Street-Claudian Tables, near the site of the discovery, in Lyon.

The two fragments of The Tablet, the Gallo-Roman Museum in Lyon.

The Tablet was a bronze plaque inscribed with a speech by Emperor Claude , at 48 , before the Roman Senate. The table was broken: we still retains two fragments, found in Lyon , in the district of Croix-Rousse in 1528. The use of the plural, the Claudius Tablet, is common .

In his speech, Claude decided for entry to the Roman Senate notables of Romanized Gaul hairy , when faced with reluctance or cultural and political, or to a legal obstacle if the citizenship they had acquired was very incomplete, lacking the ius honorum, as is often believed. Researchers such as Ronald Syme nevertheless doubted the very existence of the ius honorum For them, the eviction of the Gauls was not right, but simply fact. Claude responded to a request from the Council of the Three Gauls, asking him to open the magistracy and the Senate in Roman notables hairy Gaul . The Gauls obtained satisfaction: the AEdui first, then all the peoples of Gaul hairy.

Engraved in Lyon and exposed in the federal sanctuary of the Three Gauls , The Tablet recalled the generosity of Claude and showed significant recognition of the hairy Gaul. His two fragments are now preserved at the Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon. The table has been construed as a witness of relations between Rome and other peoples for the exhibition "Rome and the Barbarians" held in 2008 at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice ^, .

A belated rediscovery

Replica of The Tablet exposed in the courtyard of the Museum of Printing in Lyon.

The sanctuary was abandoned after the fall of the Roman Empire. Not until the ^twelfth century that the real estate frenzy pushes people to source stone, brick, bronze and marble (used in the manufacture of lime) on what was then called the 'Costa St. Sebastian. " The archaeologist Lyon Amable Audin explains that the plate could then be split into two in the top half to be taken to the melting . To date, the building density at the location where the plate was discovered prevents any search. During this period the site is designated by the toponym Perier.

It was not until 1528 that Roland Gribaux, merchant, decides to build a country house on the site of a vineyard, "the Vinagre, he has at Perier. He did pull out, and eroding the soil, he discovered two fragments of a bronze plaque. Bellievre Claude , a lover of art and antique collector, is informed of this discovery and did acquire the table by the city for fifty-eight ECU sun (or crowns). He also promised to inform the Gribaux if the other fragments discovered that he undertakes to reserve for the city.

Placed in the Town House then located rue de la Fromagerie, the table is moved between 1605 and 1657 at the old Hotel Common today Printing Museum , Rue de la Poultry Houses. Between 1657 and 1804 , it is displayed in the new City Hall located Terreaux square. For the two thousandth anniversary of the founding of the city, celebrated in 1958 , the table is presented to the Museum of Fine Arts where she had been installed since the First Empire , before joining the temporary storage before the construction of the Gallo-Roman fourvire in 1974 where she is now on display . It is also possible to see a copy molded into the courtyard of the Museum of Printing (Lyon).

A monument inscription

Weight and dimensions

The table is a bronze plaque weighing 222.5 kilograms, flat cast , 193 cm wide, 139 cm tall for what is left, 8 mm thick. The text is engraved in two columns, one on each fragment, a forty lines (39 lines left, 40 right, the first being very mutilated). It lacks the title and first lines of the beginning of the text, and the top of the second column . The side edges are cut-outs, which placed the grffes sealing.

The plaque at its origin measured about 2.5 m high and had to include about seventy lines . Its estimated total weight of 500 kg of origin, and record the museum assumed that this plate would have broken under its own weight at its initial binding .

The horizontal cut line forms a continuous festoon the top of the two fragments placed side by side, it could be made before the vertical cut, which is irregular and bites on the characters of the left column.

Typography

Details of the last paragraph of the column.
Line 10 IF IN QVA SVIS HOC with sutures.
Line 11 CVERVNT DIVOM IVL with a letter I in DIVOM rising.

The letters are 2 cm with the exception of some "I", which exceeds the top bar of a few millimeters, in short words like QVIS, FINE VOBIS. This graphic called "letters Rising" is not exceptional, it begins to spread to Latin inscriptions from the first century BC. BC, and is becoming increasingly common over the centuries . The letters are engraved with a burin with regularity, the right margin of each column is aligned vertically, with a slight left indent to mark the beginning of a paragraph, while the left margin is less regular, despite cuts Word deferred to the next line. According to one frequently used in Latin inscriptions , the text is written in capital letters without a space separator between words. These are separated by a labeled triangular punch, halfway up the line after the last letter of the word, unless it is rounded like a letter O, C, D, which surround the point.

Study on the manufacturing process

In 2008, The Tablet has undergone technical tests, conducted in collaboration with the Laboratory of Tribology of the Ecole Centrale de Lyon , the Ecole des Arts et Metiers ParisTech , and master craftsman Francois Allier Molder of art . A documentary presenting the results was presented at the Museum of Gallo-Roman Fourviere during Science Week in October 2010.

