Y12 Ancient History Roman/Julio-Claudian Points Test 12 Claudius Administration

Question 1

1. Describe Claudius’ administration with regards to his organisation of the harbour at Ostia? (any relevant point for 3 marks).

Answer 1

• Construction of a new harbour and lighthouse at Ostia, north of the Tiber mouth, which had silted up: the harbour was surrounded by huge walls.
• There is much to commend in Claudius’ Principate, as it is characterised by a distinct focus on administration and infrastructure (Suetonius, Claudius 18; Dio 60.61.1-7.4).
• Claudius’ focus on the day-to-day necessities of urban life is also evidenced in his development of the harbour at Ostia.
• This was a key pillar of his infrastructural overhaul, as commemorated in its monumental inscription by the freedman procurator.
• It is also telling that he appointed an imperial freedman to administer the harbour, again reinforcing the significance of the project, as he wishes to oversee the harbour directly through his de facto civil service.
• This extensive engineering project was not completed until perhaps 64AD, but it reinforces Claudius’ long-term planning and his desire to ensure that Rome was well-supplied beyond his reign.

Question 2

2. Describe Claudius’ administration with regards to his organisation of aqueducts? (any relevant point for 3 marks).

Answer 2

• A similar strategy is shown in Claudius’ completion of Gaius’ aqueducts Anio Novus and Aqua Claudia (Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 36.122-3).
• These almost doubled Rome’s water supply, bringing water to all 14 Augustus districts.
• The security that such developments guaranteed for Rome again shows Claudius’ intention to ensure that Rome would not be in difficulty even after his own death.
• 2 aqueducts completed, the Aqua Claudia being a huge double-arched aqueduct carrying water to the hills of Rome.
• The structure carrying the Aqua Virgo over the Via Lata became a triumphal arch in 51, celebrating his success in Britain and drawing attention at once to domestic and foreign achievements.

Question 3

3. Describe Claudius’ attempts to drain the Fucine Lakes, and describe how successful/not this was? (any relevant point for 3 marks).

Answer 3

• Not all of Claudius’ projects were so successful, however. His development of the Fucine lake as an agricultural hot-spot was, according to Tacitus, carelessly completed.
• However, it was well-intentioned, designed to secure Rome’s food supply while simultaneously reducing the dependence on Egyptian corn, and Pliny the Elder is far more positive. (36.124).
• Suetonius (Claudius 20) is impressed by the sheer scale of the works, using some 30,000 men, which shows the organisational capacity of Claudius’ administration.
• Excavation of a 3 mile tunnel to drain the flood waters from the Fucine lake and to reclaim agricultural land, 30,000 for 11 years proved unsuccessful.

Question 4

4. Describe Claudius’ other public works, such as road-building and repairing buildings? (any relevant point for 3 marks).

Answer 4

• Extensive road-building in Italy and the provinces took place, e.g. the Via Claudia from Altinium to the Danube.
• Claudius built little without a practical purpose; the colossus of Jove and the marble arch of Tiberius next to the theatre of Pompey, a work probably begun in 22 after a fire and still incomplete; repairs to the Theatre itself were also carried out.
• All repairs were excusable: the aerarium was invited to sustain the cost of restoring the temple of Venus on Mt Eryx in the senatorial province of Sicily.

Question 5

5. Describe why Claudius’ public works could have benefitted the plebeian population of the city? (any relevant point for 3 marks).

Answer 5

• Claudius’ magnificent utilities (the emperor’s taste for old-fashioned rugged travertine masonry has been noticed) provided as much work for free labourers as the directly self-regarding activities of Gaius.
• That was a factor in public thinking about an Emperor, though rarely explicit.
• Porterage through the narrow streets was another important means of livelihood, but the spreading of cash through the population was very largely due to expenditure on public building at Rome and a prime reason for popular interest in it.
• PA Brunt showed that a substantial proportion of the free- wage-earning population might have been engaged in construction.
• Most of the constructions were of direct benefit to the population. Claudius’ attention was dominated by the problem of food supplies, especially for the corn dole in which 200,000 citizens were entitled (a mark of privilege and citizenship rather than poor relief, though of greatest importance to the near-destitute).

Question 6

6. Explain why Claudius was threatened by any difficulty with the food supply to the city? (any relevant point for 3 marks).

Answer 6

o When he came to power in January 41, at a grain shortage (when the shipping season ended in October and wouldn’t begin until March) he put in emergency measures. Insurance money would be paid by himself to persons who took the risk of bringing in supplies via water and lost their ships.
• Suetonius, a critic, said that the grain supply was always one of the highest priorities.
• In Egypt irregularities in the Nile caused a shortage from autumn 44/45 to spring 46/47, and there were grain shortages in Judaea and Syria (46/47) when the Christians of Antioch sent grain to Jerusalem.
• In Greece 49 the price of grain rocketed, and two years later the troops in Armenia were in dire straits.
• A shortage in Rome in 51AD led to a riot from which Claudius was lucky to escape with his life.

