[De Vita Caesarum]

1650

Shoults La 1650 S

[Amsterdam: Ludovic Elzevir]

Robert Graves (1895-1985) relied heavily on ancient sources such as Suetonius’s De Vita Caesarum to write his popular and financially successful novel, I, Claudius. Throughout history, the Emperor Claudius (10 BC-54 AD) had been viewed as a disabled simpleton. Graves’s book went some way towards changing this long-held view. He believed that Claudius was ‘never given proper credit for cleaning up the mess left by his insane predecessor, Caligula’ and despite suffering a stammer and, what is now thought to have been, a form of cerebral palsy, Claudius initiated many successful administrative changes and public works. Graves admitted that he finished the novel prematurely at the moment when Claudius becomes Emperor upon the death of Caligula (12-41 AD).