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SUETONIUS: DIVUS CLAUDIUS. Edited by DONNA W. HURLEY. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics). 2001. Pp. viii, 272, 2 tables.
THE LOSS OF THE CALIGULAN SECTION of Tacitus' Annals, and the consequent heavy reliance on Suetonius and Dio for information about that particular emperor, is one of the great topoi of Julio-Claudian studies. We have tended to get less excited by the even greater gap in the Tacitean account of Caligula's successor, yet the missing Claudian books arguably covered a more interesting and historically more significant period, when a new emperor transformed himself from a usurper in an armed coup to something approaching a constitutional princeps, and, in the meantime, personally conducted a major military campaign. Suetonius' biography of Claudius can be called upon to help compensate for this loss, and it clearly merits an up-to-date and reliable commentary. Donna Hurley goes a very long way towards meeting that need.
Hurley's book adheres to the standard format of its series, with a general introduction, a Latin text, and a commentary. She does not claim to provide a new edition, nor does she offer detailed textual discussion (that is not the aim of the series), relying basically on M. Ihm's 1908 Teubner text. Her...