History Characters / IClaudius

A list of characters of ''Series/TheWire''.

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Claudius]]
!!Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus
[[quoteright:288:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/derek_jacobi.png]]
->Played by Creator/DerekJacobi.
The protagonist of the series, as well as the narrator. His life is essentially [[TraumaCongaLine one tragedy after another]].
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Used his historical knowledge to win battles and retrieve the last Eagle, and learns to play Caligula like a lyre after Caligula's descent into insanity.
* BeneathSuspicion: The exchange he makes for a life of humiliation is safety from all the snapping and plotting of the palace. In a PoliceState run by Sejanus, Claudius can get a letter to Tiberius unsearched and uncensored because nobody thinks he's even capable of being involved in anything important--and this makes him instrumental in Sejanus' downfall.
* BitCharacter: Is this for the first half of the series from his birth until the rise of Caligula: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that he is chronicling the lives of the people around him and so he stays in the background where he is safe from the intrigue and murder that is the daily life of the imperial family.
* ButtMonkey: He's mistreated, mocked, abused, and humiliated by nearly everyone in his family and those who are decent to him end up dead soon. The term "disappointment" is used to describe him more than a handful of times in the series.
* ClassicalAntiHero: He really doesn't want to be a Hero. He certainly doesn't look or act like one, either. However, when push comes to shove, he always steps up to the plate and does whatever it takes to make things work.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Although it's mostly an act.
* CradleToGraveCharacter: The novels' premise is that the two books were [[DirectLineToTheAuthor an English translation of Claudius' long-lost autobiography]], with the early chapters covering the events before his birth and the last chapter being finished shortly before his death. The second book has an epilogue discussing the circumstances of his death and the subsequent reign of Emperor Nero.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Claudius practically personifies this trope.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: Fully aware his wife was trying to poison him, Claudius accepts the poison in his food and dies a short time later content with his lot of life and happy at the fact the copy of the biography showing all his family's dirty secrets was kept safe and buried after his wife and adopted son Nero tried to destroy the originals.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: A complete subversion. He went from "Uncle Claudius", the joke of the Imperial Family, to a well-respected and beloved Emperor.
* GuileHero: To some extent. While he's not TheChessmaster, during Caligula's reign his ObfuscatingStupidity alone wouldn't have been enough to save him, thanks to Caligula's cask-strength insanity and psychotic urges. Several times he saves his own life, as well as the lives of others around him, by manipulating Caligula with not-inconsiderable skill. He's also a skilled administrator, and manages a long and (mostly) successful reign as Emperor largely due to extreme competence in the face of being loved by almost nobody.
* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Claudius and his desire to restore the Roman Republic, which is also somewhat unhistorical, since at that time there was no distinction made between the Republican and Imperial eras.
* {{Irony}}: Claudius was always a staunch Republican but it was his sane and prosperous reign that reconciled the populace to the idea of monarchy after the excesses of Tiberius and Caligula. By the time Claudius dies, no one alive still yearns for the return of the Roman Republic.
* LonelyAtTheTop: The isolation involved with being a member of such an important family is one of his major problems. Becoming Emperor certainly doesn't help it, either.
* {{Narrator}}: He is the narrator of his own manuscript about the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
* NotSoAboveItAll: A darker version of this trope: Claudius thinks he can remain separate from the murderous schemes absorbing his family. Unfortunately, when Claudius himself comes to power, he finds he must get his own hands dirty in order to survive.
* ObfuscatingDisability: Downplayed. His limp and stutter are both natural, but he learns to exaggerate and, later, invoke them on command. When Livia susses out that he's only been playing a fool, he visibly makes the decision to drop the stutter almost entirely and face her without his disguise.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Something like 80% of the reason that he survives for as long as he does.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: He outlives his son from his first marriage, though this is stated explicitly only in the novel.
* ProperlyParanoid: Claudius is convinced his (last) wife is trying to poison him. Oh, wait. She is.
* ReluctantRuler: He even tried to hide behind curtains to avoid it. The PraetorianGuard as a united body weren't about to let him get away with that...
%%* SpeechImpediment: Though it improves as he gets older.
* StopWorshippingMe: He technically is worshipped as a god, but he sure as hell doesn't want it.
* TookALevelInDumbass: Claudius spends nearly the entire series being secretly one step ahead of everyone around him, surviving by [[ObfuscatingStupidity appearing as weak, stupid and useless as possible]] while they plot and scheme and murder each other for power. Then when he becomes emperor, Messalina manages to successfully deceive, manipulate and use Claudius until his own servants and guards contrive to do away with her because he can't bring himself to order it even after he discovers the truth about her plot to usurp and destroy him. This is because in all his years being viewed (and acting) as the [[TheFool family buffoon]], Claudius had no experience of anyone trying to manipulate ''him'', because nobody ever had anything to gain from him before he was emperor. Nor had Claudius any experience of a woman showing romantic interest in him, so [[TheVamp Messalina]] had little difficulty in wrapping him [[LoveMakesYouDumb around her little finger]]. Later, by the time Claudius marries Agrippina the Younger, he is under no illusion that she is just as bad as Messalina was. By this time, Claudius has SeenItAll to the point that he's so completely bored with her transparent schemes that he lets her pull them off because he no longer cares.
* UglyGuyHotWife: With Messalina. It ends badly.
* UnexpectedSuccessor: When he was born, no one in his family expected him to be eventually crowned Emperor. Many of his relatives who were actually groomed and/or chosen for the role all died young due to intrigue or mishap.
* TheUnfavourite: His mother, Antonia, was always disgusted by him in comparison to Germanicus.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Of the mother-oriented type. He wants his mother's respect, and is hurt by her constant disapproval. Note how devastated he is when he learns that she ordered her lady-in-waiting to carry out her funerary rites, instead of entrusting them to him.
* YouShouldHaveDiedInstead: Claudius' mother lobs this at him after the death of her more accomplished son, Germanicus.
* ZeroApprovalGambit: It's all part of the plan to get Rome thoroughly sick of autocratic rule.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Livia]]
!!Livia Drusilla
[[quoteright:222:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/livia.jpg]]
->Played by Creator/SianPhillips.
Augustus's scheming wife, who is willing to do ''anything'' to ensure that [[MotherMakesYouKing her son gets the throne]].
* AltarDiplomacy: She was pledged by her husband to Augustus in exchange for not killing him off as a political rival during the civil-war. As far as Livia is concerned she traded up for someone with actual principles.
* ALighterShadeOfBlack: As cutthroat evil as she, is she both has principles and places Rome above her own happiness. Tiberius ends up being far worse; And even that is nothing compared to the ball of crazy that is Caligula.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Livia is so laser-focused on clearing a path for her son to rule the (known) world that she never once stops to consider the kind of emperor she is molding her son into. Tiberius does indeed become emperor, and he drags Rome into an age of terror and debauchery.
* BigBad: For about the first half of the series she's the one behind the scenes causing all of the misery, manipulating the various characters, and personally poisoning many of the people around Claudius. By "Queen of Heaven" she's largely fallen out of it as Sejanus and Caligula have swung up into more direct antagonists and she has sunk into a pitiable state.
* BlackWidow: [[spoiler:She poisons Augustus by smearing poison on the figs that he picks himself.]]
* TheChessmaster: Oh, wow: she's a scarily effective bitch on wheels and master plotter, this one.
* DeadpanSnarker: When you can make Augustus want to wince just imagining what you're going to say before you actually say it, you know you're good.
* DidNotThinkThisThrough: In her obsession with destroying any and all obstacles to her son's ascension, she completely neglects grooming him for the position. All of Rome suffers for this mistake.
* TheDreaded: After Augustus's death she stops putting up pretenses and the rumors about her lead to this. Claudius, Herod, and even Tiberius are all terrified to have dinner with her, because people have a habit of falling over dead afterwards. Certainly Claudius frames her as a force to be feared in his memoirs. Even Sejanus, who is planning a coup, is waiting for her to die before he tries anything.
-->'''Tiberius''': They say a snake bit her once... and died.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: She genuinely loves Augustus, if not for his cold-pragmatism ending the Roman Civil-War, then for his constant respect for her, in a society that otherwise has little account for the capabilities of women. You can feel her profound sorrow being in the same room as Augustus's freshly dead body. [[spoiler: She is barely holding back tears when she admits killing him was the hardest thing she ever ''had'' to do.]]
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** As horrible as Livia was, even she was disgusted to learn that Caligula had murdered his own father.
** She felt genuinely bad about murdering [[spoiler: Augustus]].
** She was also thoroughly appalled by her son's decadent behavior.
-->'''Livia''': "I heard about Lollia! Disgusting! Your brother Drusus was worth ''ten'' of you!"
* EvilLaugh: Such that haunts Claudius through his entire life.
* EvilMatriarch: Given her tendencies to have her own family killed or banished if it means Tiberius will become emperor.
* TheExtremistWasRight: Claudius has a great deal of personal hatred for Livia, but Deifies her anyway after being Emperor and learning how much work she did to make everything work.
** With that said, things might have gotten on the right track a lot sooner (and faster) had she bothered to properly groom her son for imperial rule.
* FreudianExcuse: It's implied that a big part of the reason she's so ruthless is because she saw firsthand the instability of the Roman Republic's death throes and is desperate to avoid having to go through them again.
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: She'll do ''anything'' to make sure her lad gets to wear lots of purple. ''Anything''.
* GodhoodSeeker: She believes she is destined to suffer forever after her death in the afterlife and is absolutely terrified of the prospect of eternal torment. To that end, she places her favor on any relative who she is sure will [[DeityOfHumanOrigin deify]] her after they become Emperor since apotheosis wiped away all sins. It's for that reason she places favor on Caligula, even indulging his incestuous loving of her to gain his favor much to Claudius' disgust.
* GruesomeGrandparent: If she has to poison some of her grandchildren to secure Tiberius and her power, she'll do it.
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: In all likelihood, the real Livia was not a scheming mastermind and never poisoned anyone.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Usually [[AvertedTrope no]], but she falls for Claudius's ObfuscatingStupidity hook, line, and sinker. It's not until she's in her death throes that she finally sees through it, and she is utterly amazed (and ''delighted'') to realize that he had pulled the wool over her eyes for so many years and admits that she underestimated him.
* HorrifyingTheHorror: Professional poisoner, Martina, gets particurally worried when she gets a stomach-ache, just after realizing why Livia is so knowledgable about poisons [[NotMeThisTime (it turns out to just be indigestion).]]
* {{Hypocrite}}: A big one, too; She claims to have murdered [[spoiler: Augustus]] because his ‘ridiculous favoritism’ was going to tear the empire apart, but she schemes to get Tiberius, her own son, the throne despite the fact she admits to Claudius he ended up being a subpar ruler who kept screwing things up even ''before'' he became emperor. (She is therefore directly to blame for both Tiberius and Caligula’s reigns) She is also terrified she’s going to burn in hell for what she’s done, and tries to get out of it by having Caligula and Claudius make her a goddess. Which means for all her IDidWhatIHadToDo rhetoric, she’s afraid the gods won’t see it her way and is trying to chicken her way out of the consequences.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Livia ruthlessly manipulates and kills family members and anyone else close to them to ensure her son becomes emperor and Rome does not return to being a republic, convinced this is the only way for the city to remain great.
* IgnoredEpiphany: Admits she was a terrible criminal and person, but decides it was all worth it in the end.
* IWasQuiteALooker: Livilla mentions that she was said to be the most beautiful woman in the world in her youth.
* KillTheOnesYouLove: Say what you will about Livia, as demonstrated during [[spoiler: Augustus']] death, she genuinely loved the man and killed him purely because she felt he was traveling the path of ruin for her nation.
** If her son, Drusus, hadn't died of his wounds after being crushed by a horse, she would have killed him to prevent his devotion to returning Rome to a Republic from ever bearing fruit.
* TheKingslayer: [[spoiler: Livia ends up doing in Augustus by poisoning his figs, though she's not happy about doing so.]]
* ManipulativeBitch: She plays Augustus like a fiddle.
* MasterPoisoner: To the point where a fellow Mistress of the art gets a chance to ''really'' panic at how much she knows. Over lunch.
* MotherMakesYouKing: It's all to make her son emperor.
* MoralityChain: A rare look at a villain version. She has leverage over Tiberius, Caligula and Sejanus which she uses to keep them all from doing anything that would endanger the good of her beloved Rome.
* MyBelovedSmother: To Tiberius.
* NightmareFuelStationAttendant / VillainsOutShopping : As seen when we are shown her and professional poisoner, Martina, having supper and casually discussing poisoning techniques in the same tone one would use to discuss fashion.
* NoodleIncident: She briefly references how there was only one woman in the empire more beautiful and cunning than her, but she was in Egypt. For history buffs this is a reference to her first husband being one of the senators woed by Cleopatra, but we are giving no context in-film.
* NotMeThisTime: She had nothing to do with the deaths of Drusus and Germanicus (The former dying of his wounds and the latter poisoned by Plancina), but admits that she probably would have killed them eventually.
* OffingTheOffspring: She's not afraid to prune a few of her family tree's branches if she suspects they'll end up a hindrance to her grander ambitions.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: She outlives her son Drusus by nearly 40 years. She also outlives her grandsons Germanicus and Castor.
* PatrioticFervor: She will do anything, ''A N Y T H I N G'', to protect the legacy of Rome.
* PetTheDog:
