I, Claudius. Robert Graves.

I, Claudius: From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, Born BC X--Murdered and Deified AD LIV.
Robert Graves
New York: Random House. 1934/1961.

Novel. The Roman Emperor who. according to Graves, would be an historian. Had no goal in life but to write books of history. Stuttered. Sickly. When he reluctantly became emperor, he saw it as an opportunity to write more books of history and to force people to listen to him reading the books he wrote.

However, my research presented Claudius as far from the benign, scholarly narrator of Graves' I, Claudius. He was as cruel as his predecessors and the emperors who followed him.

The time of Augustus, Tiberius and Caligula, and, following Claudius, Nero.

Politics, politics, politics. Cruelty. The Romans may have been great professional engineers but they were obsessed with power, politics and cruel revenge. The exercise of politics in ancient Rome often meant death to the one who lost. Ambitious relatives were as likely to be killed as political enemies. The emperor's word was law, enough for someone to go home and commit suicide when suggested to do so.

Rome represents humanity's cruelty when invested with absolute power.

All the best. RayS.