Claudius the God by Robert Graves Legendary work

 Claudius the God by Robert Graves

Legendary work

It is a BBC adaptation that I am discussing here and not the original.

If I, Claudius appears as rated, commented and read twice, it is because that’s what happened, albeit the second time it was an adaptation.

Claudius becomes not just the emperor, but also a God as the title suggests, in spite of his republican convictions.

Well, at least until he became the most powerful man in the world and changed his views to a certain degree.

When he was instated, we must say it was against his will, for he had been a scholar, satisfied with life in a library, more or less.

But the killing of Caligula, notwithstanding its necessity, opened the door for opportunists and the outlook was grim.

Herod, king of Judea has a talk with Claudius and makes a few strong points in favor of accepting the title:

-          If you don’t become emperor, others will fight for the power and hell will break loose

I guess it is not what Claudius said, but that is one of the points:

-          How much is hard work and research of historical documents and what is artistic license?

-          Obviously the dialogue is a product of imagination, but some facts have been recorded

Even with documents there is an issue, if not really a major problem.

We read in new books that the documents were written from the perspective of the ruler and historians were biased.

Not to mention the new feminist and minority rejection of history as being the product of men, almost entirely and white, most of the time

-          They made the history and they recorded whatever they felt like

This is a radical view and I am not aware of how much traction this thinking has and how it will impact the books of the future.

Claudius started as a reasonable, wise leader, trying to reduce the effect of the catastrophic decisions of the late Caligula.

Caligula is known for his cruelty, but his financial excesses have been just as disastrous, nearly ruining the empire.

Claudius resorts to using statues, decorations and other lavish ornaments to make coins from the gold and silver wasted on extravagant tastes.

The new emperor takes some correct administrative decisions, one of which was to establish a new port.

Here he clashed with some advisors that pointed out the huge cost of the construction, estimated at some ten million, which would run to many billions surely in today’s coinage…

-          You receive bribes from those interested to see this project cancelled

-          But it will move forward, for we need a security, food will come into Rome in this way and there would be no more famine

A military incursion into Britain makes Claudius use his studies of history and especially tactics, when he uses a “cunning plan”, in the first place rejected by his commanders.

He proves to be an inspired leader, when he talks to the soldiers and uses humor:

-          Predecessors called this unit the slowest, but also the surest…

Perhaps the gravest mistake that Claudius “The God” makes is to marry Messalina, even if I am wrong and now consider that a later decision to not just take his niece as fourth wife, but to adopt her son, Nero.

We all know what Nero meant for the empire, as well as the debauchery manifested by Messalina, with her infamous contest.

In the play, Claudius is portrayed as in love with Messalina and incapable to believe her evil and ready to plot against him, at least until irrefutable evidence is presented.

The emperor accepts all sorts of outrageous propositions from his wacko wife, including the one to divorce her for a while and let her marry his enemy!!

Perhaps all this is overblown, given the aforementioned fact that history is told by men who distort facts-sometimes, often?-and the epitome of a scandalous, abhorrent wife was actually a sweet, if nymphomaniac spouse?

-          Who knows?

Nero however would turn out to be competing with Caligula for the worst emperor in Roman times, if again data is not distorted.