** In her last conversation with Claudius, Livia realizes that his bumbling demeanor is a complete facade and compliments him on it.
** As shown in the scene with professional poisoner, Martina, Livia is willing to hide Martina from the law, as little more than professional courtesy for a fellow poisoner.
* RulingCouple: She may not have any official positional power, but Augustus saw her as capable enough to give her enough power and influence to effectively be his co-ruler wife.
* SarcasticDevotee: To Augustus. Despite her ultimate plans, she did love the man, she just never indulged him.
* SecretKeeper: She walked in on Caligula and Drusilla's BrotherSisterIncest and uses this as leverage to make him do what she wants. She stops short of outright confirming what she saw to Claudius but he quickly figures it out.
* SilkHidingSteel: Livia is just as capable of ending a life as anyone August ever served in the army with, the difference is she will do it with concern in her voice.
* TraumaButton: A Roman Republic - So much as mention the idea of Rome returning to a republic and she gets flash-backs to just barely surviving the civil war to "turn Rome into a republic", AKA a bunch of greedy senators, including her ex-husband, all vying to be the new Emperor. This is also why she is willing to kill ''anyone'' to who would make a return to a republic even a slight possibility.
* VetinariJobSecurity: Aside from just loving her, Livia’s propensity for handling state busy-work is what keeps her as something closer to Vice-Caesar than a TrophyWife. Tiberius, Caligula and Sejanus are all kept from killing or exiling her based on the dirt she has over them and how innovative she can be against those who turn on her.
* VillainRespect:
** She sees Augustus as true gods' send for Rome.
** Once she realizes Claudius has been exaggerating his stammer and clumsiness, she reforms her view of him to that of high respect for having been able to fool her with ObfuscatingStupidity for most of his life.
** When she meets Claudius for dinner, he accepts several glasses of wine from her in spite of her reputation as a serial poisoner. Though Caligula mocks him for it, Livia appreciates the gesture as a sign of respect and Claudius displaying an implicit trust in her to not poison him.
* VisionaryVillain: Livia never wants Rome to fall into civil-war again, she is willing to kill anyone/everyone who would topple the monarchy Augustus established to give Rome order. [[spoiler: Including Augustus himself.]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: In both his memoirs, and his speech before the Senate in favor of her deification, Claudius owns that she was an utterly heartless bitch, but heartlessness can be a divine quality if it's applied towards a genuine concern for the good of the state; throughout her life, Claudius acknowledges, she worked twice as hard as Augustus, appointed the most honest and qualified men as provincial governors and generals (ignoring less-qualified candidates who tried to curry favor with her), and saw eliminating any of Tiberius's rivals to the succession as the best way of keeping the Empire stable after the destructive civil wars. Her one blind spot was that her heartlessness also stamped out whatever shreds of good Tiberius had in him, and ensured that his rule, while relatively stable for the Empire as a whole, would be a nightmare for the city itself.
* WhamLine: It is left ambiguous what happened to Augustus until just before leaving Tiberius alone in the room with Augustus's body she coldly gives him a warning - making things horrifically clear to the audience.
-->'''Livia''': "Oh, by the way... '''Don't touch the figs'''."
* WickedStepmother: She slowly and methodically has Augustus's relatives murdered or otherwise removed from succession to pave the way for her own son Tiberius to eventually take the Imperial mantle. (Livia and Augustus never had any children together.)
* YouKilledMyFather: In the novel, when Claudius asks her if she felt any guilt over poisoning [[spoiler:Augustus]], she replies that she never forgot (or forgave) that her father, Claudian, was proscribed by the Second Triumvirate during the civil war and killed himself to avoid capture and execution.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Augustus]]
!!UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}} Caesar
[[quoteright:240:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/augustus_brian_blessed_1.jpg]]
->Played by Creator/BrianBlessed.
The Emperor of Rome at the start of the series, a good-natured man who ends up getting manipulated by his wife Livia.
* AdiposeRex: If Nero is the largest of the Julio-Claudian emperors, then Augustus is the second largest.
* AltarDiplomacy: Augustus agreed not to kill Tiberius Claudius Nero, a rival during the Roman civil-war, in exchange for divorcing and giving up his wife to him. Livia was very happy to be re-married to the man who ended the civil-war her ex-husband helped start.
* AGodIAmNot: Like Claudius, he never really wanted to be called a god in the first place.
* TheAtoner: When he finally faces facts about Livia, he does his best to stop her plans and make things up with Postumus.
* BenevolentBoss: We see he treats his soldiers, generals and statesmen quite well and rewards loyalty.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Even though he's a benevolent man overall, angering him is... unwise, to say the least. There are ''very'' good reasons he ended up the final victor in the Late Republic's power struggles.
* ConfirmationBias: [[invoked]] Indulges in it. Almost anything Tiberius does, deserved or not, becomes another reason Augustus dislikes him. Rather than recognize Livia's suspicious actions, he blames ''himself'' for the piling bodies of his heirs.
* DiesWideOpen: In his final moments his eyes grow steadily wider as a combination of dying with his eyes open, and realizing his wife's motivations. It is anyone's guess when in her speech to him he actually died, though she does close them for him.
* DramaticIrony: Often thinks people like Agrippa, Tiberius, and Postumus are attempting to manipulate him to reach their goals. It never occurs to him Livia might be doing the same. In his defense, though, Livia played the part of a model wife to the hilt around him. He never had a ''reason'' to suspect her.
* FamilyMan: Deeply loves his daughter and wife.
* {{Foil}}: To Claudius, eventually. Both sought to maintain peace and happiness for Rome, hoping to transform it to a Republic. Yet Claudius becomes cynical, paranoid, and despised, while Augustus spends most of his life naive, yet beloved by Rome.
* TheGoodKing: He is certainly the most beloved of all the emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. He is kind and just, and even says that he is not a true king because he has no divine mandate to rule.
* HeartbrokenBadass: The look on Augustus' face when he realizes he has been [[spoiler: poisoned]] by his wife, is one of utter heartbreak rather than anger.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: He managed to spend 5 decades married to Livia without figuring what kind person she was.
* KnightTemplarParent: Spreading rumors about his daughter irritates him, But, Olympus help you, if you hit her, he will go into a murderous rage, kept in check only by his wife.
* LargeHam: Not as much as the typical Creator/BrianBlessed role, but he has his moments.
* LoveAtFirstSight: Reportedly Augustus fell in love with Livia at first seeing her when he went to confront her husband and his rival, Tiberius Claudius Nero, but agreed to spare him in exchange for divorcing Livia and presenting her to him. Livia was very happy with the situation.
* LoveRuinsTheRealm: Strongly implied at first, ultimately inverted: A good many of Augustus's friends and family wind up dead because of his beloved wife. But as shown after Augustus's death, those deaths were actually Livia's way of keeping the empire together. His wife tore his life apart specifically to preserve the realm.
* MyGirlIsNotASlut: A parental/daughter example. Augustus had affairs with his ex-wife a few times after remarrying and sees it as nothing more than an innocent fling, however he is utterly disgusted by the implication his daughter from said marriage would be a whore... does not take it well when he finds out the rumors are true.
* MenActWomenAre: Deliberately averts the trope. Despite how most men of the time would assign Livia as a trophy-wife, Augustus treats Livia more like his vice-Caesar for how capable she is.
* NiceToTheWaiter: Though the he thoroughly dominates the Senate, he tends to treat them as respected statesman. Even though he functionally is the reason they can't have a Senate run republic, most of the senators feel if they have to have a tyrant in charge, at-least Augustus treats them well.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: His grandsons and adopted sons Gaius and Lucius meet their ends before him, prompting him to adopt Tiberius.
* PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny: Offcially he's no emperor, he's just "first citizen", he however controls Rome with an Iron Fist. The reason he is so beloved is because he just happens to be a very reasonable tyrant.
* PetTheDog: Gives Claudius the respect he deserves after Claudius reveals Livia's plots and proves he's not a moron.
* PullTheTriggerProvocation: Maintain treaties and alliances with him, and he is a jovial pleasant guy, break treaties or openly attack him, and he will dedicate all his power to making you wish you never crossed him.
* PragmaticHero: He is heavily concerned with the happiness of his citizens, and while he may come off as just that nice, it is more to do with public relations.
* ProperlyParanoid: Learns from the last 50 years of tragedy and refuses to eat anything touched by another human. [[ForegoneConclusion This still doesn't save him]]. Livia poisoned figs he personally picked while they were still on the tree.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Flaws aside, he's a good ruler who genuinely wanted to lead Rome to a Republic. He makes several compromises and out-right allowances for many people (excluding Tiberius). Despite 50 years of marriage, he believes Germanicus' suspicions of Livia, even knowing that Germanicus' source is ''Claudius''.
* RambunctiousItalian: He is Roman and practically a patron of Italy, that said he wears his heart on his sleeve, and you ''really'' don't want to make him your enemy.
* RetiredMonster: Affable father of the nation by the time we see him. But the path of bodies to get there was long and winding. He occasionally alludes to what it took to get to the top.
* RulingCouple: After marrying Livia and reforging the Roman empire, Augustus learn to rely on her as something of an unoffical co-ruler wife.
* SkilledButNaive: Augustus is a decorated war-veteran, commander and a well loved ruler. Alas, he seems very easily won over by those pretending to be his friend/love.
* SkywardScream: During one of the most Brian Blessed moments, at the late-general who lost three of his legions to the Germans.
-->'''Augustus''': Quinctilius Varus, '''WHERE ARE MY EAGLES!'''.
* ThisMeansWar!: Literally, in the case of the Germans ambushing his legions.
* WantedASonInstead: Sort of; he deeply, deeply loves his daughter, Julia, but the fact that despite years of trying he never had another child, or more specifically a son, puts Augustus in an awkward position for who to make an heir.
* YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry: Normally he acts like someone's lovable uncle, however piss him off and he will utterly destroy you. We see exactly what he is capable of when Tiberius strikes his daughter, and Germany attacks his legions; Augustus not gutting Tiberius is only because he is his stepson, the Germans, on the other hand...
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Antonia]]
!!Antonia
[[quoteright:260:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/antonia_margarettyzack.jpg]]
->Played by Margaret Tyzack.
Claudius's mother, and one of the few "moral" people in Rome. Though how sane she is is rather questionable.
* AbusiveParent: Even in his own hallucinations Claudius isn't free from her constant degradation.
-->''(during Claudius' hallucination in the Senate)'' "And your nose is still running, Claudius. It's still running."
* DeathByDespair: Discussed. Before she commits suicide, Antonia confesses to Claudius that of all the tragedies in her life, her killing her villainous daughter, Livilla, was the worst of them all; lamenting that she should have died then.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Her constant moralizing may seem haughty, but by Roman standards, she really ''is'' morally quite upright: she's a devoted wife, pious, thrifty, firm but benevolent to her slaves[[labelnote:Note]]before she dies, she makes Claudius swear to treat them well in return for their faithful service to her[[/labelnote]], and she tries to instill proper Roman values in her children.
* DrivenToSuicide: It's okay, though. For Romans, this is an honorable choice, and she's rather matter-of-fact about it when she tells Claudius what she's going to do. Everyone she loved most is dead, she unwittingly raised and then deliberately killed a traitorous daughter, and thanks to Tiberius and Caligula there is no more pride in being a Roman--so she's leaving.
* EveryoneHasStandards: She's an unpleasant person but even she was quite disgusted with Sejanus' ex-wife Apicata's bemoaning over Sejanus not allowing her to see her children, stating she knew what type of monster Sejanus was when Apicata married him and is only complaining that Sejanus was treating her the same way she was content to see Sejanus treat everyone else.
* HappilyMarried: Though they're not onscreen for very long it's clear she and Drusus had a very loving relationship. Antonia even follows him to his deployment in Germany.
* HolierThanThou: She's an exemplary model of Roman piety -- and she makes sure everyone knows it.
* {{Hypocrite}}: When things start going seriously down the drain she starts criticizing everyone around her for not having the courage to kill Caligula. At no point does she even contemplate the notion that she might give it a try.
* FamousAncestor: She's the daughter of Mark Antony and takes great pride in it; in direct defiance of the fact that a) she never knew him and b) Augustus ''also'' takes great pride in having soundly defeated him.
* KickTheDog: Treats Claudius like dirt throughout the series. Even when she reveals her plan to commit suicide to him, she makes sure to remind him how much of a disappointment he remains to her despite his disabilities not being his fault.
* MyGreatestFailure: Comes to see the way Livilla turned out as this.
* NiceToTheWaiter: One of her last requests to Claudius is to take care of her slaves for her, as they had been very loyal.
* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler:Locks Livilla in her bedroom to starve to death after learning of her role in Sejanus' plot.]]
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: She outlives her son Germanicus and daughter Livilla, the latter of which died at her hand. She also outlives her grandsons Nero, Drusus, and Gemellus.
* ParentalFavouritism: Germanicus is obviously her favorite. She doesn't even seem to like Livilla all that much, even before Livilla becomes her grandmother's pet.
* PetTheDog:
** When Livilla is scornful about the prophecy that Claudius will become Rome's protector, and cruelly says she hopes she'll be dead before then, Antonia angrily sends her to bed without supper.
** She's dismissive of Apicata's pleas for her children as Apicata was fine with Sejanus's atrocities so long as she wasn't directly affected. Yet she does still speak on Apicata's behalf to Livilla; Apicata's love of her children resonating with her on some level.
* RightlySelfRighteous: Antonia holds her moral compass above everyone else's head and constantly rants about the failings of society and other people not living up to her standards. Antonia's piety also plays into it and she often comes across as HolierThanThou. That said, Antonia's morals compass is more often than not fairly accurate and she does her part to try and fight against the more evil characters in the series.
* SoapboxSadie: Is constantly bemoaning how Rome is going down the toilet.
* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Ultimately takes this view of herself. [[spoiler:She commits suicide to protest Caligula's debauched reign.]]
