This page is for tropes that have appeared in I, Claudius (the series, not the novels).
For the rest:
- Really Gets Around:
- IS THERE ANYONE IN ROME WHO HAS NOT SLEPT WITH MY DAUGHTER?!![Julia]
- Messalina takes this to absurd levels. She triumphs over a whore named Scylla in a mano-a-mano day-long sexual contest.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- The page quote is from a speech Claudius delivers to the senate when they refuse to recognize him as emperor, and he agrees with them, but he can't help pointing out that the senate spinelessly handed over power in the past and it wouldn't be unlikely for them to do it again, even though he's fully in support of them restoring the Roman Republic.
- Narcissus delivers one to Messalina when her many adulteries and bigamous marriage to Silius are exposed to Claudius.(Messalina enters the Imperial palace with her mother, Domitia, and her children Britannicus and Octavia)
Messalina: Where is he? Where is my husband!?
Narcissus: (blocking her path to Claudius' study) He... doesn't wish to see you.
Messalina: (looks momentarily unnerved, but suppresses it) Out of my way, you Greek! You dare stand between me and my husband?
Narcissus: (disgusted) Which husband, you whore!? Which one!?
Messalina: Out of my way! (begins grappling with Narcissus, trying to force him aside) Get out of my way! Let me go! LET ME GO!
Pallas: (to the Praetorian guards) Get her out of here, get her out of here!
Messalina: (screams as she is restrained by the guards) LET ME SEE HIM! CLAUDIUS!!
Domitia: How dare you stop her! She is the Emperor's wife and the mother of his children!
Narcissus: (pushes Domitia aside) But is he the father? (to Messalina) Who knows whose litter they are!
Messalina: Liar... LIAR!!
Narcissus: (shows her a scroll) Here's a list of your adulteries, d'you want to read it!? Hundreds! (Pallas pulls him away; as they pass Domitia, Narcissus turns to her angrily) And you call her a mother!? (Pallas pulls him away again) Take her home, let her wait there. (Messalina is led off screaming)
- Reassigned to Antarctica: This happens a lot. Some do it voluntarily to get away from Rome and certain family members, though others have no choice. After her scandal, Julia is sent to the remote Italian island of Pandateria, and is not heard from again.note
- Red Right Hand: Inverted, since the limping, twitching, stammering Claudius is portrayed as one of the few decent people in the entire family, and most of his able-bodied relatives are unstable, scheming, murdering bastards.
- Reluctant Ruler: Claudius. Tiberius was fairly reluctant about the role his mother planned for him, too. The power went to his head pretty quickly, though.
- Replacement Scrappy: An in-universe example: Tiberius and Claudius name someone worse than themselves so that they wouldn't be remembered so harshly; Augustus and Caligula weren’t really in a position to choose before they died.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder:Senator: You are not fit to be Emperor!
Claudius: I agree. But nor was my nephew.
Senator: So what difference is there between you?
Claudius: He would not have agreed. And by now your head would be on the floor for saying so. - Royally Screwed Up: To say the least.
- Sarcastic Confession: "Oh, I care very much whether he lives or dies." Livia, of course.
- Scream Discretion Shot: Done several times. (The first two cut for American audiences.)
- When Macro orders the rape and murder of Sejanus' daughter, which we never see but only hear her scream.
- Caligula's attempted abortion on his sister's baby where we only see a bit of blood around Caligula's face when he leaves the room and Claudius' reaction to what he sees.
- When the conspirators burst in on Caesonia and she realises they mean to kill her and her daughter, she's dragged off-screen and we hear her wailing as she's stabbed to death, while another soldier stabs the baby in the crib — thankfully also out of shot.
- Self-Deprecation: There is a lengthy conversation in the first episode about why invading Britain would be trivially easy but not worth it because there's nothing to find there, all spoken in the Queen's English, naturally.
- Seppuku: What Roman Generals (like Quinctilius Varus of the "WHERE ARE MY EAGLES!" fame) were expected to do after losing battles. Another form of ritual suicide (by opening a vein) was also available to people facing political disgrace, or to people who had simply grown tired of life. In general, an honorable death-by-suicide could save everyone a lot of trouble—for example, a condemned traitor would usually forfeit his property, leaving his family destitute. (Of course, when doing this, it's always handy to have one's treacherous wife standing by to gut-stab you should you chicken out at the last minute...) When Claudius's freedman trick 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.
- Smug Snake: Sejanus.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Whilst Liva reigns supreme in verbal combat. Everyone else snipes away at each other.
- So Bad, It's Good: In-universe, it's implied Claudius sees Caligula's performance as the Goddess of the Dawn like this. Caligula's make-up in this scene is truly awful. In an interview, John Hurt explained that he did the make-up himself rather than relying on the make-up department, on the grounds that, since he had no idea how to put it on, he would make a better job of doing it badly than they would.
