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->''Write no more now, Tiberius Claudius, God of the Britons, I write no more.''
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->''I TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS DRUSUS NERO GERMANLCUS [[TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard This-that-and-the-other ]](for I shall not trouble you yet with all my titles) who was once, and not so long ago either, known to my friends and relatives and associates as “Claudius the Idiot’’, or “That Claudius”, or “Claudius the Stimmerer”, or “Clau-Clau-Claudius” or at best as “Poor Uncle Claudius”, am now about to write this strange history of my life; starting from my earliest childhood and continuing year by year until I reach the fateful point of change where, some eight years ago, at the age of fifty-one, I suddenly found myself caught in what I may call the “golden predicament” from which I have never since become disentangled.''
-->--The Opening

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* IClaudius/IClaudiusBookTropesRToT
* IClaudius/IClaudiusBookTropesUToZ




[[folder:Tropes R to T]]
* RainDance: In ''Claudius the God'', a Roman commander whose troops are lost in the desert follows his native guide's advice to invoke the local rain god. It works.
* RaisedByGrandparents: After her parents' divorce, Antonia, Claudius' daughter, is raised by her namesake Antonia, Claudius' mother.
* ReallyGetsAround: [[spoiler:Julia]] and [[spoiler:Messalina]], the latter taking it to absurd levels. Narcissus compiles a list of people she slept with while married to [[spoiler:Claudius]]. The first draft contains 54 names, but it's later extended to 155.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Augustus, Germanicus and Claudius. Tiberius begins his reign as this, but becomes more and more depraved as time goes by.
* RedLightDistrict: During Caligula's Triumph, the soldiers sack the Roman neighborhood where most of the brothels are located.
* ReluctantRuler:
** Claudius is not willing to become emperor, and he only accepts when he's told [[spoiler:his wife Messalina and his unborn child will be in danger if he refuses]].
** Tiberius pretends to be this when the Senate offers him the throne after Augustus' death.
* RemarryingForYourKids: After [[spoiler:Messalina's death, Claudius brings up the subject of his young children Britannicus and Octavia, who have been left without a mother. His friend Vitellius suggests him to remarry for their sake, and when he doesn't reject the idea, his freedmen inmediately start looking for a new prospective wife]].
* RememberTheNewGuy: Herod Agrippa gets a brief mention at the very end of ''I, Claudius'', where he saves the audience of the Palatine Hill theatre from Caligula's German guards after the latter's death, and becomes one of the main characters in ''Claudius the God'', where it is revealed that he was in fact present during many of the events of ''I, Claudius'' but was not mentioned there. Claudius lampshades this in the introduction to ''Claudius the God'', and handwaves this by stating that Herod ultimately wasn't that important character in the story until the death of Caligula.
* RestrainedRevenge: When Claudius becomes emperor, he finds the records of the trial of [[spoiler:Agrippina:his sister-in-law Agrippina and his nephews Nero and Drusus]], in which the names of those who testified against them are written. Instead of having them killed or exiled, Claudius summons the witnesses to palace, has them read their false testimonies and then burn them with their own hands.
* RevengeByProxy:
** After [[spoiler:Sejanus]]' downfall, his three innocent children are executed as well.
** Also, after [[spoiler:Herod Agrippa]]'s death, his two young daughters are raped by a mob.
** [[spoiler:Camilla, Claudius' young betrothed]], is poisoned by an unknown woman. Livia claims her murder was a vengeance against the girl's uncle, but it is hinted that [[spoiler:Livia herself might have been behind it]].
* ReviveTheAncientCustom: Claudius, having written a history of Roman religion, makes a habit of reviving old ceremonies that he thinks are picturesque.
* RomancingTheWidow: After Claudius' father's death, Flaccus tries to marry his widow, Antonia. While Antonia is fond of him, she thinks they are BetterAsFriends.
* RousingSpeech:
** Parodied in ''I, Claudius'', where Claudius meets historians Livy and Pollio. Pollio criticizes Livy for writing that generals gave rousing speeches before battles, and tells that UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar before the decisive battle with UsefulNotes/{{Pompey}} (where Pollio was present) didn't do anything of the sort; instead, he did funny skits involving a radish.
** In ''Claudius the God'', Claudius prepares a grand speech in Livy's style before an important battle in Britain; when he finds himself in front of the troops, he forgets it entirely, and comes up with a much more easygoing, jocular speech (without a radish though).
* RoyalInbreeding: The Julio-Claudians practice this to consolidate power. Livia and Augustus had no children of their own, but Livia makes sure that every descendant of Augustus's is married to a descendant of hers. As a result, multiple prominent couples in the story (including Germanicus & Agrippina and Drusus & Livilla) are first-cousins. It gets even more pronounced as it goes, with Caligula sleeping with his sisters and Claudius marrying his niece (though in Claudius's case, the marriage is not consummated).
* RoyallyScrewedUp: The Julio-Claudians. Claudius recalls an old folk song that says his family's (the Claudians) tree produces good and bad apples, but the bad outnumber the good; the best include his father, Drusus, and his elder brother Germanicus; the worst include his grandmother Livia, his uncle Tiberius, his older sister Livilla, his nephew Gaius Caligula, and great-nephew Nero.
* RulingCouple: Augustus and Livia. Germanicus/Agrippina and Sejanus/Livilla have shades of this trope, although they never end up becoming Emperor and Empress. Claudius gives both Messalina [[spoiler:and Agrippinilla]] a high degree of political influence, although neither gets to become as powerful as Livia.
* SadistTeacher: Cato, Claudius' first tutor.
