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

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

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• Dated History: In the decades since the series, more people have wised up to the fact that none of the contemporary historians who chronicled this period had any notion of objectivity, nor did they have much respect for women, so you really have to read between the lines for a truthful picture of any given person's character.
• Decadent Court: So much of this, but it's summed up by the fact that the Julio-Claudian dynasty basically violently wipes itself out (and even though historians don't think Livia masterminded the deaths of many of Augustus' relatives, in a case of Truth in Television all that was left of the family after Nero's downfall were the children of one granddaughter of Tiberius, who had been executed herself).
• Deadpan Snarker: Almost everyone gets at least one or two lines of delicious dialogue. (Livia tends to get the most and the best ones.)
  Augustus: Ah, not slept [with Augustus' libertine daughter]... You mean it happened standing up perhaps, or in the street or on a bench? Not slept?
  
  Tiberius: Has it ever occurred to you, Mother, that it's you they hate and not me?
  Livia: There is nothing in this world that occurs to you that does not occur to me first. That is the affliction I live with.
  
  Mnester: My name is Mnester. I'm an actor; most people have heard of me.
  Scylla: My name's Scylla, and I'm a whore. Everyone's heard of me.
• Decapitation Presentation: Little Gemellus is beheaded on the order of Caligula, because his cough annoyed him. His head is shown to Caligula, much to the horror of Claudius, who's also present.