- So Proud of You: During Claudius' final hallucination, whilst his mother is dismissive of him, Augustus gives him a sincere "Bravo."
- Speech Impediment: Claudius. It improves as he gets older.
- Spit Take: Downplayed. When Livia informs Claudius about Caligula being named Tiberius's successor, you can wine dripping from his mouth as he's trying to keep his composure.
- Spiteful Spit: Agrippina to Tiberius in Episode 8.
- Springtime for Hitler: When seeking favor from Caligula, do not tell him you've offered your life to the gods in place of his if he gets sick. He may decide to take you at your word when he recovers.
- Start of Darkness: At the start of the series, Tiberius hates the lack of respect he receives from Augustus, but would rather just be left alone with his loving wife then enter politics. When he's forced to divorce his wife to fulfill his mother's ambitions for him, he's got nothing left in his life and becomes a monster.
- Stealth Insult: Claudius sometimes engages in these around Caligula, who is generally too vain to notice them.
- When Caligula asks Claudius if he thinks he is mad, Claudius answers, "Mad? Why, Your Majesty, you set the standard of sanity for the entire world!"
- When Caligula asks Claudius if he liked his bizarre dance performance, Claudius replies, "It was indescribable!"
- Stutter Stop: Claudius:
- "And I said all that w-w-w-without stuttering. Well. Nearly."
- It happens again when he's invited to dine with Livia.
- Suicide Dare: Julia gives one to Livia after being exiled from Rome. It can't get more vicious than that."This is your doing, isn't it? Don't think I don't know. You think you're very clever. You think that by discrediting me, he'll bring your son back from Rhodes. You're so transparent. You want that precious son of yours to follow him when he dies so you can come into your own. But I have two sons, and they both come before yours. So make your mind up to it, Livia. When my father dies, you won't be wanted anymore. So take my advice and climb on the funeral pyre with him!"
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: "Not slept."
- Take Me Instead: When Caligula falls ill, some of his subjects make grandiose public announcements that if Death spares the Emperor, they'll kill themselves in his place. Later, when Caligula gets better, he forces them all to follow through on it.
- Tangled Family Tree: An example of Truth in Television; the convoluted relationships (both through blood and through marriage, not to mention adoption! note ) between all the Julio-Claudians were so complex that a copy of the Julio-Claudian family tree was included in the DVD box-set, available to consult when they watched this series.
- Tempting Fate: When Julia is set to be banished after Augustus finds out about her love affairs, she lets Lydia know that she's well aware the other woman wants Tiberius to be the next emperor, reminding her that "I have two sons! And they both come before yours!" Later on, while still in exile, Tiberius and Thrasyllus get the news that Lucius, Julia's oldest son, is dead...
- Terrible Ticking: Caligula goes mad partly due to the sounds of running horses which only he can hear. Caligula himself claims that, as a god, he hears many things that keep him from sleeping, and that's one reason he acts so strangely.
- This Bed of Rose's: Claudius often stays with a friendly hooker named Calpurnia.
- This Is Unforgivable!: "Rome, you are finished! Finished! You are despicable!" When Book!Claudius narrates himself thinking that, it has the pious air of an Unreliable Narrator. TV!Claudius means it sincerely.
- Too Dumb to Live: Messalina's mother warns Messalina that she is risking her own life. Mom is right.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Apparently Mark Antony became this after his death, as Antonia believes that as his daughter, she is expected to maintain high standards of behavior. Yes, the very same drink-sodden, womanizing, degenerate bankrupt Mark Antony who was such a profitable subject for mockery by Cicero.
- Translation Convention: Latin is generally rendered as English. Some terms are kept in the original Latin, though sometimes these Latin terms are immediately translated by the speaker. The native language of Germanic people is rendered as modern German.
- Traumatic C-Section: Caligula cutting out and eating his and Drusilla's incest baby. No, knowing the context won't help.
- Tranquil Fury: Augustus remains rather cool-headed when he reviews the list of men suspected of sleeping with his daughter, and calmly asks the ones brought before him to "answer the question" even though his face and body language are signaling that he'd like nothing better than execute every one of them. His tranquility fades pretty quickly, though, when he realizes just how many men are standing before him... and these are just the ones that were caught...
- Tricked into Signing: Claudius is tricked by his freedmen into signing Messalina's death warrant. They shove a bunch of mostly innocuous papers at him while he's drunk.
- True Companions: Inverted. Claudius starts at the centre of a network of close friends. As the series progresses, this group dwindles— as characters either die or are exiled— until only Claudius remains.
