Roman Rereads: I, Claudius

I, Claudius, by Robert Graves, tells the life of the Roman emperor Claudius in the form of his secret autobiography, that he seals away to be read some time much later, when it’s no longer so dangerous to talk about the Julio-Claudians. There are heavy hints about Claudius’ manuscript being found 1900 years later, since Graves wrote this in 1934.

Young Claudius is such an unlikely protagonist, and the story covers his childhood as the family embarrassment, with a stammer and a limp. Readers know from the start that he’s going to become emperor, there’s not really any suspense on that account, but what a ridiculously wild route. Claudius survives the reigns of Augustus (and Livia), Tiberius, and then insane Caligula, and is finally appointed to Imperial power, despite his not-so-secret republican leanings and basically his best efforts to stay away from becoming emperor. I’ve read this book 5 or 6 times now, and every time I notice another historical detail.

I, Claudius reimagines historical figures as complicated characters, and retells actual events with Claudius’ commentary and spin. It’s this compelling mix of careful research and details from Suetonius, and scenes that, well, no Roman historian said it DIDN’T happen that way, so why not? There’s no reason why Herod couldn’t have been in Rome, no reason that Claudius’ couldn’t have had a paid girlfriend managing his country estate, so why not?

Livia is the evil mastermind behind a lot of the plot in I, Claudius. Historical evidence is mostly that Livia had too much power over her husband for Roman tastes, not that she was a cold-blooded serial poisoner. The closest historical evidence for Livia as murderous mastermind is that Tacitus, writing about a generation after Livia’s death, suggests she and Tiberius may have had a hand in Agrippa Postumus’ death, but provides no method or evidence, other than the motive that Postumus’ death cleared the way for Tiberius to be Augustus’ main heir. Certainly several other relatives and adopted heirs were in line before Tiberius, but there was no shortage of other enemies in Rome and the was a high mortality rate for young children and for Roman soldiers. Graves doesn’t really make up a whole story, the events in I,Claudius happen in the historical order, using the historical figures. What he adds is the motivation and the secrets behind the scenes. This is my favorite feeling in historical fiction — also what I love in Philippa Gregory’s Tudor series and Crystal King’s Feast of Sorrow.

Some of the wildest points of I, Claudius are historically accurate. Tiberius first wife was Vipsania, the daughter of Marcus Agrippa. Agrippa was married to Julia, Tiberius’ step sister, making her also his stepmother- in-law. Which is already a bit awkward, but when Agrippa died, Tiberius was encouraged/forced to divorce Vipsania, and remarry the recently widowed Julia who is still his stepsister, eeeeew. And he becomes stepfather to Agrippa and Julia’s children, who were his half-siblings-in-law AND his step-nieces and step-nephews before Agrippa’s death.  And that’s not even really the plot in this book, that’s just the background to Claudius’ story.

Overall, I, Claudius is an engaging and well-researched historical novel about my favorite historical time period. Claudius is such a goofy hero, too.

There’s also a famous BBC miniseries version of I, Claudius on Prime now. I usually hate movie versions of books I’ve enjoyed, but I like this one a lot. It follows the book very well, even if it has the college-theater-budget sets like in old Doctor Who episodes. I attempted to share this with my husband, but he got up and went into the kitchen for a snack during don’t touch the figs so I’m guessing he wasn’t really invested.