* TookALevelInJerkass: In her earlier appearances and during her scenes with Julia, Antonia comes off as a fairly friendly person. However, Drusus's death destroyed almost all the good in her and reduced her to a hateful wreck.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Livilla]]
!!Livilla
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/livilla.jpg]]
->Played by Creator/PatriciaQuinn.
Claudius's sister, who treats him with nothing but contempt. Becomes romantically involved, to the point of obsession, with Sejanus.
* BlackWidow: [[spoiler:She poisons her husband Castor so that she can be closer to Sejanus.]]
* ClingyJealousGirl: She is willing to murder her own family if it meant getting closer to Sejanus.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler:She gets locked in her room by her mother Antonia and starves to death.]]
* HateSink: A gratingly smug woman who takes pleasure in emotional cruelty and is without any moments of genuine kindness or decency. She eventually evolves into an outright monster, and attempts to murder her own family members before being killed herself. No one is shown to even slightly miss her after her death.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:She tries to kill her daughter, but instead is killed by her own mother.]]
* ItsAllAboutMe: The lengths she will go to in order to marry Sejanus are truly staggering.
* KickTheDog: While Livilla has committed her share of misdeeds, there was usually a reason, if an unsympathetic one. She set up Postumus because Livia blackmailed her and she killed Castor to be with Sejanus. However her attemptpoisoning of Helen, her daughter, was largely done out of spite that she was to be paired off with Sejanus. There was no real benefit to the act beyond showing how petty and obsessed she had become. She makes sure that the last thing Castor sees as he dies is her and Sejanus embracing in front of him, wordlessly conveying their joy in his demise. Even if they needed to kill him in order to marry, that was a low blow.
* KissingCousins: She is married to her cousin Castor, who is also Tiberius' son.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: She was never a sympathetic character, but she becomes completely depraved after falling in love with Sejanus.
* MeaningfulName: Livilla means "Little Livia." She imagines herself to be another master of court intrigue like her grandmother. However, she lacks her grandmother’s intelligence, discipline, or discretion, and her shortcomings as a schemer prove fatal.
* MurderTheHypotenuse: Her motive for trying to kill [[spoiler:Helen]].
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Her careless disposal of her letter drafts to Sejanus allows them to be recovered by her mother Antonia. The recovery of this evidence causes Sejanus' downfall.
* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler:She tries to poison her daughter Helen when Tiberius arranges for Helen to marry Sejanus. Livilla suffers this fate herself when Antonia discovers her plans.]]
* ParentalNeglect: She is a rotten mother to her children, [[spoiler:even when she isn’t trying to poison them.]]
* PowerDynamicsKink: With Sejanus. He tells her to play ball and not give them both away, and threatens to lock her in a room with no clothes so that he or his guards will ravish her on a daily basis. Livilla is especially turned on by this "threat".
* SmugSnake: She’s hubristic, rude, selfish, manipulative, jealous, and amoral, but is ultimately too impulsive and sloppy to outwit anyone but the most naive characters.
* VillainousBreakdown: She suffers these repeatedly when she can’t have Sejanus to herself and becomes a sobbing wreck when Antonia finally punishes her for her crimes.
* {{Yandere}}: After falling in love with Sejanus, she will do absolutely anything to marry him. Including murdering her own husband and daughter.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Germanicus]]
!!Germanicus Julius Caesar
[[quoteright:208:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/germanicus.jpg]]
->Played by David Robb.
Claudius's brother, and one of the few people to treat him with any compassion at all. He is eventually murdered by his son.
* AFatherToHisMen: Like his father and grandfather, he shares in the hardships of the soldiers under his command.
* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: A rare male example of this trope; blond-haired and admired by all as a virtuous hero of the German front. His children are all inversions (either good but dark-haired or blonde but evil).
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: The only people who don't like him are almost inevitably complete douchebags who want him dead out of spite.
* NiceGuy: One of the only examples in the series. Germanicus is a friendly and upstanding man liked by just about everyone who meets him. This is part of the reason why [[GreenEyedMonster Tiberius resents him so much.]]
* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Caligula]]
!!Emperor UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}} (Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus)
[[quoteright:284:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/caligula2.jpg]]
->Played by Creator/JohnHurt.
Claudius's insane nephew, and the third emperor of Rome.
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: By the end of his reign, he's alienated pretty much everyone in Rome.
* AssholeVictim: Nobody, save his German Guard, are saddened by his murder. The Praetorians who were not part of the assassination are more angry over potentially losing their comfy jobs than having any love for the man. Claudius admits to the main instigator, Cassius Chaerea, that he bears the latter no grudge for killing his nephew (but still orders his execution for killing Caligula's wife and child along and planning to kill Claudius and Messalina, who had done no wrong to Cassius).
%%* AxCrazy: To say the very least...
* BaitTheDog: Both In and Out of Universe.
** From the perspective of the Senate and Rome at least. He starts by making up for Tiberius' mistakes and honoring his father. Within five minutes, they're proven just how wrong for the job he is.
** To the audience he is initially introduced as Agripinna's sweet child; then the rest of the episode plays out and we see flashes of the man Caligula's to become, from his bratty nature, sexual advances towards his own sister, and key role in his father's death.
* BaldOfEvil: Well, ''balding''. His hair starts off fine, but towards the end it's visibly thinning up top.
%%* BigBad: Becomes this after [[spoiler:Livia's death]].
* BrotherSisterIncest: With Drusilla. "And you know how I ''love'' my sisters..."
%%* TheCaligula: Well Duh.
* CreepyChild: He becomes partially responsibly for the murder of his father when he was just hitting puberty.
* CreepyCrossdresser: Performed before three utterly baffled men who assumed they were to be murdered.
* EnfantTerrible: Is already a murderer before he even hit puberty.
* EnmityWithAnObject: He declares war on ''the sea''. Because he believes he's Jove, and that Neptune is against him. He wins... somehow, and has his soldiers take several chests of sea shells as spoils of war.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Caligula hated his father but he did seem to have some affection for his mother. When Claudius begs him to try and talk Tiberius out of exiling Caligula's own brothers and mother, Caligula does seem to give thought to helping his mother all the while admitting he doesn't care about whether his brothers die or not. Whether or not Caligula pleaded on her behalf is unclear though Tiberius's hatred of her wouldn't have had him listen anyway.
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: Likes giving Cassius embarrassing codewords to repeat to his fellow guards, because he knows it makes him look stupid. He marries Claudius to a beautiful girl because he thinks and expects it'll make him miserable, and gets very upset when Claudius doesn't seem that bothered. Being miserable is the point, ''dammit!''
* EvilIsPetty: Again and again and again. One of his last actions is giving a beaten gladiator the thumbs-down despite the crowd calling for the gladiator to spared. His reason? He'd lost too much money betting on the guy's fights.
* EvilNephew: Inspired the page and Caligula's actions even provide the page quote.
* EvilSoundsRaspy: Starts off higher pitched, but once he's made emperor and goes ''really'' insane, his voice gets raspier.
* ExpectationLowerer: InUniverse. Tiberius' choice to make him his successor is deconstructed by Livia as a last-ditch attempt to [[DesperatelyCravesAffection get the people to love him]], even if only after he's dead: he expects Caligula to become so cruel, incompetent, and dreaded as Emperor that the Senate and people will actually start to miss the "good old days" of Tiberius's reign. He's right.
* AGodAmI: It eventually becomes incredibly more insane to fellow Romans when Caligula declares himself as Zeus and his wife as Hera, while disowning the Roman God Jove as an imposter. The delusion only becomes worse over time.
* HairTriggerTemper: After going insane.
** After his "glorious" campaign against the god Neptune, Caligula is enraged that the senators did not order a celebration to greet his triumphant return to Rome, replete with with streets covered in flowers and lined with cheering Romans. The senators beg his forgiveness and remind him that he expressly ordered them not to arrange this, as he had made sure everyone knew that defying an order from a god-emperor invited a death sentence. Still, Caligula is deeply hurt and offended that they didn't defy his order and throw a welcoming celebration for him anyway.
** Celebrate the anniversary of the battle of Actium, and he throws a fit. ''Don't'' celebrate it, and he throws a fit. Please don't mention the fact that his grandfather was a commoner.
* TheHedonist: What he is before becoming emperor, mainly interested in sex and food.
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Even the same ancient sources that painted him as a deranged mass-murderer say he wasn't particularly bad before a terrible fever claimed his sanity. While he still goes crazy here, he was already a murderous degenerate even before losing his mind.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Claims to be a man of "natural humility", despite literally declaring himself to be a god.
* ImAHumanitarian: [[spoiler:He cuts out and eats Drusilla's unborn child, fearing that it will become more powerful than him.]]
* InsaneEqualsViolent: Subverted. His violent/psychopathic tendencies are explicitly shown NOT to follow from his psychotic delusions: he's a killer from childhood, but doesn't go mad until after he becomes Emperor years later. Livia and other murderous characters are described as "mad" by other characters, but are not shown as irrational - even Nero, explicitly called "as mad as... Caligula", is clearly nothing of the kind and is actually tame in comparison.
* TheInsomniac: The [[TerribleTicking sounds of horses galloping only he can hear]] cause him to develop trouble sleeping.
* ItAmusedMe: Caligula has some shades of this - he does things like set up the young, beautiful Messalina with unattractive Claudius because he thinks it's funny.
* {{Jerkass}}: Even before going insane, he's a jerk to pretty much everyone in regular conversation.
* KickTheDog: A few minutes before he dies he's at the games, not bothering to watch as he's busy taking Claudius and Marcus to the cleaners, when a gladiator is defeated. The audience start cheering for the guy to be spared, and Caligula gives the thumbs down, apparently just because.
* LargeHam: He is played by Creator/JohnHurt, by the way.
* LaughablyEvil: It's somewhat scary that someone as psychotic and crazy as him could be so funny. Especially when [[spoiler: He invites Claudius and two senators to the palace and makes it sound like an execution threat, waits until the atmosphere reaches nerve shredding levels, only to [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments surprise them with an outlandish cross dressing performance as Dawn]]]]
* LaughingMad: As time goes on, he can become prone to sudden bursts of manic laughing. Joining in is not required.
* LightIsNotGood: As his picture shows, he is very fond of dressing up all in white and often puts on a godly appearance. Don't let it fool you for a second.
* ManipulativeBastard: Right up until he loses all touch with reality as Emperor.
* TheMentallyIll: First it's headaches and the sound of horses galloping only he can hear. His first day as Emperor goes off the rails as he starts zoning out, forgetting what he's already been told, and telling a story about how he was hearing voices as a child, when he wanted to murder his father, as if this is perfectly normal. Then he collapses and goes into a coma. When he comes out, he's gone right through madness and out the other side, convinced he's a god in human form. Oh, and paranoid. Very, very paranoid.
* MortonsFork: Caligula was descended from both Augustus and Mark Antony; ''not'' celebrating Actium would be an affront to the first, and celebrating the occasion would insult the latter's memory. A sycophant tries to TakeAThirdOption by saying that Agrippa, another ancestor of Caligula's, was the main victor at Actium so he had more reason to celebrate than not to - turns out reminding him of his common descent was his BerserkButton.
* OhMyGods: Still swears by Jove, despite thinking he ''is'' Jove, and so every time he does adds that, naturally, he means himself.
* TheParanoiac: The first thing we hear him doing after reviving from his coma is attacking his sister because he was convinced she didn't love him. She does eventually manage to assuage him, before buying into the madness herself. But when she gets pregnant, he starts worrying that the child will be more powerful than him, and there's only one way to prevent that...
* PuppetKing: Averted when the senators assume his madness will make Caligula pliable and subservient to their whims. [[TheCaligula It backfires badly.]]
* SpannerInTheWorks: In more ways than one. Livia consents to him being made Tiberius' heir because of a complex scheme that will result in her elevation to godhood (and thus [[LoopholeAbuse avoid eternal damnation]]). When Livia is on her deathbed, Caligula gleefully turns on her, and later comes very close to destroying the empire Livia worked so hard to build.
--> '''Caligula''': [[WhamLine And what makes you think that a filthy, smelly old woman like you could become a goddess?]] I don't need you anymore, you see, great-grandmother. My secret will die with you. You are going to stew in hell forever and ever.
* SuddenlyShouting: He can go from eerily quiet and calm to full-force bellowing on a dime.
* TerribleTicking: Two flavors.
** The constant sound of pounding hooves, getting louder and louder, often accompanied by severe headaches.
** Gemellus's coughing, once he ''really'' goes insane. He starts thinking he can hear it everywhere, even when the boy's on the other side of the palace. He has Macro "[[OffWithHisHead take care]]" of that.
* ThirdPersonPerson: Briefly slips into it when upbraiding the senators for not throwing him any sort of celebration when he got back.
* UngratefulBastard: Tells Macro he'll never forget the service he did him by making sure Tiberius was actually dead. However, as per the novels, he eventually becomes paranoid about Macro and gets rid of him.
* VillainousIncest: With his sister. He also kisses his stone-faced great-grandmother on the lips.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: InUniverse. Claudius reflects ruefully that Caligula had everything going for him at the start of his reign: the treasury was bulging (due to Tiberius' miserliness), the Empire was practically running itself (thanks to Livia's efficiency), there were no major wars in progress, everyone in Rome was heartily glad that Tiberius was dead, and assumed that, as Germanicus's son, Caligula would be an even better emperor than Augustus had been.
-->''What a splendid chance he had of being remembered in history as "Caligula the Good", or "Caligula the Wise", or "Caligula the Savior"! But it is idle for me to write in this way, for if he had been the sort of man that the people took him for, he would never have survived his brothers, or been chosen by Tiberius as his successor.''

