I Claudius / I, Claudius (Book) - Tropes D to H

This page is for tropes that have appeared in I, Claudius (the novels, not the series).

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• Daddy's Girl: Augustus dotes on his only legitimate daughter, Julia.
• Dead Guy Junior:
  • When Claudius' son with Messalina is born, he's named Germanicus, in honour of Claudius' deceased brother. Later he's known as Britannicus.
  • Caligula's daughter is named Drusilla, in honour of his sister. Their personalities are very different.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Postumus is claimed to be doing this when he tries to organize an uprising against Tiberius.
• Decadent Court: Rome becomes this during the reigns of Tiberius and Caligula. Claudius tries in vain to stop the decadence.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Claudius has slaves, enjoys gladiator fights and approves of Germanicus slaughtering civilians during the war in Germania. Also, as an emperor, he has a lot of people executed.
• Denied Food as Punishment: Many people imprisoned by Tiberius are slowly starved to death, such as Julia, Gallus, Drusus and Livilla.
• Depraved Bisexual:
  • Tiberius rapes and molests both boys and girls.
  • During his trial for treason, the prosecutor claims Valerius Asiaticus is this, accusing him of both molesting a couple of young soldiers, and committing adultery with a married woman, Poppaea.
• Death of a Child: Many, many times. Drusillus, Sejanus' children, Gemellus, Caligula's daughter and several other children are murdered.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Claudius greatly admires his father, who died when he was very young.
• Defiled Forever: The wife of a senator who was submitted to a Scarpia Ultimatum by Tiberius sees herself as this after giving in, and takes her own life.
• Destroy the Abusive Home: Caligula had the house on the island of Pandataria where his mother Agrippina was imprisoned and eventually died destroyed when he became emperor, which Claudius notes resulted in a bit of the Streisand Effect since prior to this no one had paid the house any attention, but after seeing the ruins people naturally became curious as to what had occurred there.
• Didn't Think This Through: When Caligula falls ill, many citizens and senators pray for his recovery. One, Lentulus, tells Macro that he's offered his own life to the gods if they'll spare Caligula's, either out of honest devotion or (more likely) trying to outdo the others in sycophancy. When Caligula recovers, he thanks Lentulus for going the extra mile for him... then cheerfully reminds him that he should not wait much longer before killing himself, since "we can't both be here", and the last thing Lentulus wants to do is go back on a deal he made with the gods. Caligula breezes off to take a walk with Drusilla, leaving Lentulus frozen in place with a My God, What Have I Done? expression.
• Did You Think I Can't Feel?: Claudius, after becoming emperor, says this to the entire Senate, reminding them of how many times they followed Caligula's lead in mocking him.
• Direct Line to the Author: Robert Graves' premise was that he had really discovered the memoirs of the historical Emperor Claudius, "nineteen hundred years or near" later i.e. in the present.
• Dirty Old Man: Tiberius. His perversions are not detailed in the book; if Graves had repeated what Suetonius said about him, it probably would've been banned.
• Disposable Sex Worker: Subverted. Calpurnia's death is probably the saddest in the whole story.
• Divide and Conquer: Claudius states this is Rome's policy towards German tribes and Eastern kingdoms. The more they fight each other, the more Rome profits.
• Do Wrong, Right: After being condemned to death, Cassius Chaerea asks the soldier assigned to do the job if he has any training as an executioner. The soldier says no, but he was a butcher before he joined the Army. Cassius laughs and says that's good enough. True to form, the soldier is able to finish Cassius cleanly, with one stroke.
• Doesn't Trust Those Guys: Herod Agrippa repeatedly advises Claudius to never trust anybody, and he's absolutely right. Claudius once writes him a letter saying that he has taken Herod's advice and trusts no one — with the exception of several people whose names he lists, Herod among them. All of them, Herod included, prove to be untrustworthy.
• The Dog Bites Back: Cassius Chaerea is a frequent victim of Caligula's jokes and taunting. In the end, he's the head of the conspiracy to assassinate him.
