History Literature / IClaudius

* TangledFamilyTree: An example of TruthInTelevision; the convoluted relationships (both through blood and through marriage -- not to mention adoption) between all the Julio-Claudians are extremely complex. Claudius devotes the better part of a chapter to helping the reader untangle his relations.

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: It happens to several characters, but the one who takes it harder 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.]]

* OverlordJr: Caligula is this to Tiberius, although he's only Tiberius' adoptive son (and grandnephew).

* 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, so he wants to erase him from his family tree.

** Tiberius loves his brother Drusus, his first wife Vispania, and if fond of his friends Thrasyllus and Nerva. He also had a genuinely cordial relationship with Augustus, until he forced him to divorce Vipsania.

* FamousLastWords: Julius Caesar, Augustus and [[spoiler:Agrippinilla]]'s historical final words are quoted.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Sejanus, Tiberius, and Caligula after he shows his true colors. Claudius himself, despite being a benign ruler, becomes unpopular during a food shortage in Rome.

* InfantImmortality: Averted many, many times. [[spoiler:Drusillus, Sejanus' children, Gemellus, Caligula's daughter]] and several other children are murdered.

* {{Cuckold}}: Caligula has a fetish for boning other men's wives, both to satiate his own lusts and to humiliate the husbands.

* UnnamedParent: The names of Claudius' parents are stated a couple of times, but he mostly refers to them as "my father" and "my mother". He also only refers to his paternal grandfather as "my grandfather".

* BiTheWay: Julius Caesar is stated to be bisexual in the Sybil's prophecy, and Claudius' narration confirms it (although modern historians do not entirely agree).

* 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 also counts as this, since he dies when Claudius is only a baby.

* PosthumousCharacter: Julius Caesar, Octavia, Mark Antony, 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 also counts as this, since he dies when Claudius is only a baby.

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 Emperor UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}} (starting around 24/23 B.C.) to the death of the eponymous character, Claudius, through whose eyes all of the action is seen.

** Averted with [[spoiler:Claudius]] (although ancient historians portrayed him this way) with regards to his marriage with [[spoiler:Agrippinilla]], his own niece. While some historians claim [[spoiler:Agripinilla]] seduced her uncle in order to convince him to marry her, in the book it is portrayed as only a political alliance, with no sexual element involved.

-->''"A harlot's love; a harlot's lie"'' -

* 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.

** Later, when Claudius becomes emperor, Herod Agrippa and him get drunk together. Herod advises him not to trust anyone, including himself. [[spoiler:In the end, Herod betrays Claudius, trying of organize an uprising againts Rome]].

* 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.

* 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.

* NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine: Claudius' dinner with [[spoiler:Livia]] has shades of this, although Claudius isn't [[spoiler:Livia]]'s prisioner.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When Claudius' [[spoiler: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.

** 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.

* 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 predecesors.

* 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.

* {{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...)

** Claudius' second marriage to Elia, Sejanus' sister, remains unconsumated 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.

* 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's and Nero's tyranny being completely unrestrained after the death of Claudius.]]

* SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome: Claudius' brother Germanicus is far more succesful and popular than him. Claudius doesn't resent him for that.

* 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.

* BodyDouble: [[spoiler:While exiled on an island Postumus is switched with a similar looking slave named Clement when his grandfather Augustus decides to have him covertly removed under Livia's nose from the island upon receiving evidence that he was falsely accused, and it's the slave who dies when the island is attacked under Livia's orders shortly after Augustus dies. This results in Postumus spending some time disguised as Clement]][[note]]In real life, it was the other way around: Clement was an impostor who claimed to be Postumus but was actually a fake[[/note]].

* CoolTeacher: Athenodorus, Claudius' and Herod Agrippa's tutor.

* HumanSacrifice: The Druids sacrifice young men to their gods, something Claudius considers barbaric (altough, as a result of DeliberateValuesDissonance, he has no qualms abouth sacrificing animals to the Roman gods).

** [[spoiler:Macro]] becomes commander of the Pretorian Guard after having his predecessor, [[spoiler:Sejanus]], executed.

** [[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.]]

* 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 Pretorian Guard]].

* SoProudOfYou: After completing his conquest of Britain, Claudius has a dream in which his beloved brother Germanicus tell him how proud he is.

* TheStarscream: Sejanus and Livilla want to overthow Tiberius. [[spoiler:Unfortunately for them, Tiberius gets wind of this and decides to strike first]].

* TakingTheKids: Claudius' grandfather threatens Livia to divorce her and have sole custody of their sons (something Roman law allowed) if she keeps trying to convince him to restore the monarchy.

* WickedCultured: Tiberius is well versed in astrology, poetry and mithology. Livia knows enough history to point out an erroneous reference during a conversation with Claudius (who's a professional historian).