----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Drusilla]]
!!Julia Drusilla
->Played by: Beth Morris
Caligula's sister ''and'' wife.
* AffectionateNickname: Eventually starts to call Caligula "Zeusie".
* BrotherSisterIncest: With her brother Caligula. It seems to haves been more consensual in their youth, but by the time he becomes emperor it's more an effort on Drusilla's part to stay alive.
* DidntThinkThisThrough\TooDumbToLive: She's delighted at taking the role of Metis for Caligula's Zeus, even bearing his child and him being afraid of it becoming more powerful. However, she doesn't seem to realize how far is her brother willing to go in recreation of Metis's fate -- though admittedly she does seem to be drunk or high most of the time, to cope with her situation.
* FanDisservice: We see how Caligula ties her up and strip her naked [[spoiler: just before he slices her open and eats her unborn child.]]
* NotSoDifferentRemark: When asked by Claudius why she goes along with Caligula's AGodAmI delusion, she's quick to point out how he [[ObfuscatingStupidity played a fool]] for so many years.

----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tiberius]]
!![[UsefulNotes/{{Tiberius}} Tiberius Claudius Nero]]
[[quoteright:278:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tiberius_2.jpg]]
->Played by George Baker.
Claudius's uncle, and the second emperor.
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Augustus was a hard act to follow, and Tiberius certainly doesn't win himself many friends with his sour personality. The feeling is largely mutual.
* AllForNothing: Tiberius starts out the series wanting to become Emperor ([[WellDoneSonGuy or Augustus' heir at any rate]]), but by the time it happens he's lost everything that would have let him enjoy it.
-->''Wasn't worth it, was it? I could have told you that.''
* AntiVillain: Tiberius's bad tendencies are more the result of a certain moral and ethical laziness than any sort of calculated villainy. It's implied he wouldn't even have become all that villainous if not for his mother's scheming to make him Emperor- a role he doesn't even really want all that much.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: By the time he's become Emperor, he's burnt out and can't muster the enthusiasm to rule.
* BerserkButton: Mention Agrippina's name around Tiberius and he'll want to murder everything in sight.
* BrokenAce: Tiberius is physically strong, one of Rome's greatest generals, speaks several languages and is no intellectual slouch. Too bad he's moody, resentful, jealous and depressed, and arguably suffers a nervous breakdown after his brother's death that he never really comes back from.
* CynicIdealistDuo: Cynic to his brother's Idealist.
* DespairEventHorizon: Crosses it after his brother's death in the first episode, and never really recovers.
* DesperatelyCravesAffection: From his subjects rather than individuals. As his mother points out, "he wants to be loved." He wants the masses to look up to him, as they did with Augustus, but he can't manage it even at his best.
* DirtyOldMan: Have you heard about his "nymphs" at Capri? They were basically naked girls, implied to be children, prancing around his estate on his demand.
* TheEeyore: It's extremely rare to find him actually happy at any point in the series - his introductory scene is him complaining to Drusus that nobody will ever understand how miserable he ''inherently'' is, and his subsequent speech sounds like someone without the vocabulary for it trying to explain that he has what we'd recognize today as clinical depression and possibly obsessive compulsive disorder.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: His first wife, Vipsania, to the point he is willing to divorce her to make sure his mother doesn't hurt her by seeing her as an obstacle, despite being miserable without her.
** Additionally his brother Drusus, one of the few people he could comfortably speak with.
** To a lesser extent his mother, whom he hates and fears, but still appreciates for all she did for him.
* EvilOverlord: He's not mad like some of his successors are, but he's still a tyrannical and decadent ruler.
* FourStarBadass: A very capable general; the series toys with the idea that everyone (himself included) would've been happier if Augustus had just left him on the battlefield instead of forcing him into politics.
* FrontlineGeneral: Despite his personality defects, he is one of Rome's most successful generals; one reason his troops respect and remain loyal to him is he always charges at their head in battle.
* GoneHorriblyRight: When he's having marital trouble with Julia, Tiberius would just like to leave Rome for a while; he cruelly taunts Julia into complaining about their marriage to Augustus, hoping he'll get permission to take a vacation. He didn't take into account that Julia might attack him in the strongest possible terms, though, so Tiberius actually ends up effectively banished for a few years and in personal danger from his enemies.
* HappilyMarried: To Vipsania, until Livia ruins it.
* {{Jerkass}}: Constantly surly, and almost never has a pleasant thing to say about anyone or anything.
* KickTheDog: The scene where a woman he's raped is driven to commit suicide in front of her husband and guests is pretty much there to show us he's much less pitiable since he became emperor.
* KingOnHisDeathbed: Much to Caligula and Macro's irritation. He just refuses to go. Even when they think he's finally snuffed it, it turns out there was still a little bit of life left in him.
* LonelyAtTheTop: His ghost admits as much to Claudius.
* MommasBoy: A very tragic example of one. Despite loathing his mother for her ruthless methods, he still goes along with her plans to [[MotherMakesYouKing makes him Augustus' heir]] in spite of not really ''wanting'' to become emperor because at the end of the day, she's still his mother.
* MoralityChain: Tiberius had three: his late father, his brother Drusus, and his wife Vipsania. He always was a troubled soul, but only started on a dark path after he lost all of them.
* OffstageVillainy: Most of his horrific actions take place elsewhere and we find out second-hand. This can be somewhat jarring as we only see him as a very sad and pathetic figure on screen.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: He outlives his son Castor and his nephew/adopted son Germanicus. He also outlives Germanicus' sons, Nero and Drusus, his biological great-nephews and adopted grandsons, who die in captivity that he put them in at Sejanus' instigation.
* PerpetualFrowner: Claudius writes that his uncle Tiberius would have been a handsome man except for his facial pimples, his over-prominent eyes, and his "almost perpetual frown." Later generations are misled because his statues leave out those defects.
* ThePeterPrinciple: Tiberius was a very skilled commander, and as much as Augustus didn't like him, he couldn't deny Tiberius's military success. As emperor, Tiberius's failings become far more apparent as his confrontational personality and sour demeanor frequently lead him to fight with officials and his callousness is further highlighted when he starts running the realm into the ground for his own selfish reasons. Other characters note that he ran the technical aspects of the empire well enough and that his reign was very much RepressiveButEfficient, but by the end of his rule he just let it all fall apart.
* PetTheDog: Tiberius' scenes with Drusus are there to establish that he did in fact have some redeeming points in his youth, and probably suffered from severe mental illness the Roman medical establishment didn't understand, let alone have any treatments for.
* RapePillageAndBurn: As harshly as he treated the troops under his command, many actually preferred service in his campaigns because he was not squeamish about releasing them to looting when an enemy town or city was sacked.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: After Tiberius strikes Julia in a rage for mocking his first wife, Augustus clearly wants to have Tiberius killed or imprisoned, but due to him being his wife's son, he instead settles on banishing him to Rhodes. Tiberius spends many years in a small manor with functionally no power off the shores of Rhodes, before Augustus calls for his return, only upon running out of other heirs.
* TheReliableOne: Augustus didn't ever like him, but gave him important positions and lots of responsibility because he consistently got the job done. Later averted after Augustus and Livia died and there was no one left who could tell him what to do.
* ReluctantRuler: Tiberius was fairly reluctant about the role his mother planned for him, too. [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity The power went to his head pretty quickly, though]].
* RepressiveButEfficient: Well, until he stops caring about actually governing the empire.
* SergeantRock: ''"They say your drills are bloodless battles, and your battles are bloody drills."'' According to Claudius, Tiberius never praised his soldiers and often overworked them (''"Let them hate me as long as they obey me"''), but they respected him because he shared their hardships on campaign, including sleeping without a tent and eating the same food as them.
* SketchySuccessor: Played with. As a heir to Augustus he is, for the most part, portrayed as a depraved tyrant; yet Claudius acknowledges that he was competent at governing the empire and that the majority of the population had little reason to complain during his reign, with only the upper classes (specifically the Senate) suffering from his repressions. However, the trope is played completely straight during the last years of his reign, when he just stops caring about the administration of the empire whatsoever.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Easily one of the series's most notable examples. While most other particularly depraved antagonists [[BitchInSheepsClothing hide their true nature when they debut]] (i.e. Caligula and Messalina), Tiberius started out with a decent amount of sympathy. He wasn't a particularly good person but he had a number of good points and was more pressed into the climb to power by his mother. After ascending to power, Tiberius becomes a much more malevolent character, turning spiteful, cruel, and paranoid, and displaying pedophilic and sexually predatory tendencies that weren't there in the beginning. At the end of his rule, he grooms Caligula to be his successor so he may bring ruination to the Empire and make everyone suffer.
* TrainingFromHell: His take on army training.
* VetinariJobSecurity: No matter how anti-social, violent or what scandals Tiberius was involved in, Augustus knows he can't have him killed or imprisoned because he is his wife's son.
** As Emperor, Tiberius lacks any of Augustus's popularity, but he is nonetheless ''"from the perspective of the Empire as a whole, a wise and just ruler."'' He is judged so even by Claudius, whose own family members are among the minority of Romans who suffer the brunt of Tiberius's paranoia and mercurial temper.
* VillainRespect: It's evident that despite their frequent fights, Augustus's obfuscation of Tiberius's path to the throne and Tiberius's many moral short-comings, he genuinely respected Augustus as an emperor, reverently commenting that the "The Earth will shake" in response to finding out Augustus has died.
* VorpalPillow: Tiberius's fate. When he falls ill and seemingly dies, Caligula is declared emperor. Tiberius then revives, and Macro quickly suffocates him with a pillow.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: He never particularly wanted to be Emperor, but once he was forced into the role he was initially at least pretty decent at it. However the power began to go to his head in concert with his worsening depression, leading to him becoming both increasingly depraved and increasingly apathetic towards reigning properly.
* {{Yandere}}: After divorcing Vipsania, he becomes this. Subverted in that he was forced into a divorce, and his love of his wife was one of his few redeeming qualities.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Drusus]]
!!Nero Claudius Drusus
->Played by Ian Ogilvy
Tiberius's younger brother and Claudius's father. A high ranking soldier in the army and one of the more moral characters in the series.
* CynicismCatalyst: Tiberius's divorce from Vipsania weighed heavily on him and it was Drusus's presence that gave him hope as his life sagged around him. Drusus's death was ultimately what sent Tiberius over the edge.
* CynicIdealistDuo: Idealist to his brother's Cynic.
* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: Well, more like "Mad Alchemist's Handsome Son". He is fully aware his mother is a less than kindly figure, but just tries to carry-on his duties to the empire.
* MoralityPet: His friendship with his brother, Tiberius, is one of the main things keeping Tiberius's darker inclinations in check. When he dies, Tiberius goes over the edge.
* OnlyFriend: To Tiberius.
* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Happy, charismatic, moral, and doomed.
* WideEyedIdealist: His desire to see Rome return to a republic was probably not so good for his health, considering who his mother was.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Agrippina the Younger]]
!!Agrippina the Younger
->Played by Barbara Young.
Claudius' niece and final wife. She is also the mother of Nero and the younger sister of Caligula.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: She gets her wish to have Nero crowned Emperor, but he would later have her murdered to solidify his own power.
* BigBadDuumvirate: Alongside Nero, Agrippina acts as the final antagonist of the series.
* BlackWidow: She kills Claudius discreetly with a poisoned mushroom [[SelfPoisoningGambit from her own plate]].
* DestroyTheEvidence: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. She discovers Claudius' manuscript about the history of Julio-Claudian dynasty after his death and spitefully destroys it in order to preserve her family's good name. Fortunately, Claudius already made a copy of the manuscript and buried it somewhere for future generations to discover.
* EvilMatriarch: Fills this role for what is left of her family, dominates and corrupts her son,whom she raises to power.
* EvilStepmother: Acts as this to Brittanicus, and possibly Octavia, who are also her first cousins. She does so in a manipulative, passive aggressive manner, flaunting her power in front of him.
* ForeseeingMyDeath: PlayedWith. After Claudius recalled her from exile, she bragged that living on a remote island had developed her into a first-rate swimmer, and anyone who tried to kill her had better choose some other method than drowning. Years later, Nero tries to kill her by sabotaging the boat she is riding in, but she swims to shore.
* FreudianExcuse: The series never explicitly invokes this, but it can be imagined. Her childhood consisted of the early death of her father in suspicious circumstances and systematic destruction of her family by Tiberius. She then witnessed the unhinged reign of Caligula who coerced Agrippina and her sisters into incest with him, murdering one of the others and then banishing Agrippina and the third. Her only other sister was executed by Claudius (though not stated in the TV series.) This would serve to explain why she is so heartless and manipulative, using it as a survival mechanism.
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: She is [[TheUnfettered absolutely ruthless]] when it comes to preserving her son's, or her own, political power.
* TheKingslayer: She murders Claudius as soon as Nero's successorship is secured.
* LaserGuidedKarma: She is eventually killed by Nero after he becomes tired of her dictating and dominating his life. The Julio-Claudian dynasty itself would end with Nero's death.
* ManipulativeBastard: She manipulates Pallas and others into helping her secure Nero's place as Claudius' successor and ensure her own rise to power.
* MotherMakesYouKing: Like Livia, she manipulates and murders many people to ensure that her own son becomes Emperor.
* MyBelovedSmother: She dominates Nero for much of his early life.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: She is referred to as "Agripinilla" (literally "Agrippina the Younger") in the series, likely to distinguish her from her mother Agripinna the Elder (who was also a major character).
* VillainousIncest: She is in an incestuous relationship with her son, which she also uses as a method to control him. Claudius also accuses her of being "more willing" than her sisters to sleep with Caligula when he demanded it.
* VillainousValor: Claudius describes her as a thoroughly rotten woman but with one lonely virtue, which is that she was very brave (in sharp contrast to Messalina, who was a DirtyCoward right up until her last moment). [[FaceDeathWithDignity She went out like a boss]]: when her son's assassins finally cornered her, she told them to stab her in the belly, where she had carried such an abominable creature.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Nero]]
!!UsefulNotes/{{Nero}} Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus
[[quoteright:236:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nero.jpg]]
->Played by Christopher Biggins.
Claudius' stepson, Agrippina the Younger's son and the last Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
* AdiposeRex: Very notably the largest of the Julio-Claudian emperors.
* BigBadDuumvirate: Alongside Agrippina, Nero acts as the final antagonist of the series.
* DomesticAbuse: Implied to subject his wife to it.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Puts on a very thin veneer of affability and niceness that is utterly see through, and disappears the instant anything even slightly displeases him. It also does nothing to hide what a horrible, depraved person he is.
%%* {{Jerkass}}
%%* PsychopathicManchild
* SelfMadeOrphan: The Sibyl reveals he will kill his mother once she's no longer useful.
%%* SissyVillain
* SmugSnake: Bleeds self satisfaction and arrogance in every appearance.
* VillainousIncest: With his mother.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Agrippa]]
!!Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
->Played by John Paul.
Augustus's long-standing friend and right hand. His popularity amongst the people has earned him a valued place in Augustus's court.
* AwfulWeddedLife: He tells Augustus that he never got along with his wife, a revelation that surprises Augustus. The nature of his marriage is never elaborated on in the show, though in the first novel it's explained that she's Agrippa's hated rival Marcellus's sister and the strain on the marriage was caused directly by his feud with her brother. Nevertheless, he is quick to abandon her in order to "marry up."
* BitchInSheepsClothing: At first, a fun and kind OldFriend to Augustus whose struggle with the current times is played sympathetically, Agrippa's return to Rome shows a more sinister side. Agrippa manipulates Augustus to marry off the recently widowed Julia to him and throws his wife away without a second thought. It's clear that he's taking advantage of the chaos in Rome and Augustus's own desperation to consolidate power for himself.
* DirtyOldMan: When Augustus wants him to resume his position in Rome Marcus eagerly agrees on the condition that he can marry Augustus's daughter Julia.
* LovedByAll: He's very popular with the people of Rome, so much so that when he steps down Augustus begs him to come back when his reputation takes a hit.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: Marcus is only in the first episode (or first half of a joint episode) and dies in-between "A Touch of Murder" and "Family Affairs" but his lineage becomes important far down the line as they are often in conflict with Livia's lineage for the throne.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Julia]]
!!Julia
->Played by: Frances White
Augustus's daughter. Though he loves her he often ends up using her as a political tool, first to marry Agrippa and then Tiberius. Julia's unhappy marriages and constant manipulations ignite a rebellious streak.
----
* AwfulWeddedLife: While she loved Marcellus, she resented her marriage to Agrippa, which was political and done without her consent. As for Tiberius, she was originally attracted to him to the point she thought she was in love with him, but once they were actually married, the reality of him was [[LovingAShadow far different]], made even worse by the fact he never stopped loving Vipsania and hated being forced to marry Julia.
* BigEater: Julia loves to eat and is often seen indulging in it. She complains that her physician advised against it for health reasons.
* CassandraTruth: While other members of the family know Livia can be ruthless, Julia is one of the first to realise just ''how'' ruthless she is and what she's capable of; she suspects her stepmother of killing Marcellus and later Drusus [[spoiler:and was only wrong about the latter because Livia hadn't gotten around to it before his accident]] and tries to convince Antonia, to no avail. Alas, her savviness doesn't save her.
* TheHedonist: With an unhappy marriage to Tiberius and a lot of pent-up resentment, Julia indulges in alcohol, food, and sex.
* MrViceGuy: Julia sleeps around a lot, but is one of the nicer characters in the first quarter of the series. At times she was a better parent to her nephew, Claudius, than Antonia.
* LovedByAll: Another very popular member of the royal family. When exiled, Augustus complains that the citizens continue to demand her return and call him wicked for his treatment of her.
* OddFriendship: She and Antonia are complete opposites; Julia is a free spirit and hedonist while Antonia is a strictly pious woman. They still get along well as in-laws, both confiding in each other quite a bit.
* PetTheDog: Julia is one of the few characters who is nice to Claudius, and is surprised when Antonia admits to finding him difficult to care about.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Marcellus]]
!! Marcus Claudius Marcellus
->Played by: Christopher Guard
Augustus's nephew and son-in-law and the one originally groomed to be his successor. He thinks little of Agrippa and his accomplishments.
----
* KissingCousins: As is custom for the ruling class. Marcellus is the son of Augustus's sister and his wife is the daughter of Augustus.
* LovedByAll: Like Agrippa, he commanded a considerable amount of popularity amongst the people. It's a major factor in Livia's decision to kill him as she was wary of the power it could give him.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: He's only a player at the beginning of the story but his death kicks off the fight for succession that dominates much of the plot.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Herod]]
!!Herod Agrippa
->Played by: James Faulkner
Claudius's friend from childhood. Herod is a common presence in Claudius's life, being his closest confidant. Herod is Jewish and ruled Judea as its king.

