Written by: Robert Graves
First line: I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus This-that-and-the-other (for I shall not trouble you yet with all my titles) who was once, and not so long ago either, known to my friends and relatives and associates as "Claudius the Idiot", or "That Claudius", or "Claudius the Stammerer", or "Clau-Clau-Claudius" or at best as "Poor Uncle Claudius", am now about to write this strange history of my life, starting from my earliest childhood and continuing year by year until I reach the fateful point of change where, some eight years ago, at the age of fifty-one, I suddenly found myself caught in what I may call the "golden predicament" from which I have never since become disentangled.
Why you should read this book: Covering the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula, this classic book novelizes fifty-plus years of Roman history as seen though the eyes of a man who was simultaneously entrenched in the political machinations playing out all around him while remaining an outsider, able to research, record, and comment wryly on the most troubling aspects of human nature, while offering the reader all manner of scandalous personal observations. His legs lame and his stutter making it difficult for him to express himself, Claudius is largely unaffected by the murderous instincts of those jockeying for power and wealth in Rome, most particularly his devious and ambitious grandmother Livia. Devoting himself to the study of history, Claudius survives, occasionally thrives, and eventually outlives his oppressors to win a dubious award he didn't want in the first place.
Why you shouldn't read this book: You still retain any trace of faith in humanity.
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