Download Ebook I, Claudius & Claudius the God, by Robert Graves
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I, Claudius & Claudius the God, by Robert Graves
Download Ebook I, Claudius & Claudius the God, by Robert Graves
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- Sales Rank: #1572279 in Books
- Published on: 1961
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 862 pages
- Gaius
- Germanicus
- Caesar
- Julius
- Agrippina
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Brings early imperial characters vividly to life.
By SCOTT M WILSON
Really nice piece of historical fiction. Brings early imperial characters vividly to life. Claudius as a character is a great vehicle for this clever narrative.
I initially picked up the story as a pre-Italy vacation book. Now I can't wait to see the room from "Villa Livia" in the Museo Nazionale Romano (Palazzo Massimo Alle Terme). What a wonderfully monstrous character she was!
The beginning of the book flew by, then it got a bit bogged down until Caligula took power toward the last stretch of the book. He was worth the wait - what a terror. Some of the names are tough to follow. Lots of characters zip by, but the author does a good job of jogging your recollection of some of the recurring or important minor ones.
Having savored the completion of the book for a couple of days now, I think the things that will stay with me are:
--> how familiar tyranny is whenever it occurs in history
--> how interesting that this was written in the 1930s with fascism on the rise
--> Caligula was totally outrageous - but familiar at the same time
--> how remarkable it is that some people ever assume power -- perhaps few so remarkable as poor Claudius
--> wow - the power of poison
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Claudius: The Reluctant Emperor
By Maxine A. Hartley
It has been over 70 years since Robert Graves wrote: 'I, Claudius' and 'Claudius The God' but they are still relevant and fascinating reading, especially to those who are interested in ancient Roman history and are curious as to where our society began and who structured it. The answers are: in Rome by Romans.
While the Republic was dead by the time of Claudius (who followed Caesar Caligula, who followed Augustus, who followed Julius Caesar) Claudius always hoped to be Emperor only as long as it took him to re-establish the Republic. Since crises followed crises in quick succession, Claudius was unable to get his wish, which was to return to writing his histories and he died disappointed that this one wish had not been fulfilled.
He was reluctant to begin with. Born lame and stuttering with a head which jerked from side to side (modern doctors think that he had, perhaps, cerebral palsey) he was considered an idiot because of the infirmity of his body. But Claudius had an intelligence far above that of normal and early on in his life, learned Greek (and later, other languages) and began writing histories of Rome and surrounding territories. Because his whole family kept disappearing in quick succession (particularly under the mad Caligula) and were primarily poisoned, he acted the fool and hid away as much as possible, concentrating on his extensive research and his writing. Then the guards murdered Caligula and raising Claudius on their shoulders, proclaimed him Emperor. And so the reluctant reign of this benign,compassionate caesar began.
In 43 A.D. Claudius conquered the Southern Britains and managed to get the queen of southern Wales and the king of Kent on his side as friends and allies of Rome. He couldn't be an active general because of his disabilities but his brilliant mind devised strategic trickery to subdue the Britains. Into the battle fray, he drove elephants and camels, animals from the territories of Rome but strange to the superstitious Britains. This frightened several of the troops enough that they ran away.
Claudius was also reponsible for solving the problems of the Jews in Alexandria (his childhood friend was Herod Agrippa who was raised in Rome) and in 'Syria', roughly, the territory of current day Israel and Palestine. He also made Ostia a secure port, work which took 20 years to complete, so that the grain supply for Rome from Sicily and Africa would reach Rome safely to feed the city during the winter. Claudius also constructed several aqueducts to ensure that the city had clean drinking water, particularly the 'lower' orders, i.e. the plebeians. Previously,disease was rampant in Rome in the winter since the only drinking water for the city residents was the befouled Tiber, into which all sewage ran.
For his historical research, Robert Graves says that he borrowed from historians: Tacitus, Dio Cassius, Seutonius, Pliny, Varro, Valerius Maximus, Orosius, Frontinus, Strabo, Caesar (Julius), Columella, Plutarch, Josephus, Diodorus, Siculus, Photius, Xiphilinus, Zonaras, Seneca, Petronius, Juvenal, Philo, Calsus, the Acts of the Apostles the pseudo-gospels of Nicodemus and St. James and last but not least, Claudius, in his surviving letters and speeches.(Unfortunately, most of Claudius's writings did not survive.) Graves says: 'Few incidents here given are wholly unsupported by historical authority of some sort or other....No character is invented.'
Claudius adopted his stepson, Lucius, who ruled as the infamous Nero.
