I, ClaudiusArticle Free Pass The book is written as an
autobiographical memoir by the Roman emperor Claudius, who is a
son of a Roman general, a nephew of the emperor Tiberius, and a
great-nephew of the emperor Augustus. Physically weak, afflicted
with stammering, and inclined to drool, Claudius is an
embarrassment to his family and is shunted to the background of
imperial affairs. The benefits of his seeming ineffectuality are
twofold: he becomes a scholar and historian, fascinated with the
intrigues of his contemporaries, and he is spared the worst
cruelties inflicted on the imperial family by its own members
during the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula. Palace
intrigues and murders—including those of Claudius’s father and
brother and of Augustus’s sons and grandsons—surround him. The
machinations result from his family members’ lust for power,
from their fear of losing power, from their jealousies, and from
the innate cruelty and depravity of the insane Caligula. Livia,
wife of Augustus and mother