I, Claudius

I, Claudius
By Robert Graves
Vintage Books, 1961. 432 pgs. Fiction

Born with a leg that caused him to limp all of his life as well as a speech impediment whereby he stuttered most everything he spoke, Claudius was considered by most of his family and by the populace in general to be an idiot. This was not the case—he was actually very intelligent, received a fine education, and wrote a number of histories on various topics: the Etruscans, the Carthaginians, etc. Surrounding him were duplicitous and treacherous family members who had one another killed (poisoning was a common means of killing off rival family members). The story is told as if Claudius had left behind an autobiography detailing his life (which he did not). It is rich in details which give some idea of how Claudius might have lived.

SML