* SafeSaneAndConsensual: [[spoiler:Mnester]] claims he was coerced into having affair with [[spoiler:Messalina]], and shows the marks of the whip on his back as proof, but Narcissus points out that the scars are not deep enough, meaning they are the result of consensual UsefulNotes/{{BDSM}}. [[spoiler:Mnester]] is then sentenced to death for his adultery [[spoiler:with the emperor's wife]].
* ScarpiaUltimatum: Tiberius' favourite M.O. He forces the wives, daughters and sons of senators to have sex with him, threatening to have their loved ones charged with treason and executed. On one occasion, he sets his eyes on the daughter of a senator; the senator's wife offers herself in her daughter's stead, and after the ordeal, she kills herself.
* ScrewDestiny: [[spoiler:Britannicus is told that Nero will become emperor, and that it will inevitably lead to his death if he stays in Rome, but he wants to prevent it, and insists that Claudius allow him to legally become an adult in order to face Agripinilla and Nero. Claudius indulges him, fully knowing that Britannicus won't be able to prevail.]]
* SelfImposedExile: In two separate instances (about ten years apart), both Marcus Agrippa and Tiberius voluntarily ask for, and receive, permission to leave Rome to reduce tensions between rival factions supporting other potential heirs of Augustus (Marcellus in Agrippa's case, Lucius Agrippa Caesar and his brother Gaius in Tiberius's). Tiberius also wanted to get away from his wife Julia (the daughter of Augustus, whom he'd married for political reasons but whom he hated; in the [[Series/IClaudius television series]], it is presented as the main reason for the exile, and that it wasn't voluntary).
* {{Seppuku}}: What Roman generals (like Quinctilius Varus of the "WHERE ARE MY EAGLES!" fame) were expected to do after losing battles. Another form of ritual suicide (by opening a vein) was also available to people facing political disgrace, or to people who had simply grown tired of life. In general, an honorable death-by-suicide could save everyone a lot of trouble--for example, a condemned traitor would usually forfeit his property, leaving his family destitute. (Of course, when doing this, it's always handy to have one's treacherous wife standing by to gut-stab you should you chicken out at the last minute...)
* ShamingTheMob: Germanicus uses this to put down the mutiny of his troops on the Rhine.
* SexlessMarriage:
** Claudius and [[spoiler:Agrippinilla]]. Since he only married her for political reasons and actually loathes her, he tells her right away that there won't be any intimacy between them. [[spoiler:Agrippinilla]] doesn't mind.
** Claudius' second marriage to Elia, Sejanus' sister, remains unconsummated for several years, until she realizes Sejanus' political position is becoming less secure and allows Claudius to impregnate her; she believes, correctly, that being the mother of Tiberius' nephew's child will protect her if Sejanus falls.
** After a few years of normal married life, [[spoiler:Messalina manipulates Claudius into allowing her to sleep in a separate bedroom and stop having sex altogether, convincing her she's asexual. It's all a lie: she just wants freedom to take as many lovers as she wants]].
** Claudius also alleges that Augustus and Livia were this, with Augustus being impotent when he wanted to be intimate with Livia out of guilt that he had in effect stolen her from her first husband (which in reality was Livia's idea). To compensate Livia covertly gives him young women to satisfy him instead.
* SexualExtortion:
** One of Caligula's more nefarious hobbies is forcing himself upon other men's wives and daughters by threatening to have their husbands and fathers executed if they don't submit.
** [[spoiler:Messalina]] tries to pull this off with [[spoiler:Appius Silanus]], but it doesn't work.
* ShaggyDogStory:
** [[spoiler:Herod Agrippa]]'s secret plot to rebel against the Roman Empire comes to naught with his abrupt death.
** The same can be said about [[spoiler:Claudius' plan to save Britannicus life during Nero's reign, and to have the Republic restored. Britannicus refuses to go along, and even if he had, it's doubtful he would have been able to succesfully return to Rome and re-establish the republican system in the crisis of 68]].
* SharedFamilyQuirks: Claudius claims that fondness for pets is a family trait, citing Augustus' favourite dog, Tiberius' "dragon without wings" (probably a Komodo dragon), Caligula's horse Incitatus, and several others.
* ShooOutTheClowns: Implied to happen at the very end of ''Claudius the God''. The clowns in question are minor characters Augurinus and Baba, two guys who made a living giving theatricals in the back streets of the Rome where they parodied Claudius and his wives. Claudius forbids [[spoiler:Agrippinilla]] from having them killed, stating that so long as he lives their lives are to be spared; [[spoiler:Agrippinilla]] agrees to let them live only exactly so long, to the very hour. [[spoiler: Seneca's "The Pumpkinication of Claudius" mentions Claudius and some Augurinus and Baba dying "in the same year quite close to each other"; and their deaths are implied to be first sign of Agrippinilla and Nero's tyranny being completely unrestrained after the death of Claudius.]]
* ShownTheirWork: Graves translated many classical works into English, including one of the major sources for the life of Claudius. Much of the novel's material can be traced to Roman authors such as Suetonius and Tacitus, and the prose style deliberately invokes the style of something that has been translated faithfully from Latin.
* SiblingRivalry:
** Drusus, Germanicus' second son, is jealous of Nero, his older brother (not to be confused with the future emperor).
** Averted with Germanicus himself and his first cousin and adoptive brother Castor. Even though there were many reasons for them to be politically opposed, they are on very friendly terms.
* SlippingAMickey: Claudius is informed some of his soldiers want to wreak havoc in Rome after his Triumph, just like they had done after Caligula's. Instead of confronting them and risking bloodshed, he gives them drugged wine with the instructions to drink it only after the parade. The soldiers end up sleeping for hours, waking up only after the Triumph celebrations are over, and Claudius manages to avoid trouble.
