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Age, Agency and Disability: Suetonius and the Emperors of the First Century C.E.

Laurence, Ray and Harlow, Mary E. (2015) Age, Agency and Disability: Suetonius and the Emperors of the First Century C.E. In: Krötzl, Christian and Mustakallio, Katariina and Kuuliala, Jenni, eds. Infirmity in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Social and Cultural Approaches to Health, Weakness and Care. Ashgate Publishing, Abingdon, Oxon, pp. 15-28. ISBN 978-1-4724-3834-8. E-ISBN 978-1-315-58846-9. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:54996)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
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Abstract

The emperors of the first century AD appear in our sources as far from perfect, but some of them seem to have been less than perfect rulers, not due any physical disability, but due to the simple fact that they may have been too old or too young to have performed the role effectively. This observation allows us to consider how age may have been seen to prevent the effective agency of a Roman emperor. This study of age and agency is played out with reference to the emperor Claudius, whose disability affected how he was treated by other members of the imperial family. We will argue that age caused emperors to become unable to act, and if too old to be at risk of being deposed. This is a quite different conception of disability than those previously published in the study of antiquity.

Item Type: Book section
Uncontrolled keywords: Age, Roman emperors, Claudius
Subjects: D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D51 Ancient History
D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D111 Medieval History
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: Jacqueline Martlew
Date Deposited: 15 Apr 2016 15:12 UTC
Last Modified: 17 Aug 2022 11:00 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/54996 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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