• Downer Ending: Claudius at the end knows that Agrippina will soon kill him, and he'll be succeeded by Nero, who will be a horrible ruler. He allowed all of this to happen because he believed that after Nero's tyranny, people will abolish monarchy and restore the republic. People familiar with Roman history know how that turned out, but Graves also tells the reader in an afterword; after Nero's death, a civil war broke out, eventually Vespasian became the emperor and the republic was never restored.
• The Dragon: Sejanus during most of Tiberius' reign, Macro during the latter part of that reign and the early part of Caligula's.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Sejanus seems to become this after Agrippina's downfall. It doesn't last long.
• Dream-Crushing Handicap: Claudius craves to serve his country, specially during the German war, but his disabilities cause Augustus and Tiberius to dismiss his requests out of hand.
• Drinking Contest: Flaccus, the Roman governor of Syria, is about to beat Tiberius in a drinking contest, but lets him win.
• Driven to Suicide: Probably the main cause of death in the series. Many characters choose to kill themselves when they are accused of treason, knowing full well they'll be convicted and their properties will be seized by the State. By commiting suicide, they make sure their families are spared. There are also some cases when characters kill themselves out of genuine grief and deseparation, such as Antonia's death in the first book and Cypros' in the second.
• Drowning My Sorrows: After Messalina's downfall, Claudius begins drinking heavily. His freedmen take advantage of it, having Messalina killed when he falls asleep.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Herod Agrippa's last letter to Claudius, written while he is in his deathbed, asures him that, in spite of having conspired against him, he still loved him dearly. It Makes Sense in Context.
• Emasculated Cuckold: Caligula has a fetish for boning other men's wives, both to satiate his own lusts and to humiliate the husbands.
• Emergency Authority: How Claudius becomes emperor: Caligula is murdered, and there is no other male adult member of the imperial family in Rome, so they proclaim him emperor.
• The Empire: The Roman Empire itself. The Partian Empire also plays a minor role in the story.
• Empty Nest: Antonia asks Claudius to let her raise his daughter, also named Antonia, probably because all of her other grandchildren were already grown up.
• Enfant Terrible:
  • Caligula's daughter, Julia Drusilla, is a savage little monster who kicks and tears at people with her nails and wishes she could kill her mother. She's also barely two years old.
  • Caligula himself, when he was a child.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Mentioned by Claudius when he's remembering Julius Caesar's murder.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Averted. Tiberius loathes his mother Livia, and the only reason he probably doesn't have her killed is because he also fears her, since she still has a lot of spies and political influence. Caligula befriends Tiberius after he has sentenced his mother Agrippina to prison, and never attemps to persuade him to release her or to improve the conditions of her imprisonment. But Nero goes even farther, ordering the death of his mother Agrippinilla.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Several villains have at least one person they care about.
  • Tiberius loves his brother Drusus, his first wife Vispania, and is fond of his friends Thrasyllus and Nerva. He also had a genuinely cordial relationship with Augustus, until he forced him to divorce Vipsania.
  • Caligula loves his wife Caesonia, his daughter, and his sister Drusilla (although he's heavily implied to have killed her in a fit of rage).
  • Messalina and her mother Domitia Lepida become estranged, but when Messalina's crimes are discovered and she's arrested, her mother is the only one who comes to see her and is at her side until the end.
  • Livia implies she was truly fond of her father. The fact that he was executed by Augustus is the main reason she doesn't feel guilty for having murdered him and several of his descendants. There's also her friendship with Urgulania.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Tiberius is convinced that Germanicus is planning to overthrow him, and just cannot fathom the idea that he's just as honest and loyal as he appears.
• Evil Chancellor: Sejanus and Macro during Tiberius and Caligula's reigns. To a lesser extent, Pallas during Claudius'.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • At one point, Caligula orders Claudius to be beheaded because he has a head full of hair and the Emperor is going bald. Luckily, Claudius manages to talk himself out of it by pretending Caligula ordered to cut his hair instead of his head.
