MOUSEION - Memorial University of Newfoundland

Mouseion. Series III, Vol. 5 (2005) 135-141
©2005 Mouseion
THE PONTIFICATE OF TI. CLAUDIUS NERO (PR. 42)
F. X. RYAN
The emperor Tiberius is said to have been a fatalist and rather neglectful
of the gods and religion (Suet. Tib. 69. circa deos ac re1igiones
neglegentior). This indifference is distressing when we remember that
his father had been a priest in the last years of the Republic. I Historians
have been as neglectful of the father as the son was of the gods.
Broughton believed that Ti. Claudius Nero pater became a pontiff
in 46 B.C. 2
The full cursus Broughton credited to the father of the emperor
reads as follows: "Q. 48. Proq. Alexandria 47. Leg.. Lieut. or
Prefect to settle veterans in colonies in Gaul 46-45. Pro 42. and Propr.
41-40. Leg.. Lieut.? or Promag.? 35. Pont. 46-33." The date of accession
to the pontificate is plainly wrong. but in fairness to Broughton it
should be noted that Munzer anticipated him in this mistake: "708=46
erhielt er das Pontificat ... und wurde zur Anlegung von Colonien
nach Gallien entsendet. "3 The only popular magistrate elected in 46
was Caesar: though he was an incumbent consul in 46. he was designated
consul for 45 (without a colleague) in an election conducted by
the other consul of 46, M. Aemilius Lepidus (DC 43.33.1).4 The law
fixed the occasion of the sacerdotum comitia: these were not held between
the consular and the praetorian elections. as long believed ,5 but
in normal circumstances before the consular elections (Cic. ad Brut.
1.5.4: d. Cic. Fam. 8A.!' 3).6 The depth of the respect Caesar had for
I The father is mentioned at PIR' C941 and discussed by F, Munzer, Claudius
254. RE3 2777-2778.
2 T. Robert S. Broughton, MRR 2. 303 (no query indicating doubt about the date
s. a.), 547 (no query against the date in the index).
3 Munzer (above, n. I) 2778.
4 See G.V. Sunmer. "The lex annalis under Caesar," Phoenix 25 (1971) 35T "The
only election to take place in 46, apart from those for the plebeian magistracies,
was that of Caesar to his fourth consulship." The author of this most important
article did not take sacerdotal elections into his ken.
S In the twentieth century still by such estimable historians as L.R. Taylor.
"The election of the Pontifex Maximus in the late Republic," CP37 (1942) 422 n. 7
and J. Linderski. "The aedileship of Favonius, Curio the Younger and Cicero's
election to the augurate," HSCP76 (1972) 192-193 = Roman Questions (Stuttgart
1995) 242- 243.
6 See F,X. Ryan. "Oer fur die Priesterwahlen vorgeschriebene Zeitpunkt." SHT
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