Casts in silicone are performed to detect tiny defects in the micrometer to detect any traces of tool. A sample taken from an unseen area of the table has been analyzed . Its composition is 86% of copper , 8% tin , 4% lead. The alloy obtained is a yellow bronze and shiny, the table was thus a bright golden appearance and that does not discern with the patina present. This alloy is very hard and therefore difficult to directly burn. The absence of any burrs and high regularity of the letters encourage researchers to exclude a direct etching, and to propose as a method of manufacturing the technique of lost wax. The text was engraved in a large plate with wax, and soft material allowing occasions when local defect. Plaster cast would have formed over a mold with raised letters, used after removal of the wax for bronze casting. The production of a plaque with an inscription of some words in Latin characters has produced a similar result to the table Claudian, and validated the proposal of a manufacturing lost wax. Comparing the profile of the grooves of the letters shows a V-shaped net for traces of the table and small irregularities in the hollow of the letters of the wafer test. The lost wax casting would have been followed by a finishing stage, with a touch of the chisel strokes .

A historical debate

Background

Claude leads during his reign policy of openness to provincial , in continuity with the attitude of his predecessors. Entering the Senate would further support to Claude in an assembly which has not always been achieved. Provincials have already been admitted to the Roman senate and the most authoritative, but they were individual cases and punctual. This time, many notable Gallic apply for this promotion, but they are descendants of Roman colonists settled in conquered territory, but Gallo-Roman from Gallic tribes, whose family obtained Roman citizenship for several generations and sometimes whose wealth largely fulfills the criteria of hundred defined by Augustus .

The censorship exercised by Claude 47-48 allows him to renew the staff of the Senate, however, existing senators were opposed to this massive influx of Gauls who may monopolize the magistracy, as evidenced by the subsequent criticism of Seneca 's cons Claude policy, "he decided to see toga all the Greeks, Gauls, Spaniards, Britons" . Claude tries to maintain peaceful relations with the Senate, so he delivered a speech to the assembled senators to convince them to accept them within these newcomers .

The Speech of Claudius

Bust of Claudius as Jupiter, marble, Lanuvium Italy, about 50.

The text of Claude accumulates arguments with some awkward transitions. His early contests in all likelihood an argument describing the proposal as dangerous innovation, he develops the need for policy innovation and recalls the history of the early kings of Rome. It gives details of Servius Tullius , whose name Etruscan Mastrana, unknown to other literature. It then summarizes the evolution of republican magistrates, and begins a transition that allows him to raise his conquest of Britain : "If I told all wars, I . Claude can still avoid making reference to Senator Viennese Valerius Asiaticus recently disgraced, he does not name, but he lampooned by calling him a "thief" (latro) and "prodigy palestra. Finally Claude recalls the loyalty of the Gauls hundred years, even during the wars of Germany or census operations difficult to conduct because "the difficulty of these operations, .

The Tablet also confirms some of the personality traits of Claude reported by Suetonius , as a tendency to speak with confusion and experience in historical studies : the speech of Claudius shows a wide culture and historical knowledge pointed the Etruscans, while the thread of the discourse reflects a continuation of his ideas not always obvious .

There are also the inclination of said Claude for the rhetoric of Cicero , with his taste for lengthy digressions and its strong culture. The speech of reminiscences of Cicero's Pro Balbo, in which he defended the Spanish Lucius Cornelius Balbus , the quality of Roman citizenship was challenged, and also echoes the history of the kings of Rome from the speech Livy puts in the mouth of Caius Canuleius in favor of marriage between patricians and plebeians .

The version of Tacitus

Tacitus in his Annals , has condensed the speech a little confused and was reconstructed in a style more rhetorical, as usual literature of ancient authors. He explained that AEdui obtained the first right to sit in the senate of Rome , the favor being given to seniority of their alliance and the fact that, alone among the Gauls, they were brothers of the title of the Roman people.

The interpretation of discourse

Following Philip Fabia and Jerome Carcopino , Andre Chastagnol thought ius honorum was introduced by Augustus. Without possession of Roman citizenship was incomplete, a Roman citizen does not have can not fulfill the senatorial and charges apply to magistrates. According to this view it in 18 BC. AD that ius honorum was introduced, restricting the right to hold office to the son of senatorial senators, Roman knights, the Italians, the citizens of Roman colonies or descendants of Italians settled in the provinces. An amendment would have taken place in 14 AD extending ius honorum the Latin communities of Narbonne. Ronald Syme opposed to this design . To Syme, the interpretation of the texts proposed for the existence of the ius honorum is not convincing and that was blocking the Gallic senators did not reside in Roman law but in fact they were in their own dynasties at the head of tribes rather than homines novi from a municipal civilization. Syme's opinion was followed in particular by A. Sherwin White who also sees in the concept of ius honorum misinterpretation of the text of Tacitus. For him there was no formal obstacle to the admission of certain provinces, but they just were not accepted by judges in elections. If, following Syme and Sherwin White, the concept of ius honorum was abandoned by the historiography of Anglo-Saxon, it continues to be widely used by French historiography.

References

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