  • Agrippinilla orders the death of Lollia, partly for political reasons, but it's implied that she's also jealous of her beauty. She orders Lollia's severed head to be brought before her, and criticizes her hair and teeth before disposing of it.
• Evil Matriarch: Livia murders no less than 6 family members (including her husband, Emperor Augustus) in her scheme to set up her son as the next Emperor of Rome.
• Evil Nephew: Caligula is this towards Claudius. His sisters Lesbia and Agrippinilla also treat him with contempt.
• Evil Uncle: Tiberius is this towards practically all of his brother's descendants. He has a hand in the deaths of his nephew Germanicus, his niece Livilla, his niece-in-law Agrippina, and his great-nephews Nero and Drusus; he's also quite malevolent towards Claudius, although he never threatens his life. Fittingly, he's killed by his surviving great-nephew, Caligula.
• Excessive Mourning: After Germanicus' death, the Roman people grieve for months. Tiberius issues a proclaim in which he (diplomatically) tells them to move on with their lives; however, it has little effect.
• The Exile: Several characters are sentenced to exile. Some of them get to come back to Rome, like Seneca and Agrippinilla, but most of them die abroad, due to the poor living conditions of the places they are sentenced to inhabit.
• Externally Validated Prophecy: While conversing with Vitellius, Claudius is unsettled when an owl lands on a nearby temple; that particular species of owl is known as an "incendiary", because its appearance is an omen that whatever building it lands on will be destroyed by fire.
• Face Death with Dignity: When Claudius's freedman tricks him into signing Messalina's death-warrant, they make sure to offer Messalina a dagger—to take the honourable way out—in the hopes that they won't have to show the warrant to Claudius. Messalina, however, is too much of a coward to kill herself, so she ends up executed. Similarly, when Augustus banishes his daughter Julia for adultery, Julia accepts exile but her maid Phoebe hangs herself in disgrace; Augustus bitterly comments, "I wish to God I had been Phoebe's father."
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Both Caligula and Nero are described as quite handsome (although Caligula goes bald when he becomes emperor). They are also complete monsters.
• Faking the Dead: Claudius wants to fake Britannicus' death, in order to send him to exile in Britain during Nero's reign and have him return to Rome when the emperor is overthrown. Unfortunately, Britannicus stubbornly refuses.
• False Rape Accusation: Posthumus is exiled after he is accused of trying to rape Livilla, who was working with Livia to get rid of him.
• A Father to His Men: Drusus and Germanicus treat their troops like this.
• Famous Ancestor: Claudius despises his first tutor, Cato, a descendant of Cato the Censor (who instigated the Third Punic War), reflecting that every man who boasts about his ancestors is obviously trying to cover up his own lack of distinction.
• Foregone Conclusion: We are told at the start that Claudius is going to become Emperor. Nonetheless, the description of 60 years of Roman politics and intrigue leading up to this event manages to remain amazing and entertaining.
• Framing Device: The book is presented as Claudius' own account of his life. The real Claudius really did write an autobiography, although it is now lost to history.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: Athenodorus, Claudus's tutor only used the latter's full name when he wanted to shame him; then he would say "Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, remember who you are and what you are doing."
• The Gambler: Claudius gambles frequently, both at playing dice and in the horsetracks. He never seems to win or loose much, but on one occasion he has to send Germanicus a large sum of money and, since he has to keep it a secret, pretends to have lost it gambling.
• Genius Cripple: While not exactly brilliant, Claudius is a lot smarter than most people give him credit for.
• God-Emperor: Caligula claims to be a god after he goes mad.
• Gods Need Prayer Badly: A belief held in-universe by Romans, including Claudius himself, who discusses it in Claudius the God. He explicitly states that if a god ceases to be worshipped, he is nothing; he also states that, conversely, being worshipped is what makes one a god. This means that, according to Claudius, if a mortal can make others worship him or her and is worshipped genuinely, then he or she is a god and must be accepted as such.
