This page is for tropes that have appeared in I, Claudius (the series, not the novels).
For the rest:
- I, Noun: I, Claudius. The original book popularized this naming convention in the 20th century.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Livia ruthlessly manipulates and kills family members and anyone else close to them to ensure her son becomes emperor and Rome does not return to being a Republic, convinced this is the only way for the city to remain great.
- Ignored Epiphany: When Sejanus tries to convince his lover Livilla that him marrying her daughter will be the politically best decision and will enable them to stay together, Livilla yells at him and seems to finally recognise him for the nasty person he is. She promptly ignores this in favour of attempting to poison her daughter so that she can keep Sejanus for herself.
- I Have No Son!: When Augustus finds out about Julia's many affairs he banishes her and as he said later to Tiberius:"My daughter... People say...'Bring her back'...They shout at me in the street. Do you know that?...'Wicked!' they say. 'Bring her back.'...but nononono...She's not my daughter anymore...I've forgotten her"
- I Made Copies: Nero and Agrippinilla burn Claudius's book. He already had it copied and buried.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Caligula + Drusilla + amateur Caesarian section + fetus
= Squick to the power of infinity. The scene was originally even more horrific, but after the premiere screening the BBC insisted on cuts. The original uncut version no longer exists. It still has the power to fracture the Fourth Wall - the whole series is uploaded to YouTube with Russian fan subtitles. The subtitles are of professional quality, never turning to Fun with Subtitles. However, the aforementioned incident with Caligula happens right before the end of the episode. As the credits start to roll, the words "Horrific, wasn't it?" appear on the screen. - Impairment Shot: The last thing that poor Castor sees as he's dying is his wife Livilla and Sejanus, who conspired to poison him, embracing.
- Incest Subtext: Tiberius and Drusus in the bath together, naked.
- Inherent in the System: This is the real reason why Rome never becomes a republic again, and why nobody really wants it to either: the system is built around the exercising of power and status to get anything done and it practically encourages everyone in authority to be self-serving if they don't want to be replaced by their own underlings.
- Insane Equals Violent: Manages to subvert this despite featuring the actual Caligula. His violent / psychopathic tendencies are explicitly shown NOT to follow from his psychotic delusions: he's a killer from childhood, but doesn't go mad until after he becomes Emperor years later. Livia and other murderous characters are described as "mad" by other characters, but are not shown as irrational - even Nero, explicitly called "as mad as... Caligula", is clearly nothing of the kind.
- I See Dead People: In "Old King Log", Claudius sees his dead family members (including his predecessors as Emperor), looking as they did in their youth, walk up to him and address him one by one, a sign that his own death is near. The scene cuts back to the Senate to show that Claudius alone can see these visions.Augustus: Well done, Claudius! Emperor after all! Who would have thought it, eh? (smiles, and walks off)
Livia: You're a fool, boy. You always were. People say it's not your fault, but if it's not your fault, whose fault is it, eh? (tuts, and walks off)
Antonia: And your nose is still running, Claudius. It's still running. (Caligula walks up behind her and taps her on the shoulder) Excuse me. (she leaves)
Caligula: Uncle-
Tiberius: (motioning Caligula away) Just a minute. Just wait your turn. (he waves a hand in front of Claudius' face as Caligula rolls his eyes)
(scene cuts to the Senate to reveal two senators standing where Tiberius and Caligula are in Claudius' vision)
Senator: (waves his hand in front of Claudius' face) Shall a doctor be brought?
(scene cuts back to Claudius' vision of Tiberius and Caligula)
Tiberius: Wasn't worth it, was it? I could have told you that.
Caligula: Uncle Claudius, I wasn't that Messiah after all. Would you believe it? You could have knocked me over with a feather when they told me... - I Take Offense to That Last One:Tiberius: Let me go, you fat, drunken cow!Julia: FAT?!
- It Amused Me: Caligula has some shades of this - he does things like set up the young, beautiful Messalina with unattractive Claudius because he thinks it's funny.