* AGodAmI: [[spoiler: In the final episode, it is revealed that he thinks himself to be the messiah whose coming the Jews prophesied, and betrays Claudius in a bid for power. He's very quickly proven to be wrong.]]
* BestFriend: Until the events of the final episode, he remains Claudius's most long lasting and loving friendship.
* BoomerangBigot: He has no genuine care for the Jewish people under his command, constantly deriding them and sees them as "a quarrelsome people who drive all their rulers mad".
* CassandraTruth: Herod warns Claudius not to trust anyone, even him. It's good advice because everyone betrays Claudius, including Herod.
* TheConfidant: To Claudius, especially later in life when Claudius's other friends and allies have passed away.
* DisappearedDad: His father was [[OffingTheOffspring murdered by his own father]] before Herod was born, as the young Herod quite equanimously explains in his first appearance.
* DyingDeclarationOfLove: [[spoiler: Admits in his final letter that he truly loved Claudius despite his betrayal.]]
* FaceHeelTurn: Late in the series. He stays the longest on Claudius's side even as the decades role on. In the second to the last episode, he ultimately turns against him and dies.
** HazyFeelTurn: He does turn against his old friend ([[SympatheticPOV who also happens to be our viewpoint character]]), but at this point said friend is the ruler of TheEmpire which is denying independence to Jews and many other nations, and has no intention to give them true freedom.
* ManipulativeBastard: Even before his FaceHeelTurn, he already displayed shades of this throughout the series.
* MajoredInWesternHypocrisy: Or the closest thing to this trope in antiquity, having been educated in Rome. Notably, he speaks with the same accent as the upper-class Roman characters, signifying the mark Roman culture had on him.
* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: He was named for Marcus Agrippa.
* OnlyFriend: Around the time of Caligula's ascension, Herod is the only friend of Claudius's left alive.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Delivers a tongue lashing to both [[HolierThanThou Antonia]] and Agrippina when they admonish Claudius for marrying Sejanus's sister, claiming they'd have been killed if they were in Claudius' position and had refused Sejanus' proposal and for all of Claudius' proclaimed incompetence, he's still alive where others had already fallen.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Musa]]
!!Antonius Musa
->Played by: Renu Setna
A famed botanist and doctor within the royal court.