• Defiled Forever: Lollia commits suicide in front of her husband and friends after being defiled by the emperor Tiberius.
• Delayed Narrator Introduction: It's around three episodes before the narrator is even born, although it's explicitly a story told by Claudius from the beginning.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance:
  • Antonia is a cruel and distant mother to Claudius due to his failing to meet Roman standards of perfection.
  • Roman belief in prophecies and horoscopes are central to the plot. Roman characters base important decisions on what they say.
  • For patricians, banishment is one step down from execution, but they're sent to small Mediterranean islands that would be considered resort destinations in modern times.
  • If you don't want to be banished, or you do want to protest at the state of the society around you, committing suicide is not only expected but an honourable thing to do.
  • Augustus chastises a group of bachelor men who are resisting marriage and orders them to find wives. He also warns them not to get engaged to children to delay the ceremony.
  • Roman patricians marry and divorce each other for political gain quite lightly. This was even more scandalous in the 1930s when the original book was written, when divorce held a lot more stigma in western society. Even in the 1970s, it wasn't quite as prevalent as it is today.
  • Taking lovers outside of marriage isn't considered notable. Even Claudius is revealed to have kept his relationship with his mistress Calpurnia after marrying the beautiful Messalina.
• Den of Iniquity: Tiberius' mansion, where he indulges in every perversion imaginable.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Claudius.
  "Spies! Spies everywhere, spying on me!"
• Despair Event Horizon: Claudius breaks down sobbing when he hears that Sejanus's underage children have been murdered as part of The Purge, and that in order to avoid sacrilege, the Guards first dressed the boy up in a man's toga, and raped the girl to make them (technically) adults before they were killed.
  Rome, you are finished! Finished! You are despicable...
• Did You Actually Believe...?: Caligula to Livia on her deathbed, when he mocks her for thinking she would ever be made a goddess.
• Dies Wide Open:
  • Augustus. Say what you will about BRIAN BLESSED but the way he conveys Augustus's death just by letting his face go still was a fine piece of acting. He had to lie there eyes open, unmoving, and with the camera centered on his face for several minutes while Livia delivered her soliloquy. Not only that, but due to a recording problem he had to do it twice. It's easy to forget, because of his propensity to be typecast as Brian Blessed, that he is actually a very skilled actor.
  • Lollia. After confessing to her husband and dinner guests the debauchery in which she engaged with Tiberius to save her daughter from having to suffer the same indignity, she takes out a dagger and stabs herself, eyes wide open even after she dies.
• Dirty Old Man: Tiberius has a sex palace and does all sorts of unspeakable things to young women and children in private.
• Doesn't Trust Those Guys: Herod's insistent advice to Claudius; Trust no one. His list of people not to trust foreshadows Claudius' various betrayals by the likes of Messalina, Pallas, and Herod himself after he becomes Emperor.
  Herod: Well, just one more piece, then I'm done. Trust no one, my friend, no one. Not your most grateful freedman. Not your most intimate friend. Not your dearest child. Not the wife of your bosom. Trust no one.
  Claudius: No one? Not even you?
• Dramatic Irony:
  • After Caligula "reveals" himself as a god to Claudius, Herod consider this a bad sign. Claudius however is ecstatic as he believes that when senate finds out about Caligula’s insanity they will lock him up and restore the republic .
    Claudius: My friend, this could be the b-best thing that ever happened to us!
  • Caligula saying "Why am I so unlucky today?" on the day of his assassination, January 24, 41 AD, as he plays dice at the games with Claudius.
• Driven to Suicide: Antonia, Claudius's mother, who has grown weary of the corruption and violence engulfing Rome. However, unlike most examples of this trope, she's very matter-of-fact about it; she even lectures Claudius about what he'll need to do after she's died.
• Dying Dream: The final episode ends this way; Claudius first hallucinates most of his deceased family members while sitting in on the senate, and then when he's lying on his bier he and the Cumaean Sibyl have a good laugh over the fact that while Nero and Agrippinilla have burned his memoir, he buried another copy of his book to be found thousands of years later.
• Eats Babies: Caligula doesn't even have the decency to wait until they're born! Thankfully the audience is spared the details, but that blood-curdling scream from offscreen is chilling enough... The scene was originally much more graphic. A shot of Caligula cutting the fetus from Drusilla's womb and swallowing it was recut before transmission, and then deleted completely. It is now lost.
• The Emperor: Four of them.
• "Eureka!" Moment: In "Hail Who?", the Praetorian Guard, concerned that Caligula's assassination will put them out of work, find Claudius hiding behind a curtain. Gratus suggests they make him Emperor, and his sergeant begins to explain why Claudius would be unsuitable... and realises the reasons he is giving make him perfect for the job, at least as far as they're concerned.
  Gratus: (suddenly smirks and points at Claudius with his sword) Why can't we have him for an Emperor?
  Sergeant: What? Old Claudius? Don't be stupid, lad, he's a simpleton, he's... (he grins as he realises a simpleton would be easy for the Praetorian Guard to push around) Oh, I dunno!
  Gratus: It's better than nothing!
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • As horrible as Livia was, even she was disgusted to learn that Caligula had murdered his own father. And she felt genuinely bad about murdering Augustus.