** When Claudius' son with Messalina is born, he's named [[spoiler:Germanicus, in honour of Claudius' deceased brother]]. Later he's known as Brittanicus.

* RemarryingForYourKids: After [[spoiler:Messalina's death, Claudius brings up the subject of his young children Brittanicus 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]].

* TheBeard: Claudius' daugher Antonia is implied to be this to her first husband, Pompey, who has male lovers. [[spoiler:When Claudius finds out of his son-in-law's sexual orientation, he has him killed and finds Antonia a new husband]].

* BigBrotherWorship: Claudius adores his older brother Germanicus (as do almost everyone else).

* BiTheWay: Julius Caesar is stated to be bisexual in the Sybil's prophecy, and Claudius' narration confirms it (although modern historians do not entirenly agree).

* DaddysGirl: Augustus dotes in his only legitimate daughter, Julia.

* DefiledForever: The wife of a senator who was submited to a ScarpiaUltimatum by Tiberius sees herself as this after giving in, and takes her own life.

* EmptyNest: Antonia asks Claudius to let her raise his daugher, also named Antonia, probably because all of her other grandchildren were already grown up.

* EvilChancellor: Sejanus and Macro during Tiberius' and Caligula's reigns. To a lesser extent, Pallas during Claudius'.

** [[spoiler:Agrippinilla]] orders the death of [[spoiler:Lollia]], partly for political reasons, but it's implied that she's also jealous of her beauty. She orders [[spoiler:Lollia]]'s severed head to be brought before her, and critizises her hair and teeth before disposing of it.

* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: A belief held in-universe by Romans, including Claudius himself, who discusses it in ''Claudius the God''. He explicitly states that if a god ceases to be worshipped he is nothing; he also states that, conversely, being worshipped is what makes one a god. This means that, according to Claudius, if a mortal can make others worship him or her and is worshipped genuinely, then he or she is a god and must be accepted as such.

** The legions under Scribonianus' comand decide not to rebel against Claudius.

** [[spoiler:Brittanicus, 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 Brittanicus' real father]].

* ItsAllAboutMe: In his last years Tiberius feels sorry for '''himself''' after having murdered [[spoiler:Sejanus, Agrippina]] and countless other people.

* 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.]]

** Urgulanilla, Claudius' first wife, is believed to be Tiberius' daugher.
** Livia says Julia isn't really Augustus' daugher, although this is probably false.

* 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 the senator to live on.]]

** Antonia, who is an 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.

* 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 critizise Augustus and Livia because they have been deified, and he considers it would be unfair to critizise Tiberius and Caligula while not pointing out the faults of their predecesors.

* RedLightDistrict: During Caligula's Triumph, the soldiers sack the Roman neighborhood were most of the brothels are located.

* 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.

* 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.

* SpeechImpediment: Claudius' stammer, which is caused mostly by stress. When he becomes emperor, it almost dissapears.

* SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome: Claudius' bother Germanicus is far more succesful and popular than him. Claudius doesn't resent him for that.

* TellMeAboutMyFather: In his youth, Claudius speaks to a lot of people who knew his father, 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]].

* WarriorPrince: Augustus and, specially, 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.

* CreepyUncle: Averted with [[spoiler:Claudius]] (although ancient historians portrayed him this way) with regards to his marriage with [[spoiler:Agrippinilla]], his own niece. While some historians claim [[spoiler:Agripinilla]] seduced her uncle in order to convince him to marry her, in the book it is portrayed as only a political alliance, with no sexual element involved.

* DeadGuyJunior: When Claudius' son with Messalina is born, he's named [[spoiler:Germanicus, in honour of Claudius' deceased brother]]. Later he's known as Brittanicus.

* HumanSacrifice: The Druids sacrifice young men to their gods, something Claudius considers barbaric (altough, as a result of ValuesDissonance, he has no qualms abouth sacrificing animals to the Roman gods).

** FaceDeathWithDignity: When Claudius's freedman tricks him into signing [[spoiler: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. Messalina, however, is too much of a coward to kill herself, so she ends up executed. 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."]]

* AbusiveParents: Claudius' mother, Antonia was disgusted by him because of his disabilities, and always considered him to be an idiot. [[spoiler:Even when she decides to kill herself and says goodbye to Claudius, she still doesn't have a kind word for him.]]

* AmbiguouslyBi: Urgulanilla, Claudius' first wife, appears to have been infatuated with her sister-in-law Numantina, and is greatly upset when her brother divorces her. [[spoiler:She takes as a lover a male slave named Boter, who is said to look very much like Numantina]].

* AssholeVictim: It's hard to feel sorry when characters like [[spoiler:Piso, Plancina, Sejanus, Livilla, Tiberius, Macro or Caligula]] end up getting killed.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Livia pretends to be a traditional, virtuous Roman matron, who merely manages her household, takes care of her husband and stays out of politics. In reality, she's a power-hungry Evil Matriarch.

