ABSTRACT
Feelings that arose from near-hunger and a craving to be distracted from it took on a distinctive existence, to be illustrated from the 'shortlived and ill-fated affections' of the imperial populace, as Tacitus called them, referring to others besides Germanicus. The plebs particularly favoured young, or at least second generation, and relatively down-trodden members. In preferring the young they were doing what Phaedrus warned against: looking to the future, unlike the articulate, possessing upper classes who give the impression that the ancients all looked back to a golden age. The plebs had history too, and heroes, such as King Servius Tullius and, centuries later, the Gracchi. Changes resisted by the ruling classes had usually meant amelioration for the underprivileged: political rights, tribunes to protect plebeians, publication of the laws. In each generation the young had done nothing to disappoint the people, and still might help them. Sympathy with young or apparently less-successful members of the imperial family had sound political and historical sense behind it: it was alienated aristocrats who had proved the most faithful and energetic champions of the plebs. The memory of the Gracchi lingered, and affection for certain branches
ro6
upheavals. He was not young when the people saluted him in the theatre as the brother of Germanicus and uncle of the emperor, but he was still a member of the family who had never had his due. His position rather than any suspected intrinsic merit may have won Claudius these greetings, and the very dimness ofhis life made it easier for sympathetic crowds to project on him whatever image they chose. Starting with the hopes of the people behind him (for all Phaedrus' warning), he also had an historian's awareness that the people's support was vital to a politician at odds with the senate, which he certainly was. C.E.Stevens' characterization of Claudius as 'the last of the populares' brilliantly illuminates an important feature of his rule. He and the people needed each other. 6
The tribunes themselves showed a high profile. In 42 they summoned the senate to hold an election when one of the board died, a breach of etiquette when the consuls were in Rome. They may have been a particularly independent-minded set, but it is significant that they thought forward behaviour worth while. Under the Principate, licensed, almost ritualized freedoms normally took the form of disputes between praetors and tribunes: in I 5, after hooliganism in the theatre, a proposal that praetors should be given the right of flogging actors was successfully vetoed by a tribune (other measures were taken); there was a replay in 56, when tribunes defended fans from the praetors' attempts to impose law and order-and had their own activities restricted. All three incidents came near the beginning of a reign, helping to set its tone, in Claudius' case populist. s
winning golden opinions with all sections of the public must have played a part. There was a puritanical streak in the people that allowed their embittered envy a decorous and righteous outlet. Prudent legislators responded to this with sumptuary legisbtion limiting ostentatious expendi-- ture (although such legislation had the additional advantage of securing flir play between competing politicians with differing resources). Claudius significantly made few alterations to the imperial residence and showed circumspection when he was contemplating marriage again - to his niece Agrippina. That could have been unacceptable. If so, the repercussions could shake the state; but Vitellius was able to assure Claudius that he was positively commanded by the people to make the match. Given Agrippina's tamily history of ties with the people, it was probably true. 10
Claudius' magnificent utilities (the Emperor's taste for olcl-f:lshionecl rugged travertine masonry h:~s lwen noticed) provided as much work for free hbourers as the directly self-regarding activities of Gaius. That was a factor in public thinking about an Emperor, though rarely explicit. Portcrage through the narrow streets was another important means of li vclihood, but the spreading of cash through the population was very largely due to expenditure on public building at Rome and a prime reason f()f popular interest in it. P.A.Brunt has shown, by analogy with late sixteenth-century Rc)fne and late eighteenth-century Paris, that a substantial portion of the tree, wage-earning population might have been engaged in construction. Popular politicians had been associated with great public works, and, as Brunt points out, most emperors were builders on a grand scale, with the middle of the first century AD, from Claudius to Vespasian, particularly remarkable in this respect. 12
roR
Mmt of the constructiom \Vl'ft of direct benefit tu the population. Claudius' attention was dominated by the problem of fo,ld supplies, especially for the free distributiom to which about 20o,ooo tllizens of Rome were entitled (a mark and privilege of citizenship rather than puur relief, though of greatest importance to the ncar destitute). Claudius' m\ 11 greed may have made him more sensitive to hunger among his subjects. When he came to power in January, 41 he had an immediate chance to show how seriously he valued the support of the people. It was during a grain shortage in which it was claimed that only eight days' supply remained: the shipping season ended in October and would not begin again until March. This was at once countered by ernergency measures: insurance money would be paid by the Em per or himself to persons who took the risk of bringing in winter '>upplies and lost their vessel: ami the new Emperor's efforts wen· nuretl on the coinage: the goddess of grain ~lppeared as CERES A VC VS I A. and a new quadrans obverse showed a grain measure (modius).' 3
The supply to Rome \\ould take priority, though c'\t'll that might be affected in the end, but even if supplies were availabk some of the 111ain problems for the city seems tu have been connected wnh conveyance from the source, reception, :u1d \loragL·. The extraction of graill from Egyptian f1nners and its collectiun at Alexandria had long since bet'll brought to a fine if ruthless art. A part from cnsurmg that the post of Procuratur Annonae \\ JS in the hands of a man v.;ho (at k<1st according to hi, ,\m-in-law ScrKca!) was able to make himself popular in a post that normally brought odium on its holder (and who came from a town that was itself an important port and shipyard) Claudius' measures were concerned with conveyance and distribution.''