* SonOfAWhore: Calpurnia is not only a prostitute, but the daughter of a prostitute.
* SoProudOfYou: After completing his conquest of Britain, Claudius has a dream in which his beloved brother Germanicus tells him how proud he is.
* SpareToTheThrone: Claudius is ''very'' far down the Imperial line of succession. No one expects him to really amount to anything.
* SpeechImpediment: Claudius' stammer, which is caused mostly by stress. When he becomes emperor, it almost disappears.
* TheStarscream: Sejanus and Livilla want to overthrow Tiberius. [[spoiler:Unfortunately for them, Tiberius gets wind of this and decides to strike first]].
* StoppedCaring: Claudius gives this impression after [[spoiler:Messalina dies. He makes little effort to reign in Agrippinilla and Nero, actually doing his best to make the latter worse, and doesn't avenge Calpurnia when she's murdered. When his work on the Fucine lake comes crashing down, he finds it hilarious. He actually still cares about the future of the Empire; his plan is to let Agrippinilla and Nero destroy everything he built to make the people realize that monarchy is bad]]. To be able to bear that, he has to take a stoic attitude to things. As he writes:
-->Yet I am, I must remember, Old King Log.\\
I shall float inertly in the stagnant pool.\\
Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out.
* StutterStop: The young Claudius occasionally breaks through his stutter at emotionally intense moments. Later, after training himself out of his stutter (but still keeping it in public as part of his ObfuscatingDisability) he is able to invoke the trope at will.
* SuicideIsPainless: [[spoiler:Cocceius Nerva]] decides that he had lived enough, so he simply stops eating and eventually dies.
* SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome: Claudius' brother Germanicus is far more successful and popular than him. Claudius doesn't resent him for that.
* TakeAThirdOption: [[spoiler:Messalina tries to seduce her stepfather, Appius Silanus. When Appius refuses, she threatens to have him executed by Claudius. Instead of giving in and sleeping with her, or keep refusing and end up possibly accused of treason by Messalina, he decides to assassinate Claudius (and fails)]].
* TakingTheKids: Claudius' grandfather threatens to divorce Livia and take sole custody of their sons Tiberius and Drusus (something Roman law allowed) if she keeps trying to convince him to restore the monarchy.
* TakingYouWithMe: Invoked by one of the men involved in Scribonianus' failed rebellion against Claudius who, after being sentenced to death, accuses the commander of the Praetorian Guard of being part of the plot. The commander is found guilty and dies with the other conspirators.
* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: Livia's preferred M.O. for removing inconvenient obstacles is to taint their food with a slow-acting poison to bring on what looks like a sudden illness, then continue administering the poison through the victim's doctors in the guise of treatment until they die.
* TangledFamilyTree: An example of TruthInTelevision; the convoluted relationships (both through blood and through marriage -- not to mention adoption and intermarriage between cousins and other first-degree relatives) between all the Julio-Claudians are extremely complex. Claudius devotes the better part of a chapter to helping the reader untangle his relations. Historian Mary Beard, in her book SPQR, goes so far as to state that the family tree is so complex that it's virtually impossible to draw out a visual representation of it.
* TellMeAboutMyFather: In his youth, Claudius speaks to a lot of people who knew his father Drusus, trying to gather enough material to write his biography. One of them hints that [[spoiler:Livia was involved in his death; shortly after that, Livia herself stops Claudius from finishing his work, making him suspect she really did kill him]].
* ThanatosGambit: Claudius lets [[spoiler:Nero succeed him, despite knowing that he's a horrible person, because he believes that Nero's cruelty will be so shocking that the Romans will depose him and finally restore the Republic of their own free will.]] [[DramaticIrony As we know with the benefit of hindsight, this doesn't work.]]
* TheUnFavorite: Claudius is this both to his own mother and to the whole imperial family.
* TheTeetotaler: In his last years, Tiberius' bad health forces him to stop drinking, something that puts him in a even fouler mood.
* ThickerThanWater: Thoroughly averted. Almost every character ends up betraying and/or killing a family member. Even Claudius has [[spoiler:two of his nieces]] put to death for conspiring against him.
* ThisIsUnforgivable: After Claudius hears what happened to [[spoiler:Sejanus' children]] (see LoopholeAbuse) he says to himself: "Rome, you are ruined; there can be no expiation for a crime so horrible."
* TreacherousAdvisor:
** Hermann is this to Varus, before leading the German tribes in open rebellion.
** Sejanus to Gaius.
** Practically all of Claudius' freedmen, except for Narcissus.
* {{Tyrannicide}}: Caligula's death, although the larger plot to restore the Republic after his death fails.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Tropes U to Z]]
* UglyGuyHotWife:
** Claudius and Messalina. [[spoiler:It doesn't work out well; Messalina is able to manipulate Claudius while cheating on him with just about everyone]].
** Claudius and [[spoiler:Agrippinilla as well, though she isn't the beauty she once was by the time they get married]].
* UltimateFinalExam: According to Claudius' description of druidism, three candidates out of five don't survive the final tests to become a druid.
* UndignifiedDeath:
** [[spoiler:Lupus]], one of the guards sentenced for the murder of [[spoiler:Caligula]] and his family, is shivering with cold and fear before his execution.
** [[spoiler:Messalina]]'s counts as this, at least InUniverse, since she is too afraid to kill herself when told she's been sentenced to death.
* UnreliableNarrator: Claudius admits that he's not aiming to write an objective account and is including a good bit of his own personal speculation.
* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Lampshaded in ''Claudius The God'' when he doesn't relate his battle plan while conquering Britain because that would make his description of the actual battle repetitious.
