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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