Read this many years ago and am looking forward to a re-read.

2.5/5

If I'm too harsh on this, blame Suetonius. I came out of The Twelve Caesars with an appetite for a tale of Claudius' life in particular, and the very man who translated it promised an explanation of the lame Emperor's life. I wanted so dearly to feel the humanity behind the unwilling ruler, the struggles of growing up with a disability in an ancient aristocracy, the world he surrounded himself with. Trustworthy translator Robert Graves deigned to include splashes of all of these things, but I Claudius is not a tale, an epic, nor an exploration of Claudius, but a recitation, nigh a non-fiction.

That would be fine in itself. I'm not impartial to a good history book, and I suspect one hashed out by Graves would be worthy of my time. But, for a litany of reasons, chief of all money, I Claudius has instead been released in a fictive form. So we hear the facts and the figures filtered through Claudius' perception of them, spanning from those directly related to him to those so far-off that you wonder why this was ever formatted as an autobiography. Of course Tiberius' rise to power and Germanicus' varied tribulations are relevant, but sometimes it just flings itself too far from the point. You don't need me to tell you that, Graves says it himself through the voice of Claudius at several points!

Thankfully, whenever the point is close to home, its a riveting work. Claudius' true friends are all a window of humanity in otherwise dry spells - the caring tutor Athenodorus, the faithful brother Germanicus, and the frank but warm mistress Calpurnia in particular kept me afloat. The last of those especially, for Graves' depiction of women otherwise is questionable. Others have detailed it better than I could, but the nearly one-note wicked interpretation of Livia became tiresome to revisit again and again. If the German translation, which brought this volume and its sequel into a much leaner single piece, were available in English, I would likely be able to love this a lot more. But as is, I'm afraid I'll stick to Suetonius.

I opted for "I, Claudius" to see if I could handle the challenge. I thought it would be a complicated read due to language. The language was not difficult. What was hard was tracking the characters as I listened to the audio.

The narrator was talented and kept me interested. I cannot fault the author or the narrator for my shortcomings. I think I would have appreciated the names and characters more if I had seen the written word. If you are a visual learner like me, I would not suggest the audio version if you intend on retaining what you "read".

Just adding this to my books since it came up in my feed. Read this when I was in junior high, I think, and absolutely loved it, along with the companion volume, Claudius the God. Of course I didn't know at the time that Graves had translated his main source, Suetonius's Lives of the Twelve Caesars. I didn't get to know that work until I was given a gorgeous edition of the Graves translation.

A great read, written in a style that makes it hard to believe you are not reading an actual autobiography written by Claudius himself. The intrigue, betrayal, murders etc. are shocking, but all based on near-contemporary historical sources. Whether those are true or not (Tacitus, Suetonius etc) is a separate issue. Graves elaborates and exaggerates for the sake of a good story, but the decay and corruption of the Roman Emperors is well known, and he sets this atmosphere very well. Claudius is a sympathetic narrator, another feat of the writer and the book was very enjoyable overall.

Basically fine, it the protagonist has so little agency that this might as well not have been a novel.

Remember when I was a lot younger I spent a long, long, long, long year or so working my way through this between reading other books. It's so incredibly dense and packed with information, incredibly informative, the very, very, very many characters very well etched and characterised to the point of seeming modern and believable. Never seen the TV show but always been tempted, have no idea why people have never created an update of it.

*whispers* does no one else in the universe think this is just... really, really boring?

Firstly I have to say that Ancient Imperial Roman Family made the Tudors, other medieval royal families, even the royal families of the Mafia like a loving close nit, if slightly misunderstand. The Romans were crazy buggers to say the least.

I Claudius is a tribute of a novel. Claudius is the fool of the great Caesar family. A stammerer and lame, Claudius was never important enough to be considered a threat, and was mostly able to keep his head down and out of trouble. So is in a position to be the perfect recorder of the early history of Imperial Rome.

As I was reading this I kept forgetting that this was a fictional account of the Caesar dynasty. Graves has given Claudius a very slow deliberate writing style, flowing with detail. Claudius is extremely patient in giving the intertwining and complicated connections of the characters involved.

And these characters are extremely over the top, as they are believable. Livia, Claudius' grandmother who ruled Rome through her husband Augustus and her insolent son Tiberious. Poisoning anyone who stood in her way. If she were a man she would have been one of the greater statesmen in history. Then of course we cannot forget Caugila, completely insane, famous for making his favourite horse a member of the senate.

It's absolutely brilliant! So over the top yet so believable. The Caesar's did not think they were ordained by God. They were Gods themselves and could do anything they wanted.