Question 7

7. Describe how Claudius tried to secure the food supply for Rome? (any relevant point for 2 marks).

Answer 7

• Helped to secure food supply by encouraging non-romans to build ships and insuring ships and cargoes against storm damage.
• The supply in Rome would take priority: to secure imports, he offered special privileges to those who built vessels of a minimum capacity of 10,000 modii (c.70 tonnes) and kept them for 6 year service.

Question 8

8. How did Claudius also try to win support from the Plebeians with generosity? (any relevant point for 2 marks).

Answer 8

• Prudence, and his own tastes, meant that he was willing to spend money on shows and games. There were new games in honour of Livia, Nero Drusus, and Antonia, commemorations and the secular games of 47.
• To celebrate the conquest of Britain, the people were given a festival and a tip (congriarium) of 300 HS each. This was a standard sum, and Suetonius claims they were tipped frequently under Claudius.

Question 9

9. Describe Claudius’ religious policy (any relevant point for 2 marks).

Answer 9

• Celebration of the Secular games only 47 years after Augustus.
• Reorganisation of the college of 60 haruspices for ancient Etruscan auguries.
• Expulsion of astrologers from Rome.
• Suppression of Druidism in Gaul greater than that of Tiberius.
• Attempt to curb the practice in Rome of some foreign cults (Jews denied right to worship in synagogues) although tolerant of many.
• Extension of the pomerium (sacred boundary of Rome) to include the Campus Martius.
• Prohibition of worship of himself in temples in the provinces.

Question 10

10. Describe Claudius’ financial policy and management of fiscal/monetary policy (any relevant point for 2 marks).

Answer 10

• Upon Claudius’ accession there was only 7/8 days’ food supply remaining (Seneca, on the shortness of life, 18.5-6).
• The deprivations and excesses of Gaius had virtually bankrupted Rome, as he squandered Tiberius’ accrued funds of 2.700 million secterces within a year.
• Claudius’ desire to secure and maintain the grain supply is recorded on a series of coins (Dupondius of Claudius, with ears of corn being held by Ceres).
• The low denomination of the coin shows this message was primarily for the urban plebs/the corn dole.
• Closer supervision of imperial treasury by department of the financial secretary, Pallas.
• Procurators created to look after the emperor’s personal revenues and to supervise inheritance tax.
• Increased control by imperial procurators in senatorial provinces.
• Greater control of the state treasury (Aerarium) by appointment of quaestors to administer it.

Question 11

11. Describe Claudius’ financial policy and management of fiscal/monetary policy (any relevant point for 3 marks).

Answer 11

• He took a keen personal interest in the legal system, frequently judging cases himself (Suetonius, Claudius 14).
• However, the sources turn this into another criticism, an unhealthy passion for passing judgement.
• His unpredictability is most remarked upon, which brought widespread contempt.
• However, Suetonius was biased against Claudius, easily exploiting his concern for law and legal procedure to demonstrate ‘tyrannical zeal’.
• Many legal abuses removed and legal business speeded up.
• Introduction of many minor laws, including legislation against unruly behaviour in the theatre, harsh treatment of debtors, the purchase and demolition of buildings for profit, loans being made to a son in expectation of a father’s death, and the disclaiming of sick slaves by masters (if slaves recovered, under the new law they were given their freedom).
• Frequent judgement of cases previously heard by the senate, causing opposition.
• Citizens were exempt from the Lex Papia Poppaea that penalised celibacy and childlessness by limiting the right to inherit; aliens, who were not subject to this law, were offered the citizenship itself.

Question 12

12. Describe Claudius’ conduct as Censor during his reign (any relevant point for 3 marks).

Answer 12

• When Claudius took the position of Censor, it had lapsed for 34 years.
• This again emphatically recollects the reign of Augustus, who used the lustra as a means of demonstrating the prosperity of the empire under the augustan settlement (RG, 8.2-4).
• Claudius’ concern for the empire was marked b his pronouncement that 5,984,072 citizens were registered under his lustrum, a notable increase on the final augustan quota of 4,937,000 in AD14.
• This desire for stability and progress is also behind Claudius’ proposal to alter the make-up of the Senate by admitting Gauls (Annals, 11.24), which (a) introduced new blood into a senate no longer fit for purpose, (b) made the senate a more representative body for the empire, and (c) reaffirmed the princeps’ willingness to continue to work with the senate.
• There were now senators who owed the rank to Claudius himself.