This page is for tropes that have appeared in I, Claudius (the novels, not the series).
For the rest:
- 0% Approval Rating: Claudius, despite being a benign ruler, becomes unpopular during a food shortage in Rome.
- Abusive Parents:
- Claudius' mother Antonia was disgusted by him because of his disabilities, and always considered him to be an idiot. Even when she decides to kill herself and says goodbye to Claudius, she still doesn't have a kind word for him.
- Livia is very abusive towards her stepdaughter Julia.
- Absurdly Youthful Mother: Livia, Julia, Agrippina and several other women from the imperial family. This is due to the fact that Roman noble women were married at a very young age.
- Affably Evil: Livia acts like this towards Claudius when she invites him to have dinner. They have a polite and friendly conversation during which she confesses all of her crimes, knowing full well Claudius can't and won't seek vengeance.
- All Jews Are Ashkenazi: Averted, since the story takes place some decades before the First Jewish–Roman War and the Diaspora.
- Aloof Leader, Affable Subordinate: Tiberius is cold and bitter due to his mother's machinations to make him Emperor. When he does become Emperor, he spends much of his time at the pleasure island of Capri as opposed to ruling in Rome. His nephew and heir Germanicus is much more friendly and approachable. When some Roman legions start to mutiny, Germanicus takes care of the situation by talking to them and winning them over. He's so popular with the troops that Tiberius starts to worry he might pose a threat to his rule.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: Defied in-universe by Claudius himself. As he states at the beginning of Claudius the God, he is worried that he might be "branded by posterity as a clever opportunist who pretended to be a fool, lying low and biding his time until he got wind of a Palace intrigue against his Emperor, and then came boldly forward as a candidate for the succession"; among other reasons, he wrote the history of his life to assure the readers that this was not the case.
- Ambiguously Bi:
- Urgulanilla, Claudius' first wife, appears to have been infatuated with her sister-in-law Numantina, and is greatly upset when her brother divorces her. She takes as a lover a male slave named Boter, who is said to look very much like Numantina.
- Claudius suspects Caligula has a male lover, his cousin, known as Ganymede, but never confirms it.
- Ambition Is Evil: Many, many characters aim for the imperial throne, and end up getting killed. Unfortunately, many others who have no such ambitions also lose their lives in the endless struggle for power.
- Amicably Divorced: Played with. Claudius' grandfather isn't angry when he finds out his wife Livia and his friend Augustus have fallen in love, and not only he divorces her, but also attends their wedding ceremony; and while their sons are raised in his house, he allows them to visit their mother every day. Livia, however, is still resentful of her ex-husband, and when she finds out he's trying to give their sons a republican education, she poisons him.
- Amoral Attorney: Several Roman lawyers are portrayed like this. Claudius greatly dislikes them, and when he becomes Emperor he tries to favor those few honest lawyers that work in the Forum.
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: Tiberius' death is not mourned but celebrated in Rome, where he was very unpopular.
- Antagonistic Offspring: Tiberius comes to see his son Castor as this, due to Sejanus' manipulation and Castor's own rash behaviour. Because of that, Tiberius shows no grief when Castor dies.
- Apparently Powerless Puppetmaster: Claudius.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Played with. Claudius himself and many other characters belong to the Roman nobility and are very decent people. On the other hand we have Macro, who is a man of very humble birth (the son of a slave) and is completely ruthless and amoral. Many other noble character play it straight.
- Asshole Victim:
- It's hard to feel sorry when characters like Piso, Plancina, Sejanus, Livilla, Tiberius, Macro or Caligula end up getting killed.
- Most of the victims of Herod Agrippa's scams are described as this.
- Awful Wedded Life: All of Claudius' marriages end up like this, one way or another.
- So much so for Claudius' daughter Antonia that he assassinates her husband.
- Band of Brothels: The Roman prostitutes have their own union, and during Claudius' reign they sue one of their clients for mistreating some of the working girls.
- Based on a True Story: Yes and no. Most everything in the books, including the really outrageous stuff like Livia poisoning half her family or Messalina having a sexathon, comes from ancient sources. However, modern scholars consider much of that to be ancient rumormongering and/or propaganda. Graves also wasn't above using fiction as a platform for historical theories he thought were likely but was unable to prove.
- Bath Suicide: Several characters choose to die this way.
- The Beard: Claudius' daughter Antonia is implied to be this to her first husband, Pompey, who has male lovers. When Claudius finds out of his son-in-law's sexual orientation, he has him killed and finds Antonia a new husband.
- Beard of Sorrow: After Julia's exile, Augustus refuses to shave for four days as a sign of grief.
- Bed Trick: During Tiberius' reign, a rich man falls in love with a married woman who rejects his advances. Knowing she's a devoted worshiper of the goddess Isis, he manages to bed her by pretending to be the god Anubis. This scandal ends up leading to the banishment of the cult from Rome.
- Betrayal by Inaction: Several people find out about Cassius Chaerea's plot to murder Caligula, but choose not to do anything about it.
- Big Bad: Arguably, Livia is this during the first half of I, Claudius. Later it becomes clear that there are way worst people than her in power and that evil is Inherent in the System.
- Big Brother Worship: Claudius adores his older brother Germanicus (as does almost everyone else).