We are reading of the slow disintegration of Rome through decadence and greed. It probably would have occurred faster than it did, if compassionate and reasonable leaders such as Julius Caesar and Claudius did not appear from time to time. Unfortunately, these leaders were in the minority and mad leaders such as Caligula and Nero became the norm.
Is there a lesson for modern society? I believe there is and it is this: Be as rich as you can be, but do as much as you can for all members of society, particularly the ones which fortune, for one reason of another, has deprived. Only when NO members of society are disenfranchised can a society survive and thrive.
Warning on Text: Unless you have super-sonic eyes, find out what sort of print the text has. The Penguin edition is good, large enough on which to focus. Some of the editions have such small print that one would need a magnifying glass. Penguin is borderline in print size, but one can manage without red-rimmed eyes in the morning.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Survival amidst violence, corruption and chaos
By Guillermo Maynez
Through the voice of Graves, Claudius, or even better, Tiberius Caludius Drusus Nero Germanicus, later Emperor of Rome, tells us his story, a story of precarious survival in a world of intrigue, betrayal, lies and dangerous madmen (and madwomen). Sickly, limp, deaf in one ear, and stammering, Claudius is right from his birth a shy, timorous and diminished boy. In consequence, almost everybody believes him to be hopelessly stupid. Everybody rejects him, except his beloved older brother Germanicus and his friend Postumus, but even these treat him only as their poor protege. His parents tend to his needs, but nothing else. His grandmother Livia, the most fascinating character in the book, despises and hates him. All the rest simply mock or ignore him.
Claudius, with his peculiar and acid sense of humor, tells us the story beginning two generations before his birth. At the end of the Civil War provoked by Julius Ceasar, Augustus (originally Octavian) attains victory and installs him as de-facto Emperor of Rome (it would be centuries later that the pretensions of Republican institutions would be officially disappeared). Livia, a woman sick with ambition and lust for power, divorces Claudius's grandfather and marries Augustus. Thus begins a story of centralization of power, of poisonings and blackmailing, of a power-behind-the-throne which makes Lady Macbeth look like an innocent school girl. Livia is a portent: she possesses incredible political and administrative skills, and she becomes the perfect partner of the noble, capable, but sometimes naive Augustus, who consults with her every matter. Augustus plays good cop: he is honest and magnanimous, the friendly face of the regime. Livia does all the dirty work, with dedication and efficiency. For a moment, the Empire ceases its expansionist efforts, and the resources are dedicated to consolidation of frontiers and to the strengthening of infrastructure and administrative apparatus. A spirit of sacrifice and service prevails. Heroes abound, remarkably Drusus, Claudius's father, and then Germanicus, the older brother and true Hero of Rome. Both men preserve ideas about Republican restoration, something they will pay dearly for.
While many things are passing, Claudius grows up silently in the shadow. Little by little, some people (his two friends, his two servants and his two teachers) discover that the family fool is in fact a clever, observant, just and gentle guy. But no one else notices, which is exactly what saves his life, since no one envies him or feels he is a threat.
When he is thirteen, still living in Rome, Claudius falls in love with an angelical creature, his soulmate, to whom he is promised in marriage. I won't spoil for you what happens the day of the wedding, but suffice it to say that his subsequent married life will be horrible.
During the following years, Claudius retires to live at his villa in Capua, where his only company are some faithful servants and the two successive prostitutes who become his only true friends. After Augustus's death, the obscure Tiberius raises to the throne. Tiberius is a capable politician, soldier and administrator, but he is also a sexual degenerate, a puppet in the hands of his mother Livia, who progressively becomes a paranoid murderer and an intolerable tyrant. Tiberius's years are for Claudius a time of great intellectual achievements (he is an historian and writer), as well as a time of a personal nightmare, for one by one his loved ones are murdered by Tiberius and Livia. Then Tiberius's debacle sets in and he is succeeded by Caligula. Claudius's nephew and Livia's grand-grandson (Livia finally dies at age 86) begins his reign as a benevolent and generous ruler. But one day, after a month of sickness, Caligula sends for Claudius and tells him the real truth: He is God, more powerful than Jupiter. What follows, horrible but fun to read, is the crazed story of a living Devil. Dispend, negligence, murder, degenerate orgies and almost the ruin of the Empire, until the furious masses kill Caligula and crown the ultimate survivor, the only capable man left alive but who, alas, doesn't want to be Emperor.
Thus finishes the first part of Claudius's life, masterfully told by a Classicist, poet and narrator of the first order. This is one of the bloodiest and cruellest books you'll ever going to read, but it is extremely entertaining, illuminating and solid.
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