I, Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus lived from 10 B.C. to 54 A.D. Despised as a weakling and considered an idiot because of his physical infirmities, Claudius survived the intrigues and poisonings of the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and the mad Calgula to become emperor in 41 A.D. I, Claudius is written in the form of Claudius' autobiography and is one of the classics of modern fiction, the best fictional reconstruction of Rome ever written. --back cover
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2007–2026years
68% recommend32% neutral
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What Hacker News says
- Watching?
I just finished reading “I, Claudius” and “Cladius the God” this month. Didn’t know there was a series / movie, would you recommend it?
(I highly recommend the books FWIW, although I prefer the more modern writing style of the Cicero trilogy)
- Having trouble following names? Read I Claudius.
- If I may hijack your reply for a recommendation thread, I'd recommend "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker, too. It's worth it just for the section on metaconcepts. I loved how much simpler my writing became when I removed them.
Also, read anything by Robert Graves. He did write a style guide called "The Reader Over Your Shoulder", but that's optional; I learned far more about good writing from "I, Claudius" and "Good-Bye to All That".
- I’m reading the sequel to Robert Grave’s classic, I, Claudius. In it, Cæsar Claudius describes the Imperial Senate’s process of proactive prostration.
The Emperor never requests favours. Instead, ambitious Senators must guess his desires and offer them to him, at which point a song and dance is done about his refusing and the Senate insisting and him, reluctantly, accepting the honor.
- Best that I've read: I Claudius, by Robert Graves.
- And the sequel, Claudius the God. Some of the page-turniest yet most glowingly literary fiction you're likely to read!
This was Graves' idea of making a quick buck by dashing off a potboiler, btw:
> Graves stated in an interview with Malcolm Muggeridge in 1965, that he wrote I, Claudius mainly because he needed the money to pay off a debt, having been let down in a land deal. He needed to raise £4000, but with the success of the books he brought in £8000 in six months, thus extricating himself from his precarious financial position. [2]
