Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T08:17:25.844Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Greek Precedents for Claudius' Actions in A.D. 48 and later

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

M. S. Smith
Affiliation:
University of St. Andrews

Extract

The aim of the following note is to draw attention to certain links between the marriage of Claudius and Agrippina and that of Nero and Octavia. Previous writers have not, so far as I know, dealt fully with the implications of these marriages, especially when they are seen in the light of the Silanus affair of A.D. 48–49. In each case, it will be argued here, Claudius may have been impressed by Greek precedents.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1963

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 139 note 1 Cf. Scramuzza, , Claudius, p. 92Google Scholar; Gaheis, , R.-E. iii. 28096–9Google Scholar; Prévost, , Les Adoptions politiques à Rome sous la République el le Principal, p. 41.Google Scholar

page 139 note 2 Tacitus, , A. 12. 12.Google Scholar

page 139 note 3 Cf. Corbett, , Roman Law of Marriage, pp. 48 f.Google Scholar; Weiss, , ‘Endogamie unci Exogamie im römischen Kaiserreich,’ in Z.S.S. Rom. Abt. xxix (1908), 340 f.Google Scholar

page 139 note 4 Jones, , Law and Legal Theory of the Greeks, p. 179Google Scholar; Lipsius, , Att. Recht, p. 473.Google Scholar

page 139 note 5 Hdt. 5. 39, 41; 7. 204–5, 239.Google Scholar

page 139 note 6 Tac. A. 12. 6.Google Scholar

page 140 note 1 Observations sur une loi de l'Empereur Claude’, Méanges Cagnat, pp. 153–67.Google Scholar

page 140 note 2 Gaius, , Inst. I. 157.Google Scholar

page 140 note 3 Tac. A. 12. 7Google Scholar; Suet. Claud. 26. 3.Google Scholar

page 140 note 4 Inst. I. 62.Google Scholar

page 140 note 5 C. Th. 3. 12. I.Google Scholar

page 140 note 6 Claudius, p. 262.Google Scholar

page 141 note 1 Weiss, , op. cit.Google Scholar; Guarino, , ‘Studi sull' incestum’, in Z.S.S. Rom. Abt. lxiii (1943), 175267.Google Scholar

page 141 note 2 Tac. A. 12.3.Google Scholar

page 141 note 3 A. 12.4.Google Scholar

page 141 note 4 A. 12. 8.Google Scholar

page 141 note 5 Suet. Claud. 39.Google Scholar

page 141 note 6 Suet. Claud. 24. 3.Google Scholar

page 141 note 7 Dio 60. 31. 8.

page 141 note 8 Apoc. 8. 2.Google Scholar Admittedly the writer might here be unfair to Silanus in order to please Nero. It is worth noting that later another sister of Silanus, Lepida, was accused of incest with her nephew, cf. Tac. A. 16. 8.Google Scholar

page 142 note 1 Cf. Pommeray, , L'Infamie en droit romain, esp. chs. 12.Google Scholar

page 142 note 2 Tac. A. 12. 8 sive eo usque spent vitae produxerat, seu delecto die augendam ad invidiam.Google Scholar

page 142 note 3 Tac. A. 12. 25.Google Scholar

page 142 note 4 Cf. May, G., Rev. hist, dr.fr. et étr. Ser. iv, xxii (1944), 101–14.Google Scholar

page 142 note 5 Tac. A. 12. 9.Google Scholar

page 143 note 1 Cf. Weiss, , op. cit.Google Scholar

page 143 note 2 See (i) I.B.M. i. 81Google Scholar Attica: Dionysios ad. s. of Iason and s. of Theodoros is husband of Eirene d. of Iason. (ii) T.A.M. ii. I. 148Google Scholar Lydae, Lycia: Theugenes s. of Theramenes and ad. s. of Apollonides is husband of Menodora d. of Apollonides. (iii) J.H.S. xi (1890), 120Google Scholar (= Michel, , Recueil 1201Google Scholar) Keramos, , Asia, c. 200 B.C.Google Scholar: Hedeia d. of Metrophanes and ad. d. of Drakon is wife of Aristokrates s. of Drakon. (Her kyrios is Drakon s. of Drakon. This example illustrates that the wife in these marriages need not be assumed to be an .) (iv) Fraser, J. in Ana tolian Studies presented to Ramsay, pp. 137 f.Google Scholar ‘Inheritance by adoption and marriage in Phrygia as shown by the epitaphs of Tro-phimos and his relatives.’ (v) Calder, , Klio x (1910), 239 f.Google Scholar Phrygia. This gives an even clearer case of the normal type, in which it is the son-in-law who is adopted, (vi) Jala-bert, and Mouterde, , Inscr. gr. et lat. de la Syrie, ii, no. 465, A.D. 86Google Scholar: in this case Diogenes is adopted by his own brother, Theophilos, and his wife is Theophila d. of Theophilos; so, as in the case of Dem. 41. 3, the marriage of uncle and niece is combined with that of adoptive brother and sister.

page 143 note 3 Claudius, p. 263.Google Scholar

page 143 note 1 It may be noted that the marriage of step-children of different parents was permissible, so this feature of the match did not add any complication.