Claudius, an emperor with a singular destiny. Through March 4, 2019 at the Musee Des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, France.

Claudius, an emperor with a singular destiny. Through March 4, 2019 at the Musee Des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, France.

The bronze plates known as the Claudian Table, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Claudius still suffers from the unflattering portrait transmitted by ancient literature and taken up in the modern popular imagination. Described as a weak, influential, physically and intellectually diminished being, his image also suffers from the "sulphurous" fame of his third and fourth wives, Messaline and Agrippina, and the tragic fate of his son Britannicus. Recently, however, researchers and historians have restored the figure of a cultured man, a good manager, promoter of effective administrative reforms for the empire and concerned about his people. His most famous law is undoubtedly that relative to the admission of the Gauls to the Roman senate, celebrated by the speech he uttered, in 48 in Rome, engraved on bronze plates, known as the Claudian Table.
Personal Note: Of all of the portraits of Claudius I have encountered, my favorite is a seemingly realistic portrait sculpture of him I found at the Seattle Art Museum.

Portrait head of Claudius photographed at the Seattle Art Museum.


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