* UnwantedSpouse: Claudius and his first wife Urgulanilla, though he says that there's so little feeling between them that he can't even say they were unhappy with each other. When he announces he's divorcing her for adultery (orchestrated by Sejanus), she doesn't contest the charges when presented with them. Ironically of all his wives she's the only one who never treats him harshly or tries to manipulate him for her own gain, and outright states in her will that he is not an idiot like everyone else thinks. It's also safe to say that he bears her no ill will either, going out of his way to spare her illegitimate child; he demands the baby so he can expose it (as a Roman husband was expected to do), but he has a freedman tell her that if she gives him a reasonably-recent stillbirth (not hard to come by back then) he won't ask questions.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans:
** Livia justifies all her murders and deceit with claiming that they were necessary for the good of the state.
** Claudius at the end organizes [[spoiler:Nero to be his successor, fully knowing that he'll be the worst ruler imaginable. He does that because he believes that after this, people will finally realize that monarchy is wrong and restore the republic.]] He writes in his meditations:
--->By dulling the blade of tyranny I fell into great error.\\
By whetting the same blade I might redeem that error.\\
Violent disorders call for violent remedies.
* TheVamp: [[spoiler:Messalina uses her beauty to manipulate Gaius Silius into organizing a coup against Claudius]].
* VillainousIncest:
** Caligula with his sisters and later Agrippinilla with her son Nero.
** Somewhat averted with [[spoiler:Agrippinilla]]'s marriage to [[spoiler:Claudius]], her paternal uncle. While their union is clearly incestuous, the marriage is merely a political alliance and is never phisically consumated.
* VillainsOutShopping: ''I, Claudius'' has a scene where Tiberius takes a break from depravities and ordering executions to compose a verse-dialogue between the hare and the pheasant, in which they argue which one of them makes for a better meal. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, he is then surprised by a fisherman who decided to visit him on Capri and present him a large barbel he had caught; Tiberius has the poor man brutally maimed and then killed, due to a misunderstanding. Livia had given him a false warning to beware of barbel, knowing that it was a favorite dish of his, in order to both feed his paranoia and torment him with the idea that his favorite foods might be tainted. When the hapless fisherman appeared, fish in hand, to offer it to Tiberius, the emperor thought it was an assassination attempt and ordered his guards to protect him from an assailant.]]
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Livia manages to have a relatively good public image during Augustus' reign, although she's correctly blamed for many of her evil deeds. Later Caligula becomes this, during the first months of his reign.
* VitriolicBestBuds: The historians Livy and Pollio; Claudius describes their relationship as "friendly animosity". For example, when they first meet the young Claudius in a library, Livy asks what is he reading. Pollio comments that it's probably some romantic rubbish, since today's youth reads nothing but trash. Livy makes a bet with him that it isn't. When Claudius reveals that he's reading a historical work by Pollio, Livy insists that Pollio won the bet: today's youth reads nothing but trash.
* WarriorPrince: Augustus and, especially, Tiberius had distinguished military careers before becoming emperors. Caligula tries to become this, but fails both due to his madness and cowardice. Claudius manages to do it successfully in his conquest of Britain.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Livia. She acts as she does to prevent the restoration of the Republic, which in her view will lead to a return to civil war and instability. Even Claudius is forced to admit that she is a very capable administrator who genuinely cares about running the empire well.
* WickedCultured: A few examples:
** Tiberius is practically a non-cannibalistic Hannibal Lecter (he even has an MO of starving his victims). He's well versed in astrology, poetry and mythology, in addition to being a polyglot who speaks Latin, Greek, and German. He's also a connoisseur of fine food and wine, and becomes mildly offended when a member of his court composes a poem about mushrooms, titlarks, oysters, thrushes supposedly being the best tasting foods, prompting Tiberius to compose his own poem about how pheasant and rabbit are truly the greatest meals.
** Livia knows enough history to point out an erroneous reference during a conversation with Claudius (who's a professional historian).
* WickedStepmother: Livia is a textbook example of this in her treatment of Julia (Augustus' daughter from a previous marriage). Tiberius, who marries Julia, is very antagonistic towards her children from a previous marriage.
* WidowedAtTheWedding:
** [[spoiler:Camilla]]'s death counts as this, although she dies just before her bethrotal ceremony, instead of the wedding itself.
** [[spoiler:Silius and Messalina]] are both killed (separately) on their wedding day.
* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler:Livia orders the death of her teenage great-grandson to prevent him from marrying the daughter of a political rival. Macro has Sejanus' underaged son and daughter executed (and the girl is raped before her death because it's bad luck to kill a virgin). Caligula orders the death of his young cousin Gemellus. In turn, Caligula's infant daughter is murdered by the same conspirators who killed the Emperor. Messalina tries to murder Nero when he is a child, but the attempt is thwarted.]]
* YesMan: During the reigns of Tiberius and Caligula, '''everyone''' in Rome has to become this in order to survive being near the Emperor. By the time Claudius takes the throne, people are treating him this way in spite of him not being a tyrant and encouraging them to disagree with his ideas.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Livia poisons [[spoiler:Agrippa]] when he is no longer needed to ensure the stability of Augustus' rule.
* YourDaysAreNumbered: Claudius is told by Thrasyllus exactly how long his life will be, down to the months and days he has left.
[[/folder]]

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* IClaudius/IClaudiusBookTropesNToP



[[folder:Tropes N to P]]
* NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: While Claudius is perfectly aware of his three predecessors' crimes and mistakes, he decides not to mention them in his official autobiography. He also declines to take any action against [[spoiler:Caligula]]'s memory, such as declaring the day of his death a national holiday.
