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A review by xengisa
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
5.0
Chapter 9
"Now listen! Do you want to live a long busy life, with honour at the end of it?"
"Yes."
"Then exaggerate your limp, stammer deliberately, sham sickness frequently, let your wits wonder, jerk your head, and twitch with your hands on all public or semi-public occasions."
---
In this Graves writes a compelling fiction based on the events lasting from Augustus' rule to Caligula's assassination. It has a very easy to read style for some reason and I think because I read Twelve Caesars before this the family tree was not confusing at all. It does breathe life into the era where Suetonius doesn't, through the eyes of Claudius who at the end becomes Emperor after Caligula. To see Grave's takes on several of the characters especially Livia and Caligula and not to mention Claudius himself is very interesting, even if it most likely wasn't the truth. We see this in the first quarter of the book where Livy, Pollio, and Claudius have a discussion about something similar:
Chapter 9
"Livy begins his history by lamenting modern wickedness and promising to trace the gradual decline of ancient virtue as conquests made Rome wealthy. He says he will most enjoy writing the early chapters because he will be able, in doing so, to close his eyes to the wickedness of modern times. But in closing his eyes to modern wickedness hasn't he sometimes closed his eyes to ancient wickedness as well?" "Perhaps there isn't so much difference really between their wickedness and ours. It may be just a matter of scope and opportunity."
And after, "There are two different ways of writing history: one is to persuade men to virtue and the other is to compel men to truth. The first is Livy's and the other is [Pollio's]: and perhaps they are not irreconcilable."
We sort of see this Graves' writing, I think. Many facts are used that we see similarly in The Twelve Caesars. What Graves has done strings these facts (which may be no more than half-truths and blatant lies anyway, since Claudius has been dead awhile, and anyway living men are no more knowledgeable and admitting of the truth) into a coherent and rather compelling narrative through the eyes of a character who has lived closely to these all happenings. The death of Postumus for example he writes something bigger behind it; for the insanity of Caligula we can see it growing and festering even until his death. Frankly speaking I find Tiberius far more unlikeable than Caligula in this story though I cannot be sure why. Livia as a mastermind and an antagonist of sorts is actually quite interesting to read about on the contrary, I'm not sure how Graves conceived the notion but it is a very peculiar thing in things I've read so far.
And this story though we have both quite bad and quite virtuous characters they seem very alive and have lives of their own. We have Germanicus, Agrippina and Calpurnia, for example, and we have Caligula and Tiberius and their ilk on the other. Postumus in particular I thought was a very interesting read, as well as Castor. And they are all written very lifelike and I think that's a feat since reading The Twelve Caesars made the Caesars feel quiet distant and unreal to me. Suetonius always seems like he's weighing them from a (trying to be) unbiased point (though I really don't think he was, but I'm no expert) but Claudius as a character in this story gives us a very vivid scene of what was happening and all. He has his own value judgements but to see it through a first-person lens was interesting to say the least.
I'm not sure if it is all this Graves intended all this but it was the outcome. It was a very good read. But I am also tired and my head is scrambled from everything, so it'll be a while before I start Claudius the God.
---
Chapter 34
I was thinking, "So, I'm Emperor, am I? What nonsense! But at least I'll be able to make people read my books now."
"Now listen! Do you want to live a long busy life, with honour at the end of it?"
"Yes."
"Then exaggerate your limp, stammer deliberately, sham sickness frequently, let your wits wonder, jerk your head, and twitch with your hands on all public or semi-public occasions."
---
In this Graves writes a compelling fiction based on the events lasting from Augustus' rule to Caligula's assassination. It has a very easy to read style for some reason and I think because I read Twelve Caesars before this the family tree was not confusing at all. It does breathe life into the era where Suetonius doesn't, through the eyes of Claudius who at the end becomes Emperor after Caligula. To see Grave's takes on several of the characters especially Livia and Caligula and not to mention Claudius himself is very interesting, even if it most likely wasn't the truth. We see this in the first quarter of the book where Livy, Pollio, and Claudius have a discussion about something similar:
Chapter 9
"Livy begins his history by lamenting modern wickedness and promising to trace the gradual decline of ancient virtue as conquests made Rome wealthy. He says he will most enjoy writing the early chapters because he will be able, in doing so, to close his eyes to the wickedness of modern times. But in closing his eyes to modern wickedness hasn't he sometimes closed his eyes to ancient wickedness as well?" "Perhaps there isn't so much difference really between their wickedness and ours. It may be just a matter of scope and opportunity."
And after, "There are two different ways of writing history: one is to persuade men to virtue and the other is to compel men to truth. The first is Livy's and the other is [Pollio's]: and perhaps they are not irreconcilable."
We sort of see this Graves' writing, I think. Many facts are used that we see similarly in The Twelve Caesars. What Graves has done strings these facts (which may be no more than half-truths and blatant lies anyway, since Claudius has been dead awhile, and anyway living men are no more knowledgeable and admitting of the truth) into a coherent and rather compelling narrative through the eyes of a character who has lived closely to these all happenings. The death of Postumus for example he writes something bigger behind it; for the insanity of Caligula we can see it growing and festering even until his death. Frankly speaking I find Tiberius far more unlikeable than Caligula in this story though I cannot be sure why. Livia as a mastermind and an antagonist of sorts is actually quite interesting to read about on the contrary, I'm not sure how Graves conceived the notion but it is a very peculiar thing in things I've read so far.
And this story though we have both quite bad and quite virtuous characters they seem very alive and have lives of their own. We have Germanicus, Agrippina and Calpurnia, for example, and we have Caligula and Tiberius and their ilk on the other. Postumus in particular I thought was a very interesting read, as well as Castor. And they are all written very lifelike and I think that's a feat since reading The Twelve Caesars made the Caesars feel quiet distant and unreal to me. Suetonius always seems like he's weighing them from a (trying to be) unbiased point (though I really don't think he was, but I'm no expert) but Claudius as a character in this story gives us a very vivid scene of what was happening and all. He has his own value judgements but to see it through a first-person lens was interesting to say the least.
I'm not sure if it is all this Graves intended all this but it was the outcome. It was a very good read. But I am also tired and my head is scrambled from everything, so it'll be a while before I start Claudius the God.
---
Chapter 34
I was thinking, "So, I'm Emperor, am I? What nonsense! But at least I'll be able to make people read my books now."