Suetonius and the honores of the Patrician Claudii

The first chapter of Suetonius’ biography of Tiberius attempts to quantify the prestige of the patrician Claudii in the form of the honores they amassed over an unspecified timeframe. Mommsen was unable to validate any of the figures in Suetonius, and successive commentators have failed to satisfactorily account for Suetonius’ estimates of the consulships, dictatorships, censorships, and triumphs amassed by the patrician gens Claudia. In the following note it is argued that Suetonius’ figures are accurate and explicable.