  • The look on Sejanus' face when Caligula brings his great-uncle Tiberius a scroll of perverted drawings as a gift speaks volumes about his private opinion of his Emperor and Caligula.
  • Even arch-pervert Tiberius himself is taken aback when Caligula casually mentions that Macro has happily let Caligula have sex with his wife for the sake of becoming a member of the imperial family's friend. Of course, this is exactly what inspires Tiberius to adopt Caligula as his heir in order to make Rome suffer.
• Everyone Has Standards: Marcus Vinicius is on board with the assassination of Caligula. However, he is against killing the rest of the Imperial Family, and demands that only Caligula should die. Cassius appears to agree, but as soon as Marcus leaves, he admits to his fellow assassin, Sabinus, that he still intends to eliminate the entire Imperial Family.
• Evil Laugh:
  • Livia gets an epic one at the end of "Poison is Queen". Starts here.
  • Tiberius gets one in "Waiting in the Wings", after finding out Lucius is dead. The courier who delivered the news is quite shocked.
• Evil Matriarch:
  • Livia bumped off at least half a dozen of her own family members— and those who remained alive were usually made quite miserable by her.
  • Agrippinilla poisons Claudius, and the Sibyl tells Claudius as he is dying that she and Nero between them will also kill off his children by Messalina, Britannicus and Octavia, and his freedmen, Pallas (who was in on his murder) and Narcissus.
• Evil Nephew:
  • Caligula inspired this trope.
  • His sister Agrippinilla is an evil niece.
  • Agrippinilla's son Nero is Claudius' evil great-nephew (and eventual successor).
• The Exile: At different times, Tiberius, Agrippa, Postumus, and Julia.
• Face Death with Dignity: When the Praetorian Guard show up with a signed execution warrant for Messalina, her mother, Domitia, who has long since realised that her daughter's scheming would end this way, urges her to take the dignified way out by killing herself with an offered dagger. Unfortunately, Messalina cannot bring herself to carry out the act, and she is decapitated by the guards.
• Finish Him!: Livilla says exactly this at the gladiator games in "What Shall We Do About Claudius?".
• 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.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Livia gives an early hint of how public opinion will eventually turn against Sejanus:
    Sejanus: (About Germanicus) Well, if he's profoundly loved, he's also profoundly dead. Everybody's loved when they're dead.
    Livia: I wouldn't count on that if I were you.
  • After hearing a prophecy that Claudius will become protector of Rome, young Livilla hopes aloud that she'll be dead by the time it happens. Her mother, in response, angrily sends her to bed without supper. This not only foreshadows the fact that Livilla will die before Claudius becomes emperor, but also her method of execution— her mother locks her up in her room and forcibly starves her to death. It's also hinted at when her lover Sejanus, annoyed with her, threatens to lock her in a room with no clothes so that he or his guards will ravish her on a daily basis. He got the first part right...
  • Claudius and Caligula discuss the story of Zeus removing his unborn child from Metis' body and swallowing it, because it was prophesied that his child would grow up to become more powerful than him. Later, Caligula, believing himself to be Zeus, re-enacts the scene with his pregnant sister-wife Drusilla, with predictable results.
• Friendly Address Privileges: Castor, the nickname by which Drusus Julius Caesar is commonly known, invokes this with Sejanus in "Some Justice".
  Sejanus: Ah, Castor, how nice to see you.
  Castor: I'm Castor to my friends, Sejanus.
• From My Own Personal Garden: Augustus treats his stomach ailments with figs he grew himself. This backfires.
• Generational Saga: The series tells the story of four generations of the Julio-Claudian dynasty from 24 BCE to 54 CE.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: In the first episode, Livia slaps Julia to snap her out of her breakdown after the death of Julia's husband Marcellus.
• The Ghost: Caligula's youngest sister, Julia Livilla, called Lesbia in the book, is mentioned a few time in conjunction with her sisters, (Drusilla and Agrippinilla, who do make appearances), as being involved with degenerate behavior (including incest with Caligula), but never actually appears, except possibly as a background character in the brothel scene. Her husband, however, Marcus Vinicius, does appear several times, and is mentioned as being married to Caligula's sister, though the series never actually mentions the woman's name. The one time Lesbia is mentioned apart from her sisters is when Marcus asks Caligula to spare him for his sister's sake, to which Caligula flies into an ever greater rage and calls her a whore.
• Gilligan Cut: At the beginning of "Hail Who?", Caligula has asked Claudius to take the money at the door of the brothel he has set up in the Imperial palace; Claudius categorically states that he wants nothing to do with the enterprise. Cut to the next scene, in which Claudius is taking money from a customer at the brothel.
• A God Am I:
  • Caligula believes that he's the mortal manifestation of Jove, though he prefers the Greek version Zeus a bit more. He also comes to believe that he's the Jewish messiah.
  • "And his sister Drusilla's become a goddess. Any questions?"
  • Played with by Livia: In her mind, she needs to be declared a goddess, since all the horrible things she's done have guaranteed her to an eternity of punishment in the Afterlife. Unless she's promoted to goddess, of course. You almost pity her when Caligula sneeringly denies her dying wish. On her deathbed, no less. Siân Phillips is a really, really good actress. Fortunately for her, Claudius pities her enough to grant her wish once he becomes emperor.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: While no one tops Livia, every empress aside from Caligula's wife Caesonia.