* NeverSuicide: [[spoiler:Piso]]'s death is staged as a suicide by [[spoiler:his wife, Plancina]], who in fact murdered him.
* NoHeroToHisValet: Silas has this type of relationship with Herod Agrippa. It's PlayedForLaughs at first, but when Herod becomes king and Silas disrespects him in public, he ends up [[spoiler:imprisioned and murdered]].
* NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine: Claudius' dinner with [[spoiler:Livia]] has shades of this, although Claudius isn't [[spoiler:Livia]]'s prisoner.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When Claudius' [[spoiler:former lover and longtime friend Calpurnia]], dies, he writes an epitaph for her. This is the only poem he ever wrote in his life, apart from school assigments. He explains that he wanted to do something exceptional to show the depth of his grief.
* ObfuscatingDisability[=/=]ObfuscatingStupidity:
-->'''Pollio''': Do you want to live a long and busy life, with honor at the end of it?\\
'''Claudius''': Yes.\\
'''Pollio''': Then exaggerate your limp, stammer deliberately, sham sickness frequently, let your wits wander, jerk your head and twitch with your hands on all public or semi-public occasions. If you could see as much as I see, you would know that this was your only hope of eventual glory.
* OddFriendship:
** Antonia, who is a very traditional and virtuous Roman matron, is fond of LovableRogue Herod Agrippa, and greatly enjoys listening to his stories. She even lends him money from time to time.
** Up to a certain point, Herod's friendship with Claudius is this.
* OffingTheOffspring:
** [[EvilMatriarch Livia]] poisoned [[spoiler:her husband, grandson, and everyone else who got in her way. She also arranged the death of her son Drusus, who was politically opposed to her (although she claims in the end he actually died of natural causes).]]
** [[spoiler:Antonia]] is forced to have her own daughter [[spoiler:Livilla]] killed. [[spoiler:She chooses to lock her in a room and starve her to death. The room is next to hers, so she could hear Livilla's cries and curses for days. Claudius explains that Antonia didn't do this out of sadism, "for it was inexpressibly painful to her, but as a punishment to herself for having brought up so abominable a daughter."]]
* OneSteveLimit: Defied. Claudius, in his role as narrator, writes at some length about his useless teacher Marcus Porcius Cato, only to point out that the great Romans called Marcus Porcius Cato were his ancestors, and this one is just a particularly useless teacher. He then muses that he'll have to be very careful to keep his own family members apart since their names are very similar and he is well aware how confusing that can be.
** Claudius has the same name as his paternal uncle-- they're both Tiberius Claudius Nero. Later, Claudius' adopted son takes the same name. As in historical texts, Tiberius is nominally referred to by his first name, Claudius his surname, and Nero his nickname (cognomen). Also see "OnlyKnownByTheirNickname" for the number of Drususes that pop up.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Many of the characters are only known by their nicknames (for example, "Caligula" and "Castor"). Roman naming customs were very unimaginative, so several people might have identical or almost-identical names; nicknames made it much easier than trying to figure out which of the eight or nine "Drusus"es someone might be talking about. The narrator will usually mention the real name before telling you that that guy will just be known as "Castor" from then on.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: It happens to several characters, but the one who takes it hardest is [[spoiler:Antonia, Claudius' mother, whose elder son Germanicus and only daughter Livilla both die before her (in Livilla's case, starved to death by Antonia herself as punishment for her crimes). Several of Antonia's grandchildren are also dead by the time she passes away.]]
* OutWithABang: Apparently, this is how [[spoiler:Pompey, Claudius' son-in-law]] and his male lover die, being killed while having sex.
* OverlordJr: Caligula is this to Tiberius, although he's only Tiberius' adoptive son (and biological grandnephew).
* ThePardon: Caligula pardons Herod Agrippa, who had been imprisoned for treason by Tiberius. Later Claudius pardons his nieces Agrippinilla and Lesbia, allowing them to return from exile. Seneca is pardoned by Claudius not once but twice: first, when he becomes emperor, and recalls several people sentenced to exile by Caligula. Shortly after, Claudius discovers Seneca is committing adultery with his niece Lesbia and exiles him again. Years later, [[spoiler:he decides to recall him from exile to make him Nero's tutor]].
* ParentalFavoritism:
** Antonia favors Germanicus and Livilla over Claudius. Later she comes to regret it, and considers [[spoiler:their deaths a divine punishment for her mistreatment of Claudius]].
** Antonia (Claudius' eldest daughter) thinks he loves Britannicus and Octavia more than her, because she's the daughter of Claudius' second, loveless marriage, and they are the children of Messalina, who Claudius is very much in love with. Claudius manages to convince her she's wrong.
* ParentalIncest: Caligula claims his mother Agrippina was the result of an incestuous affair between Augustus and his daughter Julia. This is almost certainly a lie: Caligula dislikes the fact that his maternal grandfather Agrippa was a man of low birth (despite the fact he went on to become a great war hero), so he wants to erase him from his family tree, and would rather believe himself the product of incest than the grandson of a "lowly" admiral.
* ParentalNeglect: Agrippinilla acts this way toward her son Nero, allowing him to be raised by his aunt and her lovers. Claudius forces her to finish raising him herself.
* ParentsWalkInAtTheWorstTime: Antonia discovers [[spoiler:her pre-adolescent grandchildren Caligula and Drusilla committing incest, and threatens to report this to Tiberius]], but Claudius manages to convince her to keep their secret.
* PassFail: In ''Claudius the God'', a lawyer who has pled cases in front of Claudius and his predecessors for decades is unmasked as a slave by one of Claudius's friends, who pulls aside the lawyer's toga to expose his brand.
* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage:
** Drusus and Antonia's, Tiberius and Vipsania's, Germanicus and Agrippina's and Cypros and Herod Agrippa's arranged marriages are very happy. However, they are the exception to the rule.
** [[spoiler:Messalina]]'s marriage to [[spoiler:Claudius]] '''seems''' to be this, until she shows her true colors.
* PerspectiveFlip: A version of [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} Jesus Christ]]'s life is told by Herod Agrippa in a letter to Claudius. Herod considers Jesus to have been a fraud and persecutes his followers, so his view of Jesus's story is somewhat unreliable.
* PleaseShootTheMessenger: Caligula, in a non-fatal version, punishes someone who's annoyed him by sending him with a letter to the King of Morocco. The letter says, "Kindly send bearer back to Rome."
* PleaseSpareHimMyLiege: Messalina convinces Claudius to spare the life of a defeated German gladiator. [[spoiler:Later, Claudius comes to suspect she wanted to take him as her lover, and that he's the real father of his youngest daughter Octavia]].
* PlotTriggeringDeath: Julius Caesar's is this, since his murder brings his nephew and adoptive son Octavian/Augustus to the center of the political stage.
* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: This is what Claudius is forced to write during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. His 3 works of the time are a history of Augustus' religious reforms, in which he carefully avoids to point out some mistaked made by the emperor's advisors on the matter, and two books about the history of Carthage and Etruria, both of them being uncontroversial topics by the time he wrote them. Nevertheless, he is quite proud of his works. He also claims his official autobiography, written after he becomes emperor, is this. He can't legally criticize Augustus and Livia because they have been deified, and he considers it would be unfair to criticize Tiberius and Caligula while not pointing out the faults of their predecessors.
* PosthumousCharacter: UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, Octavia, UsefulNotes/MarkAntony, Claudius' paternal grandfather, and many others have a lot of bearing in the plot but are dead by the time the protagonist is born. His father Drusus also counts as this, since he dies when Claudius is only a baby.
* PrematurelyBald: Caligula loses his hair in his 20s. His grandmother Julia, Augustus' daughter, also goes bald when she's only a teenager, although Claudius speculates it might have been Livia's doing.
* PromotionToParent: After his father's death, Germanicus becomes the head of his family (''pater familias''), and acts as a sort of father figure to his younger brother Claudius.
* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight:
** In ''Claudius the God'', Claudius is told by Messalina that a prophecy says that her husband is going to die in a month. She uses this to convince him to divorce her (strictly ''pro forma!'') and marry her off to another man. When Claudius realises that it was a plot against him, he sentences that man to death.
** When a wounded wolf-cub falls into the boy Claudius's hands, his mother sends the children away to consult an augur. Claudius's sister eavesdrops, though, and hears the meaning: that Rome (the wolf) will be in desperate straits, and Claudius will protect it. She sneers "I hope I'll be long dead before then!", and her mother angrily punishes her, "You're going to be locked up in a room with nothing to eat"--both inadvertent prophecies, as the mother ends up starving her adult daughter to death years later.
** Tiberius has an astrologer who successfully predicts his rise to power, then warns him to "beware when your own lizard sends him a message". When Tiberius sees his pet giant lizard suddenly dead and being torn apart by ants, his own death follows shortly after.
** Repeatedly in both books, there are prophecies of a new god arising--saying such things as that he will die alone and his friends will drink his blood, but that no temple in the Roman Empire will be dedicated to any god but him. Both Livia and Caligula believe that the prophecies are about them, but they're mistaken; rather, these seem to be prophecies of Christianity displacing the Roman religion.
* PropheciesRhymeAllTheTime: Early on, we see two Sibylline prophecies that hint of Claudius's rule. Both prophecies rhyme, though that wasn't a typical feature of Greek or Latin poetry (or prophecy). Arguably it's TranslationConvention, translating Greek verse (which was based on patterns of long and short syllables) into an equivalent English poetic form (based on stressed syllables and rhyme).
* ProphecyTwist:
** Claudius reveals early on that he had learned of a prophecy that describes his predecessors and himself, and speaks of his successor as [[InadequateInheritor horrible]], and the last. Claudius interprets this to mean that [[spoiler:his successor will be Rome's last Emperor, and that after him, the Republic will be restored, which is why he allows the horrible Nero to be his successor. However, the prophecy actually means ([[DramaticIrony as the audience knows but Claudius doesn't]]) that Nero will be the last Julio-Claudian Emperor (but will of course have numerous successors).]]
** Caligula is told to beware of "Cassius". He interprets this as a warning againts his brother-in-law Cassius Longinus. [[spoiler:In the end, he's killed by Cassius '''Chaerea''']].
** Tiberius is told that in ten years, "Tiberius Caesar" will still be emperor. He interprets it as a reassurance that he has ten more years to live and reign. [[spoiler:He dies not long after that, and the prophecy is fulfilled by his nephew Claudius, whose first name is also Tiberius and who takes the surname Caesar when he becomes emperor]].
* PublicExecution: Subverted. People are executed in private, but their bodies are desecrated in public.
* PuppetKing: [[spoiler:Claudius]] chooses to become this after [[spoiler:the fall of Messalina]].
* PyrrhicVictory: Several cases.
** Livia manages to put her son Tiberius on the throne, but he loathes her, and eventually strips her of almost all political influence.
** Sejanus and Livilla [[spoiler:achieve their goal of getting rid of Agrippina and her children, but after years of fueling Tiberius' paranoia, the emperor is quick to realise Sejanus has grown too powerful (and therefore, dangerous), and after a timely warning from Antonia, has him killed.]]
** Macro helps Caligula get the throne by [[spoiler:murdering Tiberius. Not long after he becomes emperor, Caligula goes mad and puts Macro to death]].
