Claudius Caesar : Image and Power in the Early Roman Empire

A study of the tumultuous reign of Emperor Claudius (AD 41–54), which explores what held the sprawling Roman Empire together, and what threatened to tear it apart. Claudius' ongoing difficulties suggest problems inherent to the constitution of Rome's empire, and the challenges faced by empires more generally.

The story of Claudius has often been told before. Ancient writers saw the emperor as the dupe of his wives and palace insiders; Robert Graves tried to rehabilitate him as a far shrewder, if still frustrated, politician. In this book, Josiah Osgood shifts the focus off the personality of Claudius and on to what his tumultuous years in power reveal about the developing political culture of the early Roman Empire. What precedents set by Augustus were followed? What had to be abandoned? How could a new emperor win the support of key elements of Roman society? This richly illustrated discussion draws on a range of newly discovered documents, exploring events that move far beyond the city of Rome and Italy to Egypt and Judea, Morocco and Britain. Claudius Caesar provides a new perspective not just on Claudius himself, but on all Roman emperors, the Roman Empire, and the nature of empires more generally.