* AmbiguouslyEvil: He begins working with Livia as a personal physician. He may have been in on her murder plots or he may have just been someone she kept around to divert attention from herself.
* RedHerring: When Drusus was injured, Musa was sent personally to "tend" to him. Drusus doesn't survive and Musa claims that he arrived too late to save him. Whether or not Musa had a hand in his death per Livia's orders is left up in the air, until Claudius confronts an elderly Livia who states that Drusus died of natural causes and Musa ultimately didn't kill him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sejanus]]
!!Lucius Aelius Sejanus
->Played by Creator/PatrickStewart.
Tiberius' right-hand-man and the real power behind the throne.

* ArsonMurderAndAdmiration: {{Downplayed}}, but he briefly smiles after he is arrested, as if thinking "well played".
* ColdBloodedTorture: In the TV series he's shown torturing a man into making a false confession, calmly keeping up the torture in the face of his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, knowing the man will inevitably break.
* DragonInChief: The older Tiberius gets, the more control Sejanus gets.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: His first scene is killing Postumus on Tiberius' orders, demonstrating exactly how ruthless he can be.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He cares about his children. Indeed, his last words are demanding knowledge of their fate from his soon-to-be killer, who sadistically reveals that he killed them, too.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: His dismissal of Claudius as a threat is what allows Claudius to get the truth to Tiberius and the ambition of ''his'' second-in-command leads to his defeat. His own guard kills him in the end.
* KarmicDeath: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. He slandered and killed many innocent people without a shred of remorse, but his loved ones die horribly as well (with his daughter being raped and then killed) and a bloody purge is conducted on anyone who supported him. He spends his last moments demanding to know what happened to his children only for Macro to KickTheDog by telling him that they've gone on ahead of him. His stabbing moments later becomes a borderline MercyKill.
* ALighterShadeOfBlack: He was Tiberius' hatchet man who also duped Tiberius into killing his family so that he could eventually be Tiberius' successor. Still he had some PetTheDog moments with his kids and has at least some moderate scruples compared to his successor Macro. Tiberius immediately recognizes that Macro is worse than Sejanus when Caligula explains that Macro is knowingly letting Caligula sleep with his wife to climb up the social ladder.
* OhCrap: His face falls when he's called a traitor in front of the entire senate, as Macro and the other guards enter.
* ProfessionalButtKisser: He manages to become emperor in all but name purely though sucking up to Tiberius. Additionally he walks on egg shells when Livia is around in an attempt to cozy up to her. She clearly doesn't trust him, but he lives, so he still does better than most sycophants do around her.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Messalina]]
!!Valeria Messalina
->Played by Creator/SheilaWhite.
Claudius's wife as part of a practical joke by Caligula.

