Claudius: The Emperor and His Achievement PDF
Preview Claudius: The Emperor and His Achievement
CLAUDIUS THE EMPEROR AND HIS ACHIEVEMENT CLAUDIUS THE EMPEROR AND HIS ACHIEVEMENT BY ARNALDO MOMIGLIANO TRANSLATED BY W. D. HOGARTH WITH A NEW BIBLIOGRAPHY BARNES & NOBLE INC. NEW YORK English translation originally published by the Clarendon Press: 1934 Reprinted, by arrangement with the Clarendon Press, with a new preface, bibliography, and minor corrections for W. Heffer & Sons Ltd: 1961 PR.INrED IN GREATB RITAIN TO MY WIFE PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION F the English edition the text of this book has been OR revised throughout: corrections have been made and the treatment of many points has been amplified. The sug ·gestions offered in reviews of the Italian edition have, of course, been taken into account, and I have received some valuable notes from friends, among whom I should like to make particular mention of Sig. D. M. Pippidi of the Rumanian Academy at Rome: in general, however, the materials for revision have been supplied by my own further study of the problems. My sincere thanks are due to the Delegates of the Claren don Press for their readiness to undertake this translation at a time of great difficulty; to Sig. Vallecchi, the pub lisher of the Italian edition, for according his permission; and to my translator. I hope that this little book may not seem altogether unworthy of translation into the language in which many of the most valuable studies of the Roman Empire have been written. A. M. REGIA UNIVERSITA ROMA NOTE THE English version has been revised by Mr. H. M. Last, to whom the translator is greatly indebted for advice and criticism. PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION S of innocence cannot be turned into songs of ONGS experience. I wrote this little book when I was a post-graduate student in Rome almost thirty years ago. If I were to begin to put my hand to it now, it would dis integrate. As there seems still to be some demand for it, all that I can do is to provide a bibliographical appendix. Soon after the English translation of my book in 1934 there appeared the excellent chapter in the Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. X, by that fine scholar M. P. Charlesworth whose untimely death we all regret.1 Six years later another scholar-and another friend too early lost, V. Scramuzza-produced his book The Emperor Claudius (Harvard U.P., 1940). Both works are provided with very good bibliographies, and some further inf or mation was added in my review of Scramuzza in Journ. Rom. Studies 32, 1942, 124. In the new bibliographical appendix to this book I have thought it best to confine myself (with few exceptions) to the literature which appeared after my review of 1942. Needless to say, even within these limits I have made a selection, but I cannot hope to have selected invariably well. I wrote my Claudius in 1931 because I was tired of the current studies on the Augustan principate. They were either mere constitutional history or mere political apology or, more often, both together. Claudius seemed to me a good starting point for an analysis of the contradictions between the republican utterances and the despotic acts of the first Roman Emperors. The case of Claudius was the more instructive because one could not doubt (a s one could well doubt in the case of Augustus) the sincerity of his traditionalism and the depth of his knowledge of Roman PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION ll: republican history.2 A German scholar, W. Steidle,3 has referred to my Claudius as the typical example of an arbitrary reconstruction against the data of the sources. This seems to me characteristic of the attitude of mind which it was my purpose to fight. More recently R. Syme has mentioned my book as an example of the natural and inevitable sympathy of a modern pedant for an ancient one. 4 This I take almost as a compliment, though I doubt whether it does entire justice to my intentions. As I said, I shall not go into the details that I now <!onsider to be wrong-headed or superficial, because I should then have to writ~ another book. I shall only add that I regret having attributed the Nazareth inscription on·-violation of tombs to Claudius' time. There was never any good reason to do so, and the inferences some scholars have drawn from this attribution make me even keener to dissociate myself from it. If I had now to talk about Claudius' erudition, I should certainly use the brilliant J. remarks by Heurgon, C. R. Acad. Inscr. 1953, 92-7. Less cogent seems to me the interesting suggestion by my friend Syme that Tacitus largely used Claudius' speeches for his antiquarian digressions. I have explained my dis agreement on this point in my review of Syme's Tacitus in Gnomon 1961.5 I would conclude with a personal note. This old little book owes whatever reputation it has in the Anglo-Saxon world to a review by H. M. Last in Journ. Rom. Studies 22, 1932, 230. Last also suggested, and arranged for, the English translation. Now that Last is dead, I should like here to pay a tribute to a friend whose generosity and loyalty were equal to his immense knowledge. A.M. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON JUNE 196o. x PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION NOTES 1 Charlesworth also collected Documents illustrating the reigns of Claudius and Nero, Cambridge 1939. 2 See my answer to some critics in La Nuova Italia 3, 1932, 320-1. 3 Sueton und die antike Biographie, Milnchen 1951, p.85: "Auf der anderen Seite aber ist es recht wenig kritisch, wenn bei den Kaisem des I. Ja hrhunderts manche modemen His toriker schnell zu Entwilrfen bereit sind, die aller antiken Oberlieferung widersprechen. Ein letztes Beispiel hierfilr bietet etwa A. Momigliano u.s.w.". Cf. p.100. 4 Tacitus I, 436: " Redress has been forthcoming in generous measure, with amicable prepossessions in favour of a Caesar who acknowledged the teaching of Livy and was himself a voluminous writer; for a scholar and an historian ought to be treated with respect." 5 See now also the admirable chapter by A. Garzetti, L'impero da Tiberio agli Antonini, Bologna 196o, 111-152 (notes 6oa- 617).
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