Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, lemma “Claudius (emperor)” 1

Birgit van der Lans

Claudius (emperor) (10 BCE – 54 CE)

Ti. Claudius Nero Germanicus was the fourth emperor of Rome, who ruled between 41 and 54
CE. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he was the son of Antonia Minor and Nero
Claudius Drusus, brother of Germanicus, nephew of Tiberius, and uncle of Gaius Caligula. Due
to a youthful physical ailment (a limp and stammer are mentioned) he was marginalized in
the imperial family and kept from public office until later in life. Instead Claudius turned to
intellectual pursuits and antiquarian studies, publishing, among others, an eight-volume work
on Carthage and an Etruscan history (Suet. Cl. 41f.). Although progressively brought into
public life under Gaius as consul in 37, his proclamation as emperor by the Praetorians came
unexpectedly in the chaos after Gaius’ assassination in 41. The Senate consented reluctantly,
partly, as is overemphasized by Josephus, thanks to the mediating role of Agrippa I (Ant.
19.236–221–265; Bel. 204–233). Claudius’ election by praetorian acclamation would complicate
his relationship with the Roman Senate in the coming years, resulting in the deaths of many
senators and equestrians. Challenges to his rule also came from within the imperial
household. Claudius’ third wife Valeria Messallina, the mother of his son Britannicus, was
executed in 48 on a charge of adultery. Claudius then married Agrippina Minor, his niece and
a direct descendant of Augustus, and adopted her son Nero in 50. In the following years Nero
was groomed to succeed Claudius, not least through Agrippina’s efforts. The source tradition
holds her responsible for feeding Claudius deadly mushrooms in 54 CE (Tac. Ann. 12.66–69;
Suet. Cl. 44).

Administration and reception

Claudius proved to be an energetic administrator. He undertook major long term building
projects, notably aqueducts and the Ostia harbor. These public works brought prestige,
material wellbeing for the Roman population, and popular support for his rule. He expanded
the Empire by annexing Lycia, Thrace and Mauretania and compensated for his earlier lack of
military prestige by conquering Britain (43 CE). Having assumed the censorship in 47–48,
Claudius conducted the census, replenished the Senate and sparked controversy by extending
citizenship to many provincials and senatorial rights to prominent men from Gallia Comata
(Tac. Ann. 11.23–25; CIL 13.1668). Important features of his government are the large
administrative responsibilities granted to freedpersons in his household and the extension of
jurisdiction to procurators in the provinces (Tac. Ann. 12.60).
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Birgit van der Lans

Despite these initiatives, the ancient tradition depicts Claudius as a passive ruler. In
the main literary sources for his rule, Tacitus’ Annales (Ann. 12–13, only years 47–54 survive),
Suetonius’ Divus Claudius (Life of Claudius), and Cassius Dio’s Books 60–61 (in epitome for the
years 47–54), Claudius is portrayed as an intellectual and yet a fool, as an ineffective yet cruel
ruler, dominated by his wives and freedmen, and too generous with the citizenship (see
Claudius Lysias in Acts 22:28). These qualifications are already present in the satire that
Seneca, once exiled by Claudius and now tutoring Nero, published shortly after Claudius’
death, the Divi Claudii apocolocyntosis.
While Claudius’ passive image survived in early scholarship, reassessment of his rule
came with A. Momigliano’s portrait of Claudius as a would-be Republican who alienated the
Senate by his “policy of centralization” (1934). Partly through greater involvement of
epigraphical, papyrological and numismatic source material, more recent studies explain
Claudius’ bad press in the literary record by his troublesome relationship with the Senate. His
reliance on freedmen was necessitated by a lack of senatorial support and previous political
experience. Navigating between the enduring institutions of the Republic and the realities of
monarchic rule, Claudius’ initiatives are now regarded as important contributions to the
developing institution of the Principate (Scramuzza, 1940; Levick, 1990; Strocka, 1994; Osgood,
2011).