* AntagonisticOffspring: She manipulated her own mother into marrying Silanus just so she could have him herself. When Silanus refused her, she framed him for rape after he tried to kill Claudius in revenge, and forced his mother to comply under the threat of death by framing her as a conspirator to Silanus.
* BaitTheDog: She seems like another victim of Caligula's rule and then an effective co-ruler with Claudius. Things quickly go downhill.
* BigBad: After [[spoiler:Caligula is assassinated and Claudius becomes emperor]], she becomes the closest thing the series has to one.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. Her mother tries to encourage her to commit suicide (an honorable death by Roman standards) once her execution becomes imminent. Unable to work up the courage to do so, Messalina is executed by the impatient soldiers while screaming.
* TheHedonist: She becomes this after becoming Empress, indulging herself in luxury and sexual orgies.
* ItsAllAboutMe: She cared little for Roman law whenever it interfered with her desires, such as when she pleaded with Claudius to spare her childhood crush Silanus after he attempted to murder the Emperor. After Silanus is executed in accordance with the law, Messalina's relationship with Claudius soured. As her hedonism worsens, she becomes [[CantTakeCriticism even more intolerant of those who criticize her]], often arranging their execution through Claudius on false charges. For this reason, [[TheDreaded she is feared]] by those loyal to Claudius alone.
* ManipulativeBitch: She manages to play Claudius like a fiddle for a while and convinces Silanus, Mnester, and Silius that Claudius wants them to bone. She also plotted to rule the Roman Empire with Silius by publicly marrying him under Claudius' nose as a signal to the Senate to restore the Republic with her at its head.
* OffWithHerHead: She is decapitated by the Praetorian Guards after Claudius signs her execution warrant.
* PsychopathicManchild: Clever she may be, she's completely immature and goes ''nuts'' when things don't go her way. The fact she hasn't grown past her crush on Silanus is noted as bizarre by the man himself.
* ReallyGetsAround: She cheats on Claudius with a large number of people. After her downfall, Narcissus complies a list of her lovers. The first draft contains 54 names, but it's later extended to 155.
* StalkerWithACrush: She's wanted to sleep with Silanus ever since she was a child and is enraged when Claudius is forced to order his death. She later switches her affections to Silius.
* VillainousBreakdown: She devolves into a shrieking mess when she's finally caught.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Calpurnia]]
!!Calpurnia
->Played by Jo Rowbottom
Claudius's favorite prostitute. He shacks up with her after his second wife, Aelia, is executed during Tiberius's great purge. She becomes one of his truest allies, saving his emperorship at one point.

* BeneathSuspicion: Because of her humble station, she's safe from palace intrigues. This is why Pallas and Narcissus enlist her help in unseating [[spoiler:Messalina]].
* TheConfidant: Claudius trusts her completely, and for once, his trust in her is well-placed.
* TheCreon: She's satisfied to live as Claudius's mistress, and has no political ambitions. Even when she [[spoiler:helps Pallas and Narcissus thwart Messalina's coup attempt]], she does it for the good of Claudius and of Rome, not because of any hope to rise as his consort.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Prostitute she may be, but she finds Caligula's "palace brothel" ridiculous and distasteful.
* HappilyMarried: Happily cohabiting, anyway. Unlike his four official political marriages, Claudius and Calpurnia came together out of love, and treat each other very well.
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: One most honest, loyal, and good-hearted people in the story.
* InformedAttribute: She tells Claudius that she's still a working girl, but we never see her with other clients.
* MadonnaWhoreComplex: An interesting subversion. Calpurnia is a prostitute, which makes her literally a "whore." But she's also more virtuous, kind, and sensible than any of the story's aristocratic women.
* TheMistress: Claudius keeps her around even after his marriage to Messalina, as was socially acceptable for a man of his rank.
* NotWithThemForTheMoney: Downplayed. She's still effectively Claudius's sugar baby, but she cares about him as a person. She never wheedles him for favors, and she lives a comfortable but simple lifestyle.
* OnlySaneWoman: She's much shrewder than Claudius is, and saves his ass because of it.
* UnequalPairing: Sort of. Claudius has fallen out of political favor when he moves in with her, but he's still a rich man and a member of the imperial dynasty. She's a commoner, and a prostitute.
* UnproblematicProstitution: Prostitution always has been, and still is, her job. She isn't ashamed of it, and seems to have done pretty well for herself.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pallas & Narcissus]]
!!Marcus Antoninus Pallas and Tiberius Claudius Narcissus
->Played by Bernard Hepton and John Cater
Claudius' freedmen and senior advisors during his reign as Emperor.
* TheConfidant: Narcissus becomes the last person Claudius trusts and shares his plans with at the end.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Pallas manipulates the schematics of a plan that would benefit Rome, in order to ensure his own wealth. Narcissus objects against this selfish behavior (although he briefly appears to go along with it). While it isn't apparent for several episodes, Pallas' corruption and Narcissus' loyalty become crucial to Claudius' final plan.
* FaceHeelTurn: Pallas switches his loyalty to Agrippina the Younger towards the end of Claudius' reign.
* {{Foil}}: Aside from the RedOniBlueOni example below, the two quickly demonstrate the two kinds of Rome's rulers: the caring optimist and the corrupt manipulators.
* HonestAdvisor: Both Pallas and Narcissus are honest in their advice and assistance to Claudius, even if it puts their own lives at risk. This is especially true for Narcissus, who isn't afraid to make his feelings or displeasure known to Claudius in private.
* MeaningfulName: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. Narcissus is truly loyal to Claudius and cares about the future of Rome while Pallas eventually becomes greedy and self-serving, switching his loyalty to the ambitious Agrippina the Younger. In Greek mythology, Narcissus is a man who only loved himself while Pallas is an epithet of the goddess Athena.
* OnlySaneMan: They're two of three people in Rome who know that Claudius ''doesn't'' approve or know of Messalina's actions and that they have to tread carefully to get him to the truth.
* RedOniBlueOni: Narcissus is emotional, while Pallas is calm and rational.
* ThoseTwoGuys: Initially, before their motivations diverge in the final years of Claudius' rule.
* UndyingLoyalty: Narcissus ''always'' has Claudius' back, which is likely why Agrippina the Younger [[KilledOffscreen kills him]] soon after the Emperor's death.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Macro]]
!!Quintus Naevius Cordus Sutorius Macro
->Played by Creator/JohnRhysDavies.
The cunning and very ambitious second in command of Sejanus.
* AmbitionIsEvil: The reason that Caligula calls on him to launch a coup against Sejanus. Macro is a social climber first and foremost and latches on to Caligula to rise in the ranks.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Abruptly disappears partway through the eighth episode. The novels reveal that Caligula soon got suspicious of him and had him poisoned. In the series, Caligula refers to him in the past tense saying to Claudius that he was going to give Cassius Macro's position, implying he may have died.
* TheDragon: First to Sejanus, and then to Caligula.
* FatBastard: The chubbiest soldier seen in the series, and easily the most vile.
* HateSink: One of the most detestable characters on the show due to his [[WouldHurtAChild absolutely horrific actions]] during the overthrow of Sejanus and being the main person to ensure Caligula's ascension to Emperor, despite knowing how awful he is. By his final appearance, he stands out as one of the only characters without a single redeeming quality.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Cares not one whit for anything except his own power.
* KarmaHoudini: Only in the TV show, where he [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse disappears without trace with no explanation given]].
* KarmicDeath: In the books, he ends up being killed by the very madman he helped bring to power.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: Subverted with what he does to Sejanus. He not only ensures his downfall and arrest, but has all of his loved ones and supporters horribly killed as well and takes time to gloat about it to Sejanus's face, before having him killed.
* SleepingTheirWayToTheTop: A surrogate version; he has no problem with his wife sleeping with Caligula to ensure his own ambitions.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: Directly paves the way for Sejanus's fall from grace. Later on he murders Tiberius so that Caligula becomes emperor.
* SmugSnake: Even without much dialogue, he comes off as being one.
* TheStarscream: To Sejanus. In the novels, Caligula feared he would be the same to him.
* UncertainDoom: Not long after Caligula takes the Purple, Macro vanishes. Given that Macro had proven himself willing to murder an Emperor and that Caligula is, well, [[BadBoss Caligula]], it's reasonable to surmise that Caligula in the show got paranoid and had Macro killed, like in the novels.
* VorpalPillow: How he dispatches Tiberius.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In the TV show, he disappears partway through Episode 8 without any explanation.
* WouldHurtAChild: After Sejanus's fall, he personally ensures that his children are both killed and even orders his daughter to be raped before being stabbed to death, so she won't die a virgin and bring bad luck to the city. Later he beheads Gemellus on Caligula's orders.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Cassius]]
!!Cassius Chaerea
->Played by Sam Dastor.
Caligula's captain of the guards and Macro's replacement.
* AntiVillain: Much like Sejanus and Macro he's the right hand to a despot and capable of carrying out some heinous deeds on his own accord. Though Cassius has more morals to him and conspires to destroy one of the series's most despicable characters.
* ChekhovsGunman: Is first mentioned in Episode 3, before making his first appearance in Episode 9.
* TheDogBitesBack: Masterminds Caligula's downfall as he'd grown angry with Caligula's debauchery and constant humiliations.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Caligula had him torture one of his soldiers for information on an alleged plot against him. The soldier died and Cassius reportedly was crying over having killed him. Caligula [[KickTheDog mocks him for it]]. He also clearly doesn't take any joy in killing Caesonia and baby Drusilla, but deems it necessary to make a clean sweep of the Julio Claudian line.
* JerkassHasAPoint: He doesn't deny trying to wipe out Caligula's family, because as he points out the very fact that Claudius has now become emperor shows he was right to do so.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: He was name-dropped as one of the only officers to have made a good call when their Legion was ambushed at Teutoberg Forest. Cassius successfully managed to break through the enemy line and allowed his squadron to escape. The soldier who broke the news to Augustus was part of the company.
* OldSoldier: Was an officer during the disastrous Battle of the Teutoberg Forest; he managed to lead a company of Romans to safety.
* PetTheDog: During one of his episodes Caligula nearly had Marcus executed under suspicion of treason, had Claudius not calmed him down. After the event, Cassius quietly tells Marcus that it would be best for him to leave should Caligula think to murder him later on.
* TheStarscream: Much like the previous head soldiers Sejanus and Macro, Cassius plots against his ruler. Though he's given a lot more sympathy than the others.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Well Intentioned in that he kills Caligula and tries to restore the Republic. Extremist in that he tries to kill off the royal family, succeeding in killing Caligula's innocent wife and daughter.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Piso]]
!!Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso
->Played by Stratford Johns
Tiberius's friend and governor of Syria, and Germanicus's rival. He and his wife Plancina are accused of poisoning Germanicus early in Tiberius's reign, forcing Tiberius to try him for murder and treason.

