster | first1 = Olivier | year = 2008}}</ref> And such commemoration (and consequent feasting) probably continued until the Christianization and disintegration of the army in the late 4th century.<ref name="Gradel"/>

===Views of ancient historians===
The ancient historians Tacitus, Suetonius (in ''[[The Twelve Caesars]]''), and [[Cassius Dio]] all wrote after the last of the Flavians had gone. All three were senators or ''equites''. They took the side of the Senate in most conflicts with the Princeps, invariably viewing him as being in the wrong. This resulted in biases, both conscious and unconscious. Suetonius lost access to the official archives shortly after beginning his work. He was forced to rely on second-hand accounts when it came to Claudius (with the exception of Augustus's letters, which had been gathered earlier). Suetonius painted Claudius as a ridiculous figure, belittling many of his acts and crediting his good works to his retinue.{{sfn|Scramuzza|1940|p=29}}

Tacitus wrote a narrative for his fellow senators and fitted each of the emperors into a simple mold of his choosing.{{sfn|Vessey|1971}} He wrote of Claudius as a passive pawn and an idiot in affairs relating to the palace and public life. During his Censorship of 47–48 Tacitus allows the reader a glimpse of a Claudius who is more statesmanlike (XI.23–25), but it is a mere glimpse. Tacitus is usually held to have 'hidden' his use of Claudius's writings and to have omitted Claudius's character from his works.{{efn|[[s:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 11|''Annales'' XI 14]] is often thought to be a good example: the digression on the history of writing is actually Claudius's own argument for his new letters, and fits in with his personality and extant writings. Tacitus makes no explicit attribution – and so there exists the possibility that the digression is Tacitus's own work or derivative of another source.{{sfn|Griffin|1990}}}} Even his version of Claudius's Lyons tablet speech is edited to be devoid of the emperor's personality. Dio was less biased, but seems to have used Suetonius and Tacitus as sources. Thus, the conception of Claudius as a weak fool, controlled by those he supposedly ruled, was preserved for the ages.

As time passed, Claudius was mostly forgotten outside of the historians' accounts. His books were lost first, as their antiquarian subjects became unfashionable. In the 2nd century, [[Pertinax]], who shared his birthday, became emperor, overshadowing commemoration of Claudius.{{sfn|Levick|2015|p=229}}