She is the only one I can think of among the powerful who died a natural death. Livia, perhaps is the most fascinating character. With Caligula, retiring and deferential became a combination of flattery and fawning–not particularly becoming, but he survived. Aside from being censored by Livia, he was able to devote himself to his love of history, and the responsibilities that came with his high birth. Graves showed how he complemented these infirmities with a retiring and deferential demeanor.

His infirmities rendered him “harmless” in the eyes of rivals and the powerful. Augustus wife Livia banished him from her table because of his “uncouthness.” Given Livia’s propensity for poisoning, he was lucky. In addition, he had a considerable stutter. In his youth, he suffered from infantile paralysis (in Graves rendering, others have questioned this), and only hobbled rather than walked. Robert Graves fictional biography describes how it happened. By all rights, he should not have escaped the various purges, especially under insane Caligula, with whom he share the consulship. None died of old age.Ĭlaudius mother was Antonia, a niece of Caesar Augustus and sister-in-law of Tiberius, who succeeded Caesar. Before Claudius, there was Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula. You only became emperor by surviving intrigues. To be Roman emperor, or close to the emperor, was to live with the threat of assassination, whether by the knife, or by poison. Summary: A fictional autobiography of Claudius, of how a physical handicap and speech impairment enabled him to escape death by intrigue until he rose to emperor.Ĭlaudius was a survivor. New York: Vintage International, 1989 (first published 1934).

I claudius by robert graves