** [[spoiler:Agripinilla gets to see her son Nero become emperor. A few years later, Nero orders her death]].
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* IClaudius/IClaudiusBookTropesIToM



[[folder:Tropes I to M]]
* ICommaNoun: The book may be the UrExample.
* IdenticalGrandson:
** [[spoiler:Britannicus, Claudius' son, is very similar both in looks and personality to Germanicus, Claudius' brother. For a time that leads Claudius to suspect that Caligula, Germanicus' son, was Britannicus' real father]].
** Nero, who is undoubtily Germanicus' grandson, also looks a lot like him, and the contrast between his handsome appearance and his corrupt personality greatly upsets Claudius.
* IllegalReligion: Several religious cults are banned in Rome and other parts of the Empire, including Christianity and Druidism.
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Tiberius' friend, Cocceius Nerva, is described by Claudius as an example: he "never made an enemy and never lost a friend" and he was "sweet-tempered, generous, courageous, utterly truthful and was never known to stoop to the least fraud, even if good promised to come from so doing". Nerva, however, does not protest Tiberius' depravity, because he's just too innocent and absent-minded to notice it.
* InheritanceMurder: Livia's grand plan is to ensure her son Tiberius becomes Augustus's successor by eliminating everyone ahead of him in the succession, one way or another.
* InTheBlood: Claudius discusses how, in its long history, there have been two types of people in his family: [[TheWisePrince those who are exceptionally wise and just]], and [[TheEvilPrince those who are vile, decadent cutthroats]].
* InsultToRocks: Claudius' mother, Antonia, manages to make this one do double duty, by finding something a moment later that she thinks is a sufficiently insulting comparison.
-->'''Antonia''' : That man [a senator] ought to be put out of the way! He's as stupid as a donkey—what am I saying? Donkeys are sensible beings by comparison—he's as stupid as... as... Heavens, he's as stupid as my son Claudius!
* InVinoVeritas:
** Invoked twice. First, when Claudius has dinner with [[spoiler:Livia]], he drinks too many cups of wine and speaks to her with brutal honesty. She's actually pleased, and mentions this trope by name.
** Later, when Claudius becomes emperor, he and Herod Agrippa get drunk together. Herod advises him not to trust anyone, including himself. [[spoiler:In the end, Herod betrays Claudius, trying of organize an uprising against Rome]].
* ItsAllAboutMe: In his last years, Tiberius feels sorry for '''himself''' after having murdered [[spoiler:Sejanus, Agrippina]] and countless other people.
* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Claudius makes a few mentions of this weird new cult called "the Christians", and is happy to say that he probably won't be troubled by them again.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Or ''Pompous Sycophant Has A Point''. A translation of Seneca the Younger's ''The Pumpkinication of Claudius'' is included in the epilogue. While Seneca spends a lot of time mocking Claudius' disabilities and praising Nero shamelessly, he also skewers Claudius on his genuine faults.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Herod Agrippa, whom Claudius describes in ''Claudius the God'' as "a scoundrel with a golden heart."
* JustTheFirstCitizen: Augustus, who was the TropeNamer in real life.
* KangarooCourt: During Tiberius and Caligula's reigns almost every treason trial is this, and the Roman justice system becomes more and more corrupt as time goes by. Claudius tries to change things when he becomes Emperor, but several innocent people are executed during his reing nonetheless.
* KingIncognito: After his Triumph, Claudius disguises himself as a commoner and walks the streets of Rome to listen to what his subjects really think of him.
* KingOnHisDeathbed: Augustus and Tiberius, at the end of their reigns. [[spoiler:Caligula is so impatient to become emperor, he has Tiberius smothered with a pillow.]]
* KissingCousins: Almost every marriage in the imperial family is between cousins: Julia and Marcellus, Agrippina and Germanicus, Castor and Livilla, Nero and Helen, Claudius and Messalina, etc.
* KlingonPromotion:
** The early Roman Empire is depicted this way, albeit with the murders carried out by proxy rather than in person. [[spoiler:Livia, after killing everyone higher up the line of succession, poisons Augustus so Tiberius can succeed him; Caligula succeeds by having Tiberius smothered; and at the end Agrippina poisons Claudius to clear the way for Nero. The only Emperor who doesn't succeed this way is Claudius himself, who had nothing to do with Caligula's murder. (Historically, it's doubtful if Augustus and Tiberius were murdered, though Claudius probably was.)]]
** [[spoiler:Macro]] becomes commander of the Praetorian Guard after having his predecessor, [[spoiler:Sejanus]], executed.
* LadyMacbeth: Livia, wife of Emperor Augustus and the Manipulative Bitch who essentially becomes the Woman Behind The Man by killing all the people that he won't to ensure that her descendants inherit the empire. Clearly one of the bad Claudians.
* LastMinuteReprieve: Averted. [[spoiler:When Tiberius dies, several people have been sentenced to death by him. They hope the new emperor Caligula might pardon them, but they can't reach to him in time and end up executed]].
* TheLoinsSleepTonight: Augustus was apparently incapable of sustaining an erection with Livia, something she uses to her advantage.
* LonelyFuneral: [[spoiler:Antonia]]'s funeral is only attended by Claudius, Herod Agrippa and a handful more. This is because no one dares to offend Caligula, who drove her to suicide.
* LongGame: Claudius writes and buries his memoirs for the specific purpose of having them discovered "nineteen hundred years or near" later, as the Sybil said they would be.
* LongHairedPrettyBoy: Nero is disdainfully described like this by Claudius.
