Robert Graves

Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina

the troublesome reign of Tiberius Claudius Caesar, Emperor of the Romans (born 10 B.C., died A.D. 54), as described by himself, also his murder at the hands of the notorious Agrippina (mother of the Emperor Nero) and his subsequent deification, as described by others

Claudius the god and his wife Messalina

Emmett

Claudius the God continues the unexpected fortunes of Claudius, now abruptly Emperor. For a historical novel masquerading as an real manuscript it reads well, the pace is brisk, interesting and interspersed with episodes of the titular character's cleverness and other non-historical anecdotes that give an immersive experience of what it might have been like to live during those times, and the burdens and joys of ruling a country as idiosyncratic, as alternately superstitious and politically sensitive as Rome. It is a full picture, vivid with scenes of sacrifice, domestic quarrels, conversations and fights between men and women, silly songs sung in jesting admiration of their ruler. The currents of his tale are rich with love, lust, intellectual retrospection, true grief over the loss of his friends. Claudius is someone of his time, someone the reader cannot really reconcile to the modern temper when one reads of him carefully planning the building of the harbour one moment and the next, turning pale at the appearance of an owl in daytime (an omen), or fully believing in a prediction of his death. While at intervals the story can be weighed down by too many numbers and meticulous records of how he undertook certain investigations into policies and history in order to arrive at a decision, it's not the fault of the story but another instance of the main character's careful and unassuming nature. Claudius - attentive, affectionate, abused, and possessor of his own prejudices (that can so often damn him in the gaze of those who judge themselves modern and sensitive), told time and again by his friend Herod Agrippa to trust no one and yet keeping his better nature till the end... Graves has written a figure so complex and considered. Claudius compels sympathy without detracting from his faults, to the point where, when one reads the supplementary historical records and satires written posthumously of him, one involuntary feels the flush of outrage and sorrow.

Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina

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