• The Good Chancellor: Claudius' freemen, especially Narcissus. They might or might not count as evil (they were ruthlessly protective of their man, after all), but they were loyal to Claudius.
• Good Republic, Evil Empire: Played less straight than the viewer might at first expect. While our hero Claudius is a devout believer in the Republic and a Decadent Court is in full swing, the actual senators we meet are in many cases corrupt, weak or even outright murderous (Claudius himself even delivers an epic speech trashing them when he becomes Emperor, pointing out that their precedessors are the ones who handed over power to the Julio Claudian dynasty in the first place.)
• Grapes of Luxury: More than once.
• Gratuitous German: Caligula's German bodyguards speak (modern) German, and apparently their Latin isn't up to much.
  (as the Praetorian Guard are proclaiming Claudius Emperor, the German bodyguards, who believe Claudius was one of Caligula's assassins, enter the throne room)
  German: (pointing at Claudius) Das ist eine! Durch komm!^note  "That's one! Come through!" (pushes through the Praetorian guards)
  Gratus: Just a minute, Herrmann! (grins and points at Claudius) That's our new Emperor. (no reaction from the German) Kaiser. (no reaction) EMPEROR.
  German: (amused disbelief) Ja??
  Gratus: (sarcastically) Ja.
• Happily Married:
  • Weirdly enough, Augustus and Livia until just before the end. Even though Livia was constantly plotting things behind his back and ultimately killed him, they lived together for fifty years in a time and place where divorce was extremely common and genuinely cared for each other.
  • Tiberius and Vipsania, before politics forced them to divorce.
  • Marcellus and Julia, before he died.
  • Drusus and Antonia were like this before he died.
  • Germanicus and Agrippina were very much in love... before he died. Seeing a pattern here?
• Have You Told Anyone Else?: Played with. Pallas asks this of Justus after Justus informs him of Messalina's adulteries. It turns out that, unlike the way this trope usually plays out, Justus has told someone else, and that is what dooms him. He told his commanding officer, who happens to be one of Messalina's intimates. Messalina has him executed.
• The Hedonist: Julia.
• Henpecked Husband: Augustus may be the most powerful man in Rome, but he's barely able to control what goes on within his own household and is constantly badgered and exploited by his wife Livia.
• Heroic BSoD: Augustus has a huge breakdown when he finds out how many men have slept with his daughter. He has another when he learns that three legions under the command of Varus have been massacred in Germany.
• High-Class Cannibal: Caligula might be despised by everyone, but he is still the third emperor of Rome. He impregnates his sister, Drusilla, and eats the fetus. However, in opposition to Kill the Poor, Caligula does this because he fears the child will be more powerful than him (with the implication that he may believe he's absorbing the fetus's power by consuming it).
• Historical Domain Character: Almost all of them.
• Historical Downgrade: The real Augustus was a brilliant statesman and military leader. He's considered by many to be Rome's greatest emperor and is certainly one of the most successful monarchs of all time. In the series, however, he's presented as a gullible, overly emotional Bumbling Dad who is merely a puppet dancing on the strings of his wife. She even claims that she had to make all of his decisions for him.
• Historical Hero Upgrade:
  • While Claudius wasn't quite the idiotic Jerkass that contemporary historians portrayed him as, he probably wasn't quite as cuddly as Derek Jacobi's portrayal either. Of course, the books' (and show's) conceit is that it's Claudius's secret memoir. Not surprising he comes off well. The series highlights Claudius' intellectual pursuits and achievements—he was a legitimate historian and got into hot water with his family for an early work on the civil war that made Augustus emperor (Claudius had been more honest than flattering). Read between the lines, and basically his story is: He let his wives and freedmen manipulate him, he judicially murdered lots of people (including some close relatives) on the flimsiest of evidence, he handed Rome over to a psychotic—but he meant well! Frighteningly, the real Claudius had a habit of getting blackout drunk and ordering the deaths of friends who'd done something to get on his nerves. Then he'd sober up, forget he'd done it, and ask to see them.
  • None of the ancient historians had anything good to say about the real Postumus, who was described as brutish, violent and lacking any redeeming features. He ended up being banished from Rome by Augustus for reasons now unknown; whatever it was, Augustus stationed an entire guard on the island with him just to make sure he never escaped, and, nearing the end of his life, ordered him executed. Yet here he is portrayed as an amiable young man and friend of Claudius, and the unfortunate victim of Livia's machinations to ensure Tiberius would succeed Augustus.
• Historical In-Joke:
  • Don't worry about that Jewish messiah, that's going nowhere.
  • Nero looks at a burning page and remarks, "What a pretty thing a fire is," referring to the burning of Rome that occurred in his reign (and during which he supposedly fiddled).
• Historical Relationship Overhaul:
  • Caligula and his sister, Drusilla are married, and they even have a baby, whom Caligula, along with its mother, kills prematurely, and eats it akin to Jove. It's heavily disputed whether they had an incestous relationship in reality, and the latter part certainly didn't happen.
  • Agrippinilla (called Agrippina the Younger in Real Life), seduces her son, Nero, after his wife doesn't want to sleep with him. This didn't happen in Real Life.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Somewhat justified, as the author was using contemporary accounts that were all slanted to gain favor with various Emperors.
  • Caligula is the most obvious example of this. The historical Caligula comes across as a neurotic, insecure, and cruel young man who was a product of both his difficult background and mental illness, probably brought on by the considerable pressures of office. The Caligula portrayed in I, Claudius, however, is basically just evil from the word go. Some of the worst things he does in the TV series, such as the horrible murder of his sister and making his horse a senator, are straight-up fiction.
  • In all likelihood, the real Livia was not a scheming mastermind and never poisoned anyone.
  • Similarly, the real Tiberius was probably not a serial-rapist pedophile who used his position to prey on senators' wives, just an elderly alcoholic and traumatized war vet who tired of Roman politics and retired to Capri to remove himself from them as much as possible.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Calpurnia, one of the few people Claudius truly trusts.
• Hope Spot: In "Poison is Queen," Augustus finally begins to realize Livia's conspiracy and reconciles with Posthumus so they can prevent Tiberius from becoming the new emperor. Unfortunately, Livia poisons Augustus and then has Sejanus assassinate Posthumus, allowing Tiberius to ascend to the throne.
• Hypocritical Humor: Caligula —"People really are despicable."

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