While avoiding Gibbon’s History of the Roman Empire (a task I will complete at some point) I picked up Robert Graves historical fiction novel- I, Claudius. Published in the 1930’s I, Claudius tells the story of the Julio-Claudian dynasty from the death of Caesar to the crowning of Claudius after Caligula’s assassination. The book is in memoir format- Claudius is a lively narrator and would be “true “historian hoping that if he hides his memoirs they will be recovered in a century when it is safe tell the actual history.

Because Claudius is born with a limp and stutter he is able to be an unseen chronicler and avoid the “power” maelstrom becoming the last man standing. Intrigue, jealousy, divorce, murder, filicide and rape are just some of the acts committed by the monarchy in Rome during the period. All of the major roman players are center stage, Augustus, Livia, Tiberius, Germanicus, Agrippa, Julia and Caligula with such notable minor players as Livy. Claudius memoirs take the reader from Rome to the provinces-Egypt, Syria and Germany. You meet Caligula (little boots) as a young boy much loved by his parents and the Roman army, see Tiberius in love and witness the precarious tightrope between the Senate and the Roman’s distaste for an inherited monarchy.

Graves conversational writing style makes this a fun read and after completing I, Claudius I am tempted to pick up the sequel Claudius the God.