* LoopholeAbuse: When Sejanus and his supporters [[spoiler:are being eliminated, guards are sent to kill his young children as well. [[EvenEvilHasStandards They're understandably reluctant to do so]] and one of them even protests that the daughter is underage and a virgin; executing a virgin is unprecedented and could bring bad luck on the city. Macro's solution? Rape her, ''then'' kill her. Her brother is also underage, but they dress him up in his coming of age robes so he's legally a man - then they kill him too.]] As is the case with most of the stuff in these books, sadly TruthInTelevision.
* TheLostLenore:
** [[spoiler:Claudius' first love was a girl named Camilla who returned his affection. Unfortunately on the day they were to be betrothed, she was fatally poisoned (apparently as a RevengeByProxy against her uncle, but heavily implied to have been killed by Livia, so that she can have Claudius betrothed to another girl) and poor Claudius clearly never recovered emotionally from it.]]
** Tiberius feels this way about his first wife, Vipsania. In this case, however, she didn't die: Tiberius was forced by Livia to divorce her so that he could make a more advantageous match by marrying Augustus' daughter Julia. Making things worse, Vipsania goes on to marry another man, who is a political rival to Tiberius.
* LoveableRogue: Herod Agrippa.
* LoveInterestTraitor: [[spoiler:Messalina]] ends up being this to [[spoiler:Claudius]], eventually trying to overthrow him and put her lover on the throne.
* LuredIntoATrap: A sealed letter from Tiberius arrives to Rome, and [[spoiler:Sejanus is led to believe it contains his appointment for a high office. He goes to a Senate meeting were the letter will be opened and read out loud. But instead of the appointment, the letter orders Sejanus' arrest, and he is seized on the spot by the Praetorian Guard]].
* MadOracle: The Sybil.
* MakeAnExampleOfThem: Many people executed for treason are dragged by a hook and thrown to the river Tiber.
* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Several cases.
** Brutus, Julius Caesar's murdered, is claimed to be his biological son.
** Urgulanilla, Claudius' first wife, is believed to be Tiberius' daughter.
** Livia says Julia isn't really Augustus' daughter, although this is probably false.
** [[spoiler:Gemellus, Castor and Livilla's son and Tiberius' grandson, is revealed to actually be the child of Livilla's lover, Sejanus]].
** [[spoiler:After Claudius finds out how many times Messalina cheated on him, he starts doubting whether he's the real father of their kids. He comes to the conclusion that Britannicus is his child, but Octavia isn't]].
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The books are mostly straightforward and realistic, but there are a few suspiciously accurate prophecies regarding the fates of the emperors that are difficult to explain away as coincidence.
* MenAreTheExpendableGender: This trope is invoked and defied by Claudius, who sentences several women involved in conspiracies against him to death, saying there's no reason why their gender should protect them.
* MockMillionaire: One of the ways in which Herod manages to constantly get loans is to pretend to be wealthier than he really is; he knows that people will be more willing to lend him money if they thinks he's rich enought to pay them back.
* MoralEventHorizon: InUniverse. Claudius is devastated when he hears that Sejanus's underage children have been murdered as part of ThePurge, and that in order to avoid sacrilege, the Guards first dressed the boy up in a man's toga, and raped the girl to make them (technically) adults before they were killed. He says that nothing Rome ever does can atone for such a crime.
* MoralityChain: Vipsania and Drusus to Tiberius early on in the story; Claudius notes that initially their influence checked the worse elements of his nature, but as he was forced to divorce Vipsania and Drusus was sent on a military campaign to a different part of the empire, their influence on Tiberius was removed and he gradually went altogether to the bad ([[spoiler:especially after the two died]]). Later, and to a lesser degree, Cocceius Nerva to Tiberius. Caesonia tries to be this to Caligula, advising him to rule mildly and earn people's love. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, this only makes Caligula announce that he will grant everyone amnesty and rule with love for a thousand of years, but only after purging Senate]].
* MoralityPet: Tiberius is portrayed as a pedophile who murders most of his relatives and a good chunk of the senate but for some reason he insists on having an innocent and virtuous senator, Cocceius Nerva live with him in his Evil Playboy Mansion on Capri. It helps that Nerva seems to be the only real friend Tiberius had since the death of his brother Drusus and that he is possibly the only person in the empire who believes Tiberius to be just and moral, as Tiberius can't bring himself to disillusion him. [[spoiler:When the senator decides to commit suicide, Tiberius is distraught, and actually goes so far as to tear up some death warrants in the hope that this will convince Nerva to live on.]]
* MotherMakesYouKing: Tiberius only becomes Emperor because his mother Livia has been very active in removing any inconvenient competitors for the succession that might stand in his way. [[spoiler:And Agrippinilla clearly has the same designs in mind for her son Nero at the end of the story.]]
* TheMutiny: At the beginning of Tiberius' reign, several legions in Germany and the Balcans rebel against the new Emperor. Germanicus and Castor are sent to quell the uprising.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
** Antonia, Claudius' mother, realizes she's been an awful parent shortly before [[spoiler:commiting suicide, when it's too late to change things between them. Even after admitting this to Claudius, she keeps nagging him.]]
** Claudius has a major one after [[spoiler:Messalina's downfall, when he realizes that his competent rule has strenghtened the imperial monarchy, making it impossible to restore the Republic]].
* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Cassius Chaerea, the Praetorian Guard officer [[spoiler:who eventually forms the plot to assassinate Caligula]], is portrayed as one of the bravest and most loyal soldiers in the entire Roman military, and puts up with a tremendous amount of abuse from [[TheCaligula Caligula]]; Claudius reflects that the fact a man like Chaerea can be pushed to his limit is a sign of just how depraved, capricious, and dangerous life under Caligula's reign is.
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