History Literature / IClaudius

* StoppedCaring: Claudius runs rather low on fucks to give after 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 [[spoiler: Calpurnia]] when she's murdered. When his work on the Fucine lake comes crashing down, he finds it hilarious.

* DestroyTheAbusiveHome: Caligula had the house on the island of Pandataria where his mother Agrippina was imprisoned by uncle Tiberius and eventually died destroyed when he became emperor, which Claudius notes resulted in a bit of the StreisandEffect since prior to this no one had paid the house any attention, but after seeing the ruins people naturally became curious as to what had occurred there.

* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: Claudius at one point discusses his distaste for how other men of the noble class take young male lovers who are blatantly {{Gold Digger}}s. While this may come off as an AuthorOnBoard by Graves, this is actually based on fact, as Claudius was one of the few Emperors who never had any male lovers, which was considered odd at the time and remarked upon by contemporaries.

* StoppedCaring: Claudius runs rather low on fucks to give after Messalina dies. When his work on the Fucine lake comes crashing down, he finds it hilarious.

* 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 out of suspicion that she had her brother's second wife killed and because she had a child with a slave 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 the child she had with her slave by swapping it with a stillborn child rather than expose it as was his right as her slighted husband.

* 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 out of suspicion that she had her brother's second wife killed and because she had a child with a slave 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.

** Claudius also alleges that Augustus and Livia were this with, 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.

* FalseRapeAccusation: The reason Posthumus is exiled after he is accused of trying to rape Livilla, who was working with Livia to get rid of him.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The books are mostly straightforward and realistic, but there are a few suspiciously accurate prophecies that are difficult to explain away as coincidence.

* TheCaligula: Features the original UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}} himself]] in all his violent and depraved "glory," and this is the work that most likely crystallized both his public image and [[TropeCodifier the current pattern of the trope]] in the minds of modern-day audiences. Notably, while he's certainly cruel, the real feature that stands out about him is that he's capricious about his cruelty; he's just as likely to spare your life but publicly humiliate you as he is to have you simply tortured or executed out of hand if you run afoul of him.

* 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. Ironically of all his wives she's the only one who never treats him harshly or tries to manipulate him for her own gain.

* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: 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 child son, but Octavia isn't.

* {{Hypocrite}}: The attentive reader will note that Claudius ends up making many of the same mistakes as Emperor he

* BasedOnATrueStory: Yes and no. Most everything in the books, including the really outrageous stuff like Livia poisoning half her family or Messalina having a sexathon, comes from ancient primary sources. However, modern scholars consider much of that to be ancient rumormongering and/or propaganda.

* {{Hypocrite}}: The attentive reader will note that Claudius ends up making many of the same mistakes as Emperor he criticized others for making, including holding on to absolute power despite professing to want to restore the old Roman Republic. Of course, since he's the viewpoint character, [[UnreliableNarrator he has perfectly good and justifiable reasons]]. At the end of ''Claudius the God'', Claudius also realizes this.
* ICommaNoun: The book may be the UrExample.
* 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.
* 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!
* 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.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Herod Agrippa, whom Claudius describes in ''Claudius the God'' as "a scoundrel with a golden heart."
* KlingonPromotion: The early Roman Empire is depicted this way, albeit with the murders carried out by proxy rather than in person. 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.)
* 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.
* 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.
* LoopholeAbuse: When Sejanus and his supporters 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.
* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: 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 child son, but Octavia isn't.
* 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 (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. 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. 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 the senator to live on.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When Claudius' former lover and logtime friend, Calpurnia dies, he writes an epigraph 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.
* OffingTheOffspring: [[EvilMatriarch Livia]] poisoned 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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."
* ProphecyTwist: Claudius reveals early on that he had learned of a prophesy that describes his predecessors and himself, and speaks of his successor as [[InadequateInheritor horrible]], and the last. Claudius interprets this to mean that 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 prophesy 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).
* 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.
* ReallyGetsAround: Julia and Messalina, the latter taking it to absurd levels. Narcissus compiles a list of people she slept with while married to Claudius. The first draft contains 54 names, but it's later extended to 155.
* 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.
* 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 [[Creator/GaiusJuliusCaesar Julius Caesar]] 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 gives a similar speech before an important battle in Britain (without a radish though).
* RoyallyScrewedUp: The Julio-Claudians.
* {{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...)
** FaceDeathWithDignity: When Claudius's freedman trick him into signing Messalina's death-warrant, they make sure to offer Messalina a dagger--to take the honourable way out--in the hopes that they won't have to show the warrant to Claudius. Similarly, when Augustus banishes his daughter Julia for adultery, Julia accepts exile but her maid Phoebe hangs herself in disgrace; Augustus bitterly comments, "I wish to God I had been Phoebe's father."
* ShamingTheMob: Germanicus uses this to put down the mutiny of his troops on the Rhine.
* SexlessMarriage: Claudius and 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. Agrippinilla doesn't mind.
* 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 Agrippinilla from having them killed, stating that so long as he lives their lives are to be spared; 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's 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.
* SpareToTheThrone: Claudius is ''very'' far down the Imperial line of succession. No one expects him to really amount to anything.
* 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: Cocceius Nerva decides that he had lived enough, so he simply stops eating and eventually dies.
* TangledFamilyTree: An example of TruthInTelevision; the convoluted relationships (both through blood and through marriage -- not to mention adoption) between all the Julio-Claudians extremely complex. Claudius devotes the better part of a chapter to helping the reader untangle his relations.
* ThanatosGambit: Claudius lets 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.]]
* ThisIsUnforgivable: After Claudius hears what happened to Sejanus' children (see LoopholeAbuse) he says to himself: "Rome, you are ruined; there can be no expiation for a crime so horrible."
* UglyGuyHotWife:
** Claudius and Messalina. It doesn't work out well; Messalina is able to manipulate Claudius while cheating on him with just about everyone.
** Claudius and Agrippinilla as well, though she isn't the beauty she once was by the time they get married.
* UnreliableNarrator: Claudius admits that he's not aiming to write an objective account and is including a good bit of his own personal speculation.
* 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 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.
* VillainousIncest: Caligula with his sisters and Nero with his mother.
* 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.]]
* VitriolicBestBuds: The historians Livy and Pollio. 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.

----

The novels ''I, Claudius'' and ''Claudius the God'' by Robert Graves, published in 1934 and 1935 follow the history of UsefulNotes/{{the Roman Empire}}, from the latter reign of [[EmperorAugustus Augustus]] (starting around 24/23 B.C.) to the death of the eponymous character, Claudius, through whose eyes all of the action is seen.

* TheCaligula: Features [[EmperorCaligula The original Caligula himself]] in all his violent and depraved "glory," and this is the work that most likely crystallized both his public image and [[TropeCodifier the current pattern of the trope]] in the minds of modern-day audiences. Notably, while he's certainly cruel, the real feature that stands out about him is that he's capricious about his cruelty; he's just as likely to spare your life but publicly humiliate you as he is to have you simply tortured or executed out of hand if you run afoul of him.

* TheCaligula: Features [[EmperorCaligula The original Caligula himself]] in all his "glory," and this is the work that most likely crystallized both his public image and [[TropeCodifier the current pattern of the trope]] in the minds of modern-day audiences. Notably, while he's certainly cruel, the real feature that stands out about him is that he's capricious about his cruelty; he's just as likely to spare your life but publicly humiliate you as he is to have you simply tortured or executed out of hand if you run afoul of him.