  While Caligula was worshipped and believed in as a god he was indeed a supernatural being. Cassius Chaerea found it almost impossible to kill him, because there was a certain divine awe about him, the result of the worship offered him from simple hearts, and the conspirators felt it themselves and hung back. Perhaps he would never have succeeded if Caligula had not cursed himself with a divine premonition of assassination.
• God Save Us from the Queen!:
  • Livia is an interesting example. She uses the vilest means to obtain power, but she's also described as a very able and just ruler. Claudius loathes her because many of her victims, such as Postumus and Germanicus, are his dearest friends, but admits her government was much better than Tiberius' and Caligula's.
  • Messalina and Agrippinilla, on the other hand, are straight examples of this.
• Going Native: The Germans in the emperor's guard marry and have children with Roman women and, while claiming to feel nostalgia for their homeland, don't really want to leave Italy.
• Good Bad Girl: Julia, while being quite promiscuous, is portrayed sympathetically by Claudius. Firstly, because she begins having affairs as a result of her husband Tiberius' coolness towards her and his own infidelities. Secondly, because her enhanced sex-drive seems to have been caused by Livia, who tricks her into using Spanish fly, a potent aphrodisiac. Thirdly, because she has a good heart and is the only adult member of Claudius' family who treats him with affection.
• The Good Chancellor: Agrippa and Maecenas during Augustus' reign, Narcissus and —for a few months— Herod Agrippa during Claudius'.
• Good Old Ways: Claudius can't read about a quaint old tradition without wanting to revive it. Though he claims he wasn't responsible for the one where a forger was punished by having his hands cut off.
• Grande Dame: Antonia and several other Roman ladies.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Caligula's mood swings make people around him constantly in fear for their lives.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Claudius at one point discusses his distaste for how other men of the noble class take young men as lovers who are blatantly Gold Diggers. While this may come off as an Writer on Board by Graves, this is actually based on fact, as Claudius was one of the few Emperors who never had any male lovers, which was considered odd at the time and remarked upon by contemporaries.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • The legions under Scribonianus' command decide not to rebel against Claudius.
  • Castor undergoes a minor HFT after Germanicus' death. While he wasn't entirely evil before, afterwards he becomes loyal to Agrippina and her children.
• He Knows Too Much: Martina is murdered so that she cannot testify against Piso and Plancina in the trial for Germanicus' murder.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • After Augustus finds out about Julia's debauchery, he locks himself in his bedroom and remains there for four days without eating, drinking or talking to anyone.
  • Claudius has a very similar reaction when they tell him the truth about Messalina. However, he's not allowed to lock himself up and suffer alone, since he has to act immediately to prevent her coup attempt.
• Hidden Backup Prince: That's what Claudius plans to do with Britannicus during Nero's reign.
• High Priest: All emperors are this, since they also hold the office of Pontifex Maximus. Claudius takes advantage of it to introduce some changes in Roman religion.
• Historical Domain Character: Caligula, Nero, Tiberius, Claudius,...
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Subverted. Cassius Chaerea's Last Request is that he be executed with his own sword, the one he killed Caligula with. This request is granted.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Calpurnia, who was Claudius' partner for a while, and his friend for the rest of her life. Claudius expressed this in the epitaph he wrote for her:
  "A harlot's love; a harlot's lie," -
  Cast that ancient proverb by.
  Calpurnia's heart was cleaner far,
  Roman matrons, than yours are.
• Holy City: The Jews believe the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. It becomes an important plot point because it leads Herod Agrippa, who was born there, to believe he is the Messiah.
• Hypocrite: The attentive reader will note that Claudius ends up making many of the same mistakes as Emperor he criticized others for making, including holding on to absolute power despite professing to want to restore the old Roman Republic. Of course, since he's the viewpoint character, he has perfectly good and justifiable reasons. At the end of Claudius the God, Claudius also realizes this.
• Human Sacrifice: The Druids sacrifice young men to their gods, something Claudius considers barbaric (although, as a result of Deliberate Values Dissonance, he has no qualms about sacrificing animals to the Roman gods).

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