De bronzen inscriptie van keizer Claudius’ rede in het heiligdom van de Tres Galliae in Lyon

Claudius’ plea to admit the Gallic nobility to the Roman senate is known
not only from the Annals of Tacitus, but also from the Tabula Claudiana,
a monumental bronze inscription found in Lyon in the 16th century at a
site where archaeologists situate the most important sanctuary of Roman
Gaul. This paper focuses on the physical form and spatial context in which
it was displayed. It tries to demonstrate that the inscription should not be
viewed as a simple copy of an original text kept in the archives of the senate
in Rome and sent from the centre of the empire to be slavishly published
in Gaul, but rather as an initiative by the Gallic provincial elites. It will
be argued that the extensive quotation of the emperor’s words, the use of
costly material and publication at a highly politically symbolic place all served the interests of the Gallic nobility.