Date of Claudius receiving Cos II designate?

[Aleph]

Hi All,

A question of chronology.  Claudius served as consul for the first time during Caligula's reign.  After being proclaimed emperor, Jan 24, 41AD, he was designated consul for the 2nd time.  On what date did this occur?  I presume that the designation occurred after his accession. The reason for this question is in regard to chronology of the quadrantes of Claudius.  Most are dated either COS II or COS DES but a rare type (RIC 86 and 87 differentiated by a minor legend variation) have no reference to the consulship.  Might these be dated to a gap following accession but prior to being formally granted this honor?  These are very rare (much rarer than I think generally recognized) and could reasonably correspond to a very short time period.

One would think the designation date would be easy to find but I haven't yet seen it.  My understanding is that Tacitus' Annals for the first part of Claudius reign do not survive, however, this period seems to be well documented otherwise.  I had also thought this would be addressed somewhere such as the RIC introduction to Claudius reign, but I haven't found it.

http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.1(2).cl.86?lang=en
http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.1(2).cl.87?lang=en

Thanks
Kevin

[curtislclay]

It was normal that a new emperor would be designated to become consul ordinarius on the first 1 Jan. after his accession, but I think it is probably never recorded exactly when and by what mechanism he received that designation.

The consular designation was so regular that one could suppose it was normally included among the titles and honors granted to the emperor on the day of his accession. But maybe the senatorial decree had to be confirmed by the vote of a popular assembly before the designation was considered official and could be recorded on coins.

We hear of consular assemblies meeting in March and again in October: see Strack Trajan p. 18, note 40, referring to Mommsen's Römisches Staatsrecht and other sources. But maybe there was a way for the emperor to get around having to wait for the next regular assembly before calling himself consul designatus.

Tacitus records that in 51 AD Nero assumed the toga of manhood, and that on this occasion Claudius gladly acceded to the Senate's adulatory proposals that Nero should become consul when he reached the age of 20 (i.e. 7 years later, in 58 AD), and that in the meantime, as consul designatus, he should have proconsular imperium outside Rome and should be called Prince of the Youth. This and other similar cases show that it was in the Senate's power to designate consulships, but we are never told whether or not confirmation from a popular assembly was necessary.

Anyway, I think you are certainly correct that the quadrantes of Claudius with titles PONT MAX(I) TR POT IMP were the earliest of the reign, and because of their rarity can only have been struck for a short time.

I think only two such quadrantes are known today: one in BMC 173, pl. 35.12 with MAXI, and one in Munich with MAX. See von Kaenel, Claudius, p. 27. Cohen 75 records a specimen with MAX from a private collection, which will be a third specimen whose whereabouts today are unknown, unless it's the same coin as the specimen now in Munich, or as the BM coin (acquired in 1913) with the unusual reading MAXI overlooked.

[Aleph]

Thanks, Curtis.  I always appreciate your thoughtful and knowledgeable answers.

All the best,
Kevin