* BodyguardBetrayal: [[spoiler:Macro]], who is the commander of the Praetorian Guard and whose job is to protect [[spoiler:Tiberius]], ends up smothering him with a pillow.
** Later, several other praetorians conspire [[spoiler:succesfully]] to assasinate [[spoiler:Caligula]].

* CoolUncle: Averted with Claudius. Although some are nice to him, none of his nieces and nephews takes him seriously.
* ComfortingTheWidow: After [[spoiler:Castor]]'s death, Sejanus plans to marry his widow [[spoiler:Livilla]]. Tiberius won't allow it.

* DepravedBisexual: Tiberius rapes and molests both boys and girls.

* DrivenToSuicide: Probably the main cause of death in the series. Many characters choose to kill themselves when they are accused of treason, knowing full well they'll be convicted and their properties will be seized by the State. By commiting suicide, they make sure their families are spared.
** There are also some cases when characters kill themselves out of genuine grief and desesperation, such as [[spoiler:Antonia's]] death in the first book and [[spoiler:Cypros']] in the second.

* EnfantTerrible: Caligula's daughter, Julia Drusilla, is a savage little monster who kicks and tears at people with her nails and wishes she could kill her mother. She's also barely two years old.

* EvilIsPetty: At one point, Caligula wants to put [[spoiler:Claudius]] to death because he has a head full of hair and the Emperor is going bald. [[spoiler:Luckily, Claudius manages to talk himself out of it by pretending Caligula ordered to cut his '''hair''' instead of his head.]]

* FamousLastWords: Julius Caesar's, Augustus' and [[spoiler:Agrippinilla]]'s historical final words are quoted.

* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Livia is an interesting example. She uses the vilest means to obtain power, but she's also described as a very able and just ruler. Claudius loathes her because many of her victims, such as [[spoiler:Postumus]] and [[spoiler:Germanicus]], are his dearest friends, but admits her government was much better than Tiberius' and Caligula's.

* HeelFaceTurn: The legions under Scribonianus' comand decide not to rebel against Claudius.

* HeroicBSOD: After Augustus finds out about [[spoiler:Julia's debauchery]], he locks himself in his bedroom and remains there for four days without eating, drinking or talking to anyone.

* IdenticalGrandson: [[spoiler:Brittanicus, 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 Brittanicus' real father]].
** Nero, who is undoubtfully Germanicus' grandson, also looks a lot like him, and the contrast between his handsome appearance and his corrupt personality greatly upsets 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.

* 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.)]]

* 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.]]

* 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.]]

* OddFriendship: Antonia, who is an 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.

* 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).]]

* 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]].

* 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.

* 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 critizise Augustus and Livia because they have been deified, and he considers it would be unfair to critizise Tiberius and Caligula while not pointing out the faults of their predecesors.
* PosthumousCharacter: Julius Caesar, Octavia, Anthony, 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 also counts as this, since he dies when Claudius is only a baby.
* PrematurelyBald: Caligula loses his hair before he turns 30. His grandmother Julia, Augustus' daughter, also goes bald when she's only an teenager, although Claudius speculates it might have been Livia's doing.

* 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.

* 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 [[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 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).]]

* 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]].

* RevengeByProxy: After [[spoiler:Sejanus]]' downfall, his three innocent children are executed as well.

* 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.

* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler:Herod Agrippa]]'s secret plot to rebel against the Roman Empire comes to naught with his abrupt death.

* SiblingRivalry: Drusus, Germanicus' second son, is jealous of Nero, his older brother (not to be confused with the future emperor).

* TreacherousAdvisor: Hermann is this to Varus, before leading the German tribes in open rebellion.

* 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.

* VillainousIncest: Caligula with his sisters and later Agrippinilla with her son Nero.

* WidowedAtTheWedding: [[spoiler:Camilla]]'s death counts as this, although she dies just before her bethrotal ceremony, instead of the wedding itself.

** Claudius has a very similar reaction when they tell him the truth about [[spoiler:Messalina]].

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Claudius has slaves, enjoys gladiator fights and approves of Germanicus slaughtering civilians during the war in Germania. Also, as an emperor, he has a ''lot'' of people executed (including [[spoiler:his son-in-law, simply for being gay]]).

** 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'll be shut up in your room with nothing to eat"--both inadvertant prophecies, as the mother ends up starving her adult daughter to death years later.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: When Claudius lauds someone's virtue, he means their ''Roman'' virtue. For instance, he approvingly refers to his brother's military campaign which killed a large number of German civilians, and orders additional raids to do the same. He's also fine with slavery and puts a great many people to death.

* LoveInterestTraitor: [[spoiler:Messalina]] ends up being this to [[spoiler:Claudius]], eventually trying to overthrow him and put his lover on the throne.