"In more than one field, he took decisive steps and created the precedents on which the future development of the imperial bureaucracy was to be based, especially under the Flavians and Antonines. The careful diligence with which he followed even the smallest details of the administrative life of the empire is proven, for example, by the large number of inscriptions and papyri that have come down to us, which reproduce his letters and edicts, and by the frequent mention of such documents in our literary sources. Of these, the most notable are perhaps the fragments found at Tegea, from an edict relating to the organisation of the imperial postal service (cursus publicus), and the aforementioned letter to the Alexandrians. In the latter document, dealing with the complex problem of the municipal organisation of Alexandria (the question of the βουλή) and the delicate subject of relations between the Jews and Greeks of that city, Claudius shows a surprising amount of knowledge, a perfect understanding of the current conditions, observed from their practical rather than theoretical side, and exquisite tact."
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Michail Ivanovič Rostovcev, Storia economica e sociale dell'impero romano (The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire), foreword of Gaetano De Sanctis, translation into Italian by Giovanni Sanna, «La Nuova Italia» Editrice, Firenze, 19674. Ch. III, pp. 88-89
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Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (10 BC – AD 54), or Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor at Lugdunum in Roman Gaul, where his father was stationed as a military legate. He was the first Roman emperor to be born outside Italy.
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