Robert Gravesв Ђ™ I, Claudius
Robert Graves I, Claudius Capturing a Strange Moment in History
Tiberius reign over the Roman Empire stretched the longest of any emperor during
Claudius lifetime. This may be a good reason why Robert Graves, in his historical
novel published in 1934, I, Claudius devoted more than a third of it to the reign of
Tiberius. I, Claudius , told through the eyes of the half wit Claudius, records the
history of the first Imperial family at Rome, including the reigns of Augustus,
Tiberius, Caligula, and even Claudius himself. Livia, Augustus wife and Tiberius
mother, played a crucial role throughout the reign of Augustus and Tiberius by
eliminating all possible heirs other than her son to the throne of the emperor. By the
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He once said, Let them hate me, so long as they obey me (Graves 38). By this time
Livia had already eliminated Marcellus, Augustus first preference as his successor.
Tiberius could not be totally blamed for his fortunes. As Claudius states:
He was in an unhappy position, forced against his will to be continually in the
public eye, now as general in some frontier campaign, now as Consul at Rome, now
as special commissioner to the provinces; when all he wanted was a long rest and
privacy....Moreover, with the dignity of the Imperial family to maintain and Livia
continually spying on him, he had to be very careful of his private morals. He had
few friends, being, as I think I have said, of a suspicious, jealous, reserved and
melancholy temperament, and those rather hangers on than friends, whom he treated
with the cynical contempt that they deserved. (66)
After Augustus died, however, Tiberius became emperor. The Senate, knowing very
well that to even attempt to return to the republican form of government would be a
futile effort, one by one voted him all of the honors that Augustus had received. But
Tiberius never used the name Augustus, except when writing letters to foreign kings.
He feared his mother Livia, partially because Livia constantly reminded him that if
her crimes were uncovered,