Editing Claudius (section)

===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}}