- Bilingual Backfire: The young Claudius overhears Augustus and Athenodorus talking about him in Greek. When Athenodorus jokingly asks his opinion, Claudius replies in Greek: "My mother Antonia does not pamper me, but she has let me learn Greek from someone who learned it directly from Apollo."
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
- Livia pretends to be a traditional, virtuous Roman matron, who merely manages her household, takes care of her husband and stays out of politics. In reality, she's a power-hungry Evil Matriarch.
- Messalina pretends to be a loving wife to Claudius, while being a murderer and an adulteress.
- Body Double: While exiled on an island, Postumus is switched with a similar looking slave named Clement when his grandfather Augustus decides to have him covertly removed under Livia's nose from the island upon receiving evidence that he was falsely accused, and it's the slave who dies when the island is attacked under Livia's orders shortly after Augustus dies. This results in Postumus spending some time disguised as Clementnote .
- Bodyguard Betrayal:
- Macro, who is the commander of the Praetorian Guard and whose job is to protect Tiberius, ends up smothering him with a pillow.
- Later, several other praetorians conspire succesfully to assassinate Caligula.
- During Claudius' reign, many officers in the Guard are involved in plots against the emperor's life.
- Boring, but Practical: When his friend Vitellius remarks on the grandeur of the Great Pyramid in Egypt, Claudius scoffs that the Pyramid is a crass monument to vanity that does nothing useful (despite its size, it's just a mausoleum for a single man); while the Appian Way (a road) might not be as visually impressive, it will last just as long, if not longer, and benefits millions of people.
- Brainless Beauty: Lollia Paulina, Caligula's third wife and one of the candidates to marry Claudius after the death of Messalina is described as this.
- Brawn Hilda: Claudius describes his first wife, Urgulanilla, as one of these: huge, surly, muscular, and (in his opinion) capable of murder if provoked.
- Bread and Circuses: Subverted. While the emperors frequently offer lavish public entertainments and free food to keep the people quiet, we see several politically motivated riots (for instance, when it seems Piso will not be punished for Germanicus' death, when Agrippina and her children are forced into exile, and when the vastly unpopular Tiberius' body is brought to Rome to receive a public funeral).
- Butt-Monkey: Invoked; after Caligula comes to power and his lackeys start playing mean pranks on Claudius for their own amusement, his prostitute / mistress / confidante Calpurnia advises him to play up his "pathetic old fool" persona to avoid being seen as a potential obstacle.
- Cain and Abel: Drusus (Germanicus' second son) betrays his elder brother Nero (not to be confused with the future Emperor) to Sejanus, leading to his imprisonment and murder. In a more straight example, Caligula orders the death of Gemellus, his first cousin and adoptive brother, and is heavily implied to have murdered his sister Drusilla.
- The Caligula: Features the original Caligula himself in all his violent and depraved "glory," and this is the work that most likely crystallized both his public image and the current pattern of the trope in the minds of modern-day audiences. Notably, while he's certainly cruel, the real feature that stands out about him is that he's capricious about his cruelty; he's just as likely to spare your life but publicly humiliate you as he is to have you simply tortured or executed out of hand if you run afoul of him.
- Characters Dropping Like Flies: Claudius witnesses practically every member of his family being murdered due to political intrigues and infighting.
- Chubby Chaser: Claudius describes Vinicianus as "one of those little rat-like men who have the same love for women of abundant charms as rats have for large pumpkins".
- Cloudcuckoolander: Claudius, although it's mostly an act. Lampshaded by Herod Agrippa.
- Clueless Boss: Augustus is almost completely blind to Livia's manipulation. Claudius has shades of this, until Messalina's downfall.
- Con Man: Herod Agrippa manages to scam several people during his youth.
- Conspiracy Kitchen Sink: A hodgepodge of pretty much every half-baked conspiracy theory about the time of the Julio-Claudian Emperors, both then and since.
- Convicted by Public Opinion: Played straight with Piso and his wife Plancina, who are (correctly) blamed by the Roman people for Germanicus' death. Inverted with Agrippina and her children, who are condemned for treason in spite of the people's support.
- Cool Teacher: Athenodorus, Claudius and Herod Agrippa's tutor.
- Cool Uncle: Averted with Claudius. Although some are nice to him, none of his nieces and nephews take him seriously.
- Comforting the Widow:
- After Castor's death, Sejanus plans to marry his widow Livilla. Tiberius won't allow it.
- After her husband's death, Antonia received a marriage proposal from her friend Flaccus, but turned it down.
- Creepy Crossdresser: Caligula often assumes the identity of different goddesses, and thus wears female dresses.
- Creepy Uncle:
- Averted with Claudius (although ancient historians portrayed him this way) with regards to his marriage to Agrippinilla, his own niece. While some historians claim Agripinilla seduced her uncle in order to convince him to marry her, in the book it is portrayed as only a political alliance, with no sexual element involved.
- Played straight with Herod Antipas, who marries his niece Herodias out of love and attraction. It should be noted, however, that in the Eastern monarchies of the time, marriages between uncles and nieces were considered normal. Furthermore, Herodias' first husband, whom she divorces to marry Antipas, was also her uncle. John the Baptist preaches against Antipas and Herodias' marriage not because it is incestuous but because he's against her divorce.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: One of Caligula's courtiers is flogged to death because he refuses to acknowledge him as a greater god than Zeus.
- Cunning Like a Fox: Several characters display this, since cunning is indispensable to survive in the imperial court, but Herod Agrippa is the most notorious.
