I, Claudius : Classic Books

Caligula looked at me, uncomfortably, through narrowed eyelids.
Do you think I'm mad? he asked, after a time.

I laughed nervously. Mad, Caesar? You ask whether I think you mad?
Why, you set the standard of sanity for the whole habitable world.

It's a very difficult thing, you know, Claudius, he said confidentially,
to be a God in human disguise...

The Claudius books are written as an autobiographical memoir by Roman Emperor Claudius.

In the midst of palace intrigues and murders, his informal narration serves to emphasise the banality of the imperial family's endless greed and lust.

Claudius, the stuttering, dribbling, reluctant contender for Caesar is in reality a man of sharp wit and high intelligence. His infirmity of mild spasticity conceals his razor intellect and deep understanding of psychological motivations. You can't help but like Claudius.

Nor can you fail to be moved by the politics, treachery and instability of men who believed themselves more than merely mortal. As for the women, there is no comparable novel anywhere which can bring to life the dazzling dauntless women of Rome.

The story concludes with Claudius ascending to the imperial throne.

Continuing the story of I, Claudius, the unpretentious man who is suddenly catapulted to Emperor, we find a lot here on the personal characteristics which enable great leaders to rule, and also to fall.

Claudius is hugely popular when he first becomes Emperor, refusing many of the numerous titles claimed by his predecessors because he believes he has not yet earned them, but we soon enough see that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

As the likable Claudius records his memoirs we develop great sympathy for a man who began his reign with pure motives and a good heart but who was ultimately powerless to control his own destiny and that of Rome.

The two novels by Robert Graves on Claudius make up what has to be the greatest fictional biography ever written.

Two years have gone by since I finished writing the long story of how I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, the cripple, the stammerer, the fool of the family, whom none of his ambitious and bloody-minded relatives considered worth the trouble of executing, poisoning, forcing to suicide, banishing to a desert island or starving to death - which was how they one by one got rid of each other - how I survived them all, even my insane nephew Gaius Caligula, and was one day unexpectedly acclaimed Emperor by the corporals and sergeants of the Palace Guard.

I, Claudius: From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius -- available from Fishpond, Australia

Claudius the God: And His Wife Messalina - from Fishpond, for the Australian reader

Claudius was born in 10 BCE in what is now Lyon, France, into the powerful ruling family of Rome.

Suffering from ill-health and an alarming lack of social skills, believed to be intellectually handicapped, cursed with a bad stutter, he was considered an embarrassment and endured public disrespect and scorn.

When the truly awful Emperor Caligula was assassinated in January 41, Claudius fled to one of the apartments of the palace and hid behind the curtains. He was discovered by the Praetorians (the elite military corps and palace guards) and hailed as the new Emperor.

He was an exceptional ruler.

He abolished the treason trials, burned criminal records, destroyed Caligula's infamous stock of poisons and returned many confiscations. He took the army to Britain, and settled them there and, almost as an afterthought, annexed two Thracian kingdoms.

Claudius overhauled the financial affairs of the state and empire, offered insurances against losses of grain ships on the open sea and built up stocks against winter times of famine. He set up extensive public building projects and instituted judicial reforms, particularly legal safeguards for the weak and defenceless.

Overall he served the people of Rome well for thirteen years.

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