* AdiposeRex: He didn't miss many meals while serving as governor.
* BadLiar: Lies constantly and poorly from the start of his trial. Nobody is fooled.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: He flaunts his letters from Tiberius in the Senate thinking that their mere presence will get him out of trouble, despite the fact that the letters bear the Imperial seal and thus can't legally be opened in public, and that if they ''were'' opened, they'd be incriminating. This maneuver only succeeds at enraging Tiberius, who was Piso's only political ally.
* DirtyCoward: By Roman standards. A man in his position would have been expected to [[spoiler:commit suicide, so that his honor could be preserved and his family wouldn't lose their estate. Instead, Piso tries to blackmail the emperor.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: Subverted. [[spoiler:Piso is getting ready to take his own life to spare his family the consequences of a criminal conviction, but he loses heart at the last minute. Plancina has to do the job for him.]]
* FaceDeathWithDignity: Completely averted. [[spoiler:Plancina has to browbeat him into committing suicide to spare their children from the estate confiscation they would have faced as the heirs of a convicted traitor, and even then, he chickens out at the last minute. In the end, Plancina has to do the job herself by pretending to attempt suicide, and then plunging the dagger into his gut when he tries to take it from her.]]
* FatBastard: Corpulent and corrupt.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: He thinks that Tiberius is his friend, and that this friendship puts him above the law. Tiberius barely ''has'' friends, and certainly isn't the type of man who'd bend the rules to help one get out of trouble.
* OverzealousUnderling: Gets vague letters from Tiberius instructing him to uphold the Empire's security and to stamp out disloyalty. He and Plancina interpret this as an order to kill Germanicus, when Tiberius meant nothing of the sort.
* PoorCommunicationKills: He and his wife start a major political crisis by interpreting vague instructions as orders to commit murder.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Or so he thinks.
* SmugSnake: He is convinced that the letters he got from Tiberius and Livia will keep him safe from prosecution. But not only does producing them in his trial fail to win over the Senate; it also infuriates Tiberius and makes him much less inclined to bail Piso out.
* UglyGuyHotWife: Plancina has remained fairly attractive as she aged. Piso is fat and bald.
* VillainousBreakdown: Suffers one when he realizes that Tiberius is going to let the Senate convict him.
* YouKnowTooMuch: He's convinced that his letters will save him. [[spoiler:Instead, Livia coerces his wife into killing him and making it look like suicide.]]
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Scylla]]
!!Scylla
->Played by: Charlotte Howard
A famed prostitute who's challenged by Messalina to a sex competition.

* ConsummateProfessional: She has a sense of humor about her position but Scylla treats sex work as a job not a hobby like many of the nobles do. When challenged to the competition, she only does so to be paid, not caring about the title.
* DeadpanSnarker: She's calm and sharp-tongued. Sometimes making people laugh with her or at the people she's jabbing.
* FamedInStory:
-->'''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.
* UnproblematicProstitution: She's done well for herself, socially and financially, by being good at her job.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Castor]]
!!Castor (Drusus Julius Caesar)
->Played by: Creator/KevinMcNally
Tiberius' only son and the husband of Livilla.

* KissingCousins: He is married to his first cousin Livilla.
* LikeFatherUnlikeSon: Compared to his depraved father, he is much more upstanding and noble.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: His real name is Drusus, but he is mainly referred to as Castor. When Sejanus addresses him as this, he says that only his friends call him Castor.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Agrippina the Elder]]
!! Agrippina the Elder
->Played by: Fiona Walker
Daughter of Agrippa and Julia, wife of Germanicus, and mother of Caligula and Agrippina the Younger.

* ArchEnemy: She and Tiberius eventually settle into a mutual hatred for each other.
* ParentalObliviousness: She seems unaware of Caligula's mad tendencies in his youth.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Thrasyllus]]
!! Thrasyllus of Mendes
->Played by: Creator/KevinStoney
Tiberius' friend and astrologer.

* FortuneTeller: His predictions regarding future events and the imperial family's situation proved very accurate.
* ProfessionalButtKisser: He's not above appealing to his patrons' vanity in order to stay in their good graces.
----
[[/folder]]

* WomenAreWiser: She's much shrewder than Claudius is, and saves his ass because of it.

%%* LonelyAtTheTop: His ghost admits as much to Claudius.
%%* MommasBoy: A very tragic example of one.
* MoralityChain: Tiberius had two, his brother Drusus and his wife Vipsania. He always was a troubled soul but only started on a dark path after he lost both of them.
* OffstageVillainy: Most of his horrific actions take place elsewhere and we find out second-hand. This can be somewhat jarring as we only see him as a very sad and pathetic figure on screen.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: He outlives his son Castor and his nephew/adopted son Germanicus. He also outlives Germanicus' sons, Nero and Drusus, his biological great-nephews and adopted grandsons, who die in captivity that he put them under at Sejanus' instigation.
* PerpetualFrowner: Claudius writes that his uncle Tiberius would have been a handsome man except for his facial pimples, his over-prominent eyes, and his ''"almost perpetual frown."'' Later generations are misled because his statues leave out those defects.

* BlackWidow: She kills Claudius discreetly with a poisoned mushroom from her own plate.

* TheHedonist: With an unhappy marriage and a lot of pent-up resentment, Julia indulges in alcohol, food, and sex.

* OnlySaneMan: While other members of the family know Livia can be ruthless, Julia is one of the first to realise just ''how'' ruthless she is and what she's capable of; she suspects her of killing Marcellus and later Drusus [[spoiler:and was only wrong about the latter because Livia hadn't gotten around to it yet]]. Alas, it doesn't save her.

* WantedASonInstead: Sort of, he deeply, deeply loves his daughter, Julia, but the fact that despite years of trying he never had another child, or more specifically a son, puts Augustus in an awkward position for who to make an heir.

* ObfuscatingDisability: Downplayed. His limp and stutter are both natural, but he learns to exaggerate and, later, invoke them on command.

* AssholeVictim: Nobody, save his German Guard, are saddened by his murder. The Praetorians who were not part of the assassination are more angry over potentially losing their comfy jobs than having any love for the man. Claudius admits to the main instigator, Cassius Chaerea, that he bears the latter no grudge for killing his nephew (but still orders his execution for killing Caligula's wife and child along and planning to kill Claudius and Messalina, who had done no wrong to Cassius)

* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: Likes giving Cassius embarrassing codewords to repeat to his fellow guards, because he knows it makes him look stupid. He marries Claudius to a girl because he thinks and expects it'll make him miserable, and gets very upset when Claudius doesn't seem that bothered. Being miserable is the point, ''dammit!''

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Caligula had him torture one of his soldiers for information on an alleged plot against him. The soldier died and Cassius reportedly was crying over having killed him. Caligula [[KickTheDog mocks him for it]].

* KickTheDog: While Livilla has committed her share of misdeeds, there was usually a reason, if an unsympathetic one. She set up Postumus because Livia blackmailed her and she killed Castor to be with Sejanus. However her poisoning of Helen, her daughter, was largely done out of spite that she was to be paired off with Sejanus. There was no real benefit to the act beyond showing how petty and obsessed she had become. She makes sure that the last thing Castor sees as he dies is her and Sejanus embracing in front of him, wordlessly conveying their joy in his demise. Even if they needed to kill him in order to marry, that was a low blow.

* ParentalNeglect: She is a thoroughly rotten mother to her children, [[spoiler:even when she isn’t trying to poison them.]]

Caligula's sister and wife.

* BrotherSisterIncest: With her brother Caligula.
* DidntThinkThisThrough\TooDumbToLive: She's delighted of taking role of Metis for Caligula's Zeus. Even of bearing his child and him being afraid of it becoming more powerful. However she seems to not realize how far is her brother willing to go in recreation of Metis's fate.

* NotSoDifferentRemark: When asked by Claudius why she's goes along with Caligula's GodAmI delusion, she's quick to point how he [[ObfuscatingStupidity played a fool]] for so many years.

* ManipulativeBastard: She manages to play Claudius like a fiddle for a while and convinces Silanus, Mnester, and Silius that Claudius wants them to bone. She also plotted to rule the Roman Empire with Silius by publicly marrying him under Claudius' nose as a signal to the Senate to restore the Republic with her at its head.

* DrivenToSuicide: Swerved. [[spoiler:Piso is getting ready to take his own life to spare his family the consequences of a criminal conviction, but he loses heart at the last minute. Plancina has to do the job for him.]]

* LovedByAll: Another very popular member of the royal family. When exiled, Augustus complains that the citizens continue to demand her return.

* BitCharacter: Is this for the first half of the series from his birth until the rise of Caligula: {{Justified}} in that he is chronicling the lives of the people around him and so he stays in the background where he is safe from the intrigue and murder that is the daily life of the imperial family.

* SilkHidingSteel: Livia is just as capable of ending a life as anyone August ever severed in the army with, the difference is she will do it with concern in her voice.

* ProperlyParanoid: Learns from the last 50 years of tragedy and refuses to eat anything touched by another human. [[ForegoneConclusion This still doesn't save him]].

* RetiredBadass/RetiredMonster: Affable father of the nation by the time we see him. But the path of bodies to get there was long and winding. He occasionally alludes to what it took to get to the top.

* RetiredBadass/RetiredCompleteMonster: Affable father of the nation by the time we see him. But the path of bodies to get there was long and winding. He occasionally alludes to what it took to get to the top.

->Played by Patricia Quinn.

->Played by: Kevin R. [=McNally=]

** TheExtremistWasRight: Claudius has a great deal of personal hatred for Livia, but Deifies her anyway after being Emperor and learning how much work she did to make everything work.
*** With that said, things might have gotten on the right track a lot sooner (and faster) had she bothered to properly groom her son for imperial rule.

* SergeantRock: "They say your drills are bloodless battles, and your battles are bloody drills." According to Claudius, Tiberius never praised his soldiers and often overworked them ("Let them hate me as long as they obey me"), but they respected him because he shared their hardships on campaign (including sleeping without a tent and eating the same food as them) and always charged at their head in battle; many actually preferred service under Tiberius because he was not squeamish about releasing them to looting when an enemy town or city was sacked.