22 March 2022
Abingdon classicists welcomed Professor Katherine Clarke of St Hilda’s College, Oxford, to speak about the process (or lack of) by which one Roman emperor took over from another. This covered material integral to the A Level Ancient History course, which is focused on the Julio-Claudian emperors, but also looked in more detail at Galba’s failed attempt to transfer power to Piso by adoption outside of his bloodline – the subject of the A Level Latin Prose set text this year – and the failed attempt by Sejanus to put himself in a position to inherit power from emperor Tiberius – the subject of next year’s set text. Following the talk, there were excellent questions from the floor, pondering which groupings in society had any control over choosing an emperor and whether people in the provinces would have even known what was going on in Rome until well after a new emperor had been installed.
