The Lyon Tablet is an ancient bronze tablet that bears the transcript of a speech given by the Roman emperor Claudius. The surviving bottom portion of the tablet was discovered in 1528 by a draper in his vineyard on Croix-Rousse Hill (on the site of the Sanctuary of the Three Gauls) in Lyon, France. It currently resides in the Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon, now renamed Lugdunum.
Claudius had particular affinities with Lugdunum (Lyon). He was born there, and it housed the Imperial cult centre: as both Emperor and a "native" of the city, he was probably seen as its patron. He made the inscribed speech before the Roman Senate in 48 AD. It was a proposal to allow monied, landed citizens from further Gaul to enter the Senatorial class, and thus the Senate itself, once they had reached the necessary level of wealth. His argument evoked the Sabine origins of his own family, the gens Claudia, and the recent promotion to senatorial rank of men from Gallia Narbonensis.
The text gives important insight into both the character of Claudius and Senate-emperor relations. Claudius goes into a long-winded digression on the early history of Rome – one which shows the effect of his tutelage under the historian Livy. This kind of pedantry is characteristic of Claudius and immediately identifies him as the speaker. Several interjections by senators are also recorded, mostly urging Claudius to get to the point. The style and substance of the speech suggest that Claudius was willing to publish himself as a scholarly, pedantic, tolerant upholder of ancient senatorial rights and values, eager to extend the same privileges to worthy provincials. The speech also contains references to other events during Claudius' reign, such as the fall of Valerius Asiaticus, whom Claudius singles out for condemnation. In his Annals, the later historian Tacitus reports a different version of the speech, probably based on various sources – including senatorial records – coupled with his own observations and the analysis of hindsight. His text broadly reaches the same conclusions but otherwise differs considerably from the version presented in the Lyon tablet, which includes many circumstantial details and may have been a verbatim transcript from an original Senate document.
The proposal was carried by the Senate. The elite of Lugdunum may have had the tablet made to celebrate their new status and as a demonstration of their gratitude. Claudius is known to have visited the city in 43 AD and in 47 AD.
Tablet translation
1st column :
″Of course, I can foresee the objection which will arise in everyone's mind, will be the first to be raised against me... But do not rebel against the proposal I am making, and do not regard it as a dangerous novelty. Look instead at how many changes have taken place in this city, and how, from the origin, the forms of our Republic have varied.″
″In principle, kings governed this city, but they did not pass on power to successors from their own family; others came from outside, some of them foreigners. So Romulus was succeeded by Numa from the land of the Sabines, our neighbour no doubt, but a stranger to us at the time. In the same way, Ancus Marcius was succeeded by Tarquin the Elder who, because of the stain of his blood (his father was Demaratus of Corinth, and his mother a Tarquinian of noble race, it is true, but her poverty had forced her to submit to such a husband), found himself rejected in his homeland from the career of honours; after emigrating to Rome, he became its king. The son of the slave Ocresia, if we are to believe our historians, Servius Tullius took his place on the throne between this prince and his son or grandson, authors vary on this point. If we follow the Tuscans, he was the companion of Cælius Vibenna, whose fate he always shared. Driven out by the vicissitudes of fortune with the remnants of Caelius' army, Servius left Etruria and came to occupy Caelian Hill, to which he gave this name in memory of his former leader; he himself changed his name, in Etruscan he was called Mastarna and took the name I have already pronounced, Servius Tullius, and he obtained the kingship for the greater good of the Republic. Later, the morals of Tarquin and his sons having made them odious to everyone, the monarchical government bored the spirits, and the administration of the Republic passed to consuls, annual magistrates.″
″Shall I now recall the dictatorship, superior in power to the consular dignity, and to which our ancestors had recourse in the difficult circumstances brought on by our civil disturbance or dangerous wars, or the plebeian tribunes, instituted to relax the interests of the people? When power passed from the consuls to the decemvirs, did it not return to the consuls when it was taken away from the decemvirate? Was not consular power passed on to six, then eight military tribunes? Shall I tell of the honours, not only of command, but also of the priesthood, later communicated to the people? If I were to recount the wars waged by our ancestors, which made us what we are today, I would be afraid of appearing too arrogant and of taking vanity in the glory of our empire, which stretched as far as the ocean; but I would prefer to return to this city...″