- It Will Never Catch On: At one point, Claudius is told about the Jews' belief in a Messiah to come, and that there have been plenty of men who claimed to be him. The most recent of the bunch was one Joshua bar Joseph who was executed fifteen years ago. There are still people who say he was the real thing, but it's one of many small heretical cults and of no importance.
- I Was Quite a Looker:
- We see Augustus's wife Livia as a middle-aged woman, then an elderly widow, then an unbelievably old crone. But as she comments to her granddaughter late in life, she was quite a dish in her youth:
Livilla: The most beautiful in the world, they say.
Livia: There was one other. But she was in Egypt. And besides, she didn't last as long as I have.- To Caligula, Livia is a case of Silver Vixen. But it's presented as perversion on his part (one of his many, many perversions) as she is his great-grandmother.
- Jerkass Gods: Discussed by Livia and Claudius as Livia believes that by being proclaimed a goddes, she won't be punished for her sins.Livia: Claudius, do you believe that the souls of great criminals suffer eternal torment?
Claudius: Certainly.
Livia: But that the immortal gods, whatever crimes they have committed, are free from fear of punishment?
Claudius: Of course. Jove deposed his father, killed one of his grandsons and incestuously married his own sister. He's the greatest god of all - Jerkass Has a Point: Livia does a lot of horrible things, but she points out that if she hadn't interfered, the empire could very well have been plunged into civil war again.
- Just the First Citizen: According to the "memoir", Claudius followed Augustus' example to an extent, only taking on further titles as they were earned (i.e. not calling himself imperator until he commanded troops. Even Caligula started like this, before the whole A God Am I thing). Though technically, until he won a battle, he would have been titled dux, not imperator. A dux was a leader who had not yet won a battle; as soon as they won a battle, they became an imperator. Seeing as this is based of Roman texts, his being called imperator is actually a rather important point; it shows that not only is he a leader, he is actually somewhat successful. The Roman Historian Cassius Dio claims Caligula was hailed Imperator many times 'though he had won no battle and slain no enemy.'
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Messalina is executed halfway through a plea not to be beheaded.(as one guard grabs her hair and another swings his sword back) Not my head! Not my- (thunk)
- Kissing Cousins: Julia and Marcellus, Castor and Livilla, Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder. One of Claudius' men even lampshades how common it is, saying a hundred years ago it was illegal in Rome, now it is done all the time.
- King on His Deathbed: Notably Augustus and Tiberius.
- Lady Macbeth: Livia spurs the ambitions of her son Tiberius to be emperor, which he's not opposed to at first—but all the sacrifices Livia arranges to clear his path (his happy marriage, the lives of several family members, independence in the prime years of his life) means that by the time he does get on the throne, he no longer has any interest in it.
- Large Ham: BRIAN BLESSED as Augustus and John Hurt as Caligula are the two major offenders, although Brian is fairly low-key by Brian standards. Subverted by John Rhys-Davies, who is well-known for being ale to ham it up with th best of them, but instead plays Macro as a subtle and menacing figure, and does it very well.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Of all people, Caligula delivers it to Livia.
- Last Note Nightmare: The jaunty-yet-sinister main theme ends with an unsettling metallic shriek at the end of the closing credits.
- Leave Behind a Pistol: Frequently. In Ancient Rome, taking one's own life was seen as an honorable response for people guilty of treason. (If you were lucky enough to get a trial, and one that wasn't a Kangaroo Court, you could tough it out—but a guilty verdict would bring ruin on the whole family, while delivering the coup de grace to yourself would not.) Several characters are faced with the choice to take their own lives honorably or be executed.
- Lonely at the Top: Claudius learns this the hard way after being forced to execute Messalina. When Claudius sees all the important people in his life, Tiberius's ghost flat out tells him "Wasn't worth it was it?", showing that Tiberius also felt that way.
- Long Game:
- 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.
- Livia arranges for the adolescent Postumus and Livilla to be married to different people, knowing that they have a crush on each other and will be drawn to commit adultery several years down the line, which she will in turn be able to use as blackmail material.