Role and reception in Jewish and Christian history

Concerning Claudius’ role in Jewish history, his administration of Judea and his dealings with
Jews in Rome and Alexandria can be considered. Whether some of the events discussed below
had a background in tensions between Jews and Christians, and to what extent they had
repercussions for the development of Christianity is subject of debate.
In 41 CE Claudius enlarged the kingdom of Agrippa I by adding Judea to the portions of
Herod’s territory that had already been restored by Gaius Caligula. Agrippa’s brother Herod
became king of Chalcis (Jos. Ant. 274–277; Dio 60.8.2). After Agrippa’s death in 44, Claudius
annexed Judea and restored the rule of the procurators. Flavius Josephus, the main source,
tends to highlight Claudius’ pro-Jewish decisions in the local conflict brought before him, as
well as the successful intermediary roles played by the Jewish kings. Thus Claudius granted
the Jewish petition concerning the control over the high priestly vestments (Ant. 20.11–14),
and in 52 settled Jewish-Samaritan conflicts in favor of the Jews and exiled the procurator
Cumanus (Ant. 20.118–136; Bell. 2.232–246; compare Tac. Ann. 12.54).
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The Jewish population of Rome was reportedly subject to restrictive action twice. For
the year 41 Cassius Dio records a prohibition of Jewish assemblies, which can be seen in
connection with a general ban on associations (collegia) that Claudius issued in the year of his
accession (Dio 60.6.6–7). References to an expulsion of Jews from Rome are found in
Suetonius, who, among other administrative measures dealing with provincials, famously
reports that Claudius expelled “the Jews who were constantly causing disturbances at the
instigation of Chrestus” (Cl. 25.4). In Acts Priscilla (Prisca) and Aquila leave Rome because of
this order and travel to Corinth, where they meet Paul (Acts 18:2). The event is usually dated to
48–50, based on the chronology of Acts and a late reference in Paulus Orosius (Hist. adv. pag.
7.6.15–17), although some argue that Cassius Dio and Suetonius refer to the same action in 41.
The background (were tensions related to the presence of Christians, and should Chrestus be
identified with Christ?), enforcement (how many were made to leave, if any at all?) and effects
of this action on Jews and Christians living in the city, later addressed by Paul, remain highly
debated issues [→ Claudius (edict)].
In the year of his accession Claudius was also asked for a ruling in the fierce conflicts
between Jews and Greeks in Alexandria. In the response to the city council that survives on
papyrus he commands both parties to end hostilities, confirms the right of Jews to observe
their religious practices, but warns that, should they strive for more, he would “proceed
against them in every way as fomenting some common disease for the entire world” (P Lond.
1912, ll. 98–100). This stern tone is absent from the two Claudian edicts presented by Josephus.
The first fully acknowledges the claims of Alexandrian Jews (Ant. 19.279–295), while the
second edict confirms the rights of Jews throughout the Empire, warning them not to “set at
naught the religious feelings of other nations” (Ant. 19.287–291). The relationship between the
texts and particularly the authenticity of Josephus’ edicts is controversial (Pucci ben Zeev,
1998, 328–356). There is no evidence outside Josephus (Ant. 19.300–311) that the universal edict
was upheld and enjoyed legal force, so that the suggestion that Christian missionary efforts
violated the terms of the edict (Alvarez Cineira, 1999) cannot be substantiated. Josephus’ texts
should not be too easily discarded as fabrications, but the documents he presents support his
aim of demonstrating the positive ‘opinion’ (γνώµη) that Claudius held of the Jews (Ant.
19.292, 306, 310). This message carried urgency in his own time of writing under the Flavian
emperors, who, furthermore, referred back to Claudius as a moral and legal example (Levick,
1990, 190–192).
Do these actions reveal a restrictive Jewish policy (Botermann, 1996) or a pattern of
anti-Jewish activity, motivated by prejudice (Slingerland, 1997)? The reactive character of
Roman imperial government challenges conceptions of a policy; the connection between
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these actions may be found in Claudius’ concerns to legitimate his position rather than in any
opinion he held about the Jews (Gruen 2002, 36–41). Whatever consequences his rule may
have had for Christians, there is no strong reflection on Claudius in later Christian tradition as
a supporter or enemy of the new religion.

Bibliography

Alvarez Cineira, D., Die Religionspolitik des Kaisers Claudius und die paulinische Mission,
Freiburg im Breisgrau, 1999.
Botermann, H., Das Judenedikt des Kaisers Claudius: Römischer Staat und Christiani im 1.
Jahrhundert, Stuttgart, 1996.
Gruen, E.S., Diaspora: Jews amidst Greeks and Romans, Cambridge MA, 2002.
Levick, B., Claudius, New Haven, 1990.
Momigliano, A.D., Claudius: The Emperor and his Achievement, Oxford: 1934.
Osgood, J., Claudius Caesar: Image and Power in the Early Roman Empire, Cambridge, 2011.
Pucci Ben Zeev, M., Jewish Rights in the Roman World: The Greek and Roman Documents
Quoted by Josephus Flavius, Tübingen, 1998.
Scramuzza, V. M., The Emperor Claudius, Cambridge MA, 1940.
Slingerland, H.D., Claudian Policymaking and the Early Imperial Repression of Judaism at Rome,
Atlanta, 1997.
Strocka, V.M. (ed.), Die Regierungszeit des Kaisers Claudius (41–54 n. Chr.): Umbruch oder
Episode?, Mainz, 1994.