- Loophole Abuse: When Sejanus and his supporters are being eliminated, guards are sent to kill his young children. They're understandably iffy about doing so, and one of them even protests that the daughter is a virgin; executing a virgin is unprecedented and could bring bad luck on the city. Macro's solution? Ensure that she is no longer a virgin, then kill her. Her brother is also underage, but they dress him up in his coming of age robes so he's legally an adult - then they kill him too.
- Mandatory Motherhood: Messalina really has no interest in having Claudius's children, but it's what Roman wives do.
- The Man Behind the Man: Livia claims that all of Augustus's instincts for politics were wrong, and she had to guide him into making every good decision he ever made.
- Manipulative Bastard:
- Sejanus does a pretty good job manipulating himself and his family into positions of power, even convincing Claudius to marry his sister. Eventually, he tries to manipulate himself into the position of Tiberius' de facto successor by poisoning Castor with the help of Livilla, whom Sejanus plans to marry, so that when Tiberius dies and his heir apparent, Castor and Livilla's son Gemellus, is named Emperor, Sejanus will rule as regent. However, he does a poor job of covering his tracks, which is how Antonia is able to expose his crimes to Tiberius, resulting in his denunciation, arrest, and execution.
- Messalina has Claudius wrapped around her little finger, and uses his adoration of her to pursue a long string of sexual conquests while he suspects nothing. However, her ambition outpaces her ability when she marries Silius with plans to rule Rome with him; Claudius' freedmen Pallas and Narcissus are able to countermanipulate Claudius into ordering first her arrest, then her execution. When Messalina discovers she cannot manipulate her way out of these predicaments, she suffers a Villainous Breakdown.
- Livia, more than anyone else. She manipulates Augustus into making Tiberius his successor by systematically eliminating the competition, either by poisoning them herself or by having them murdered by hired hands. She also brings Julia's many adulteries to Augustus' attention, resulting in her exile, and is the mastermind behind Postumus being falsely accused of raping Livilla, resulting in his exile. In contrast to the other manipulative bastards of the series, she is not undone by overambition partly because she is very good at covering her tracks and partly because her ultimate ambition is not to rule Rome herself, but to preserve Rome's greatness by preventing the return to the constant internal strife of the Republic that she believes would result if anyone but Tiberius succeeded Augustus.
- Master Poisoner: Livia, Agrippina, Martina (who met her match with Livia) and Livilla, who willingly fed poison to both a husband and a daughter.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
- Did all the signs and prophecies mentioned in the series really come true, or were they just coincidences? Did Claudius really see the Sibyl on his deathbed or was it just a Dying Dream? Did Herod die a horrible death because he tried to set himself up as a god and the real God struck him down, or was that just a coincidence? The narrative seems to imply that supernatural forces might have been at work within the story (and many of the characters were dead certain of it, at least).
- Viewers are supposed to at least recognize that Thrasyllus' prophecies were pretty much right at least that a man would be killed and become a god that would completely replace all the gods of Rome. Caligula was just wrong in assuming he would be that god.
- Mood Whiplash:
- "Some Justice" opens with Claudius relaxing at a party with his friends—until Lollia, the hostess, relates how Tiberius defiled her, then kills herself in front of her guests.
- The farcical acclamation of Claudius as Emperor by the Praetorian Guard takes place right after the conspirators murder Caligula's innocent wife and infant daughter.
- Claudius gets called out his bed in the middle of the night along with two other Roman officials and they all wait in a dark room for a surely hideous fate at the hands of Caligula. Cue Caligula jumping out of the shadows in drag to perform a song and dance number for them.
- My Beloved Smother: Livia to Tiberius. When he can finally shove her out of power, he does so happily.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Caligula, of all people, seems to go through this after killing Drusilla. When he exits the room, he looks shocked beyond belief, and quietly warns Claudius to not go in there...
- Towards the end of her life, Livia fears that her numerous evil deeds will result in her spending an eternity in Hell, hence she asks Claudius to make her a god.
