The Big Read II: I, Claudius -- Robert Graves Chapters 27-29

Chapter Twenty-Seven -- In which Tiberius is a million times worse than Livia ever was.

• Ah ha!:

"I could never have thought it possible that I would miss Livia when she died. ... For it was clear that it had long been only the fear of his mother that had kept Tiberius within bounds. ... Everyone was wondering on just how much popular support Germanicus's family could count on now that Tiberius was preparing to victimize them; and whether it would not be safer to go against Tiberius than against the populace."

I vote to go against Tiberius!  Take him down!  Come ON!  Er, but that means Caligula would be up next, right?  And there are only five chapters after this one?  Yeesh.  I really am going to have to read Claudius the God.

I've been thinking about the "Livia was just and capable" bit in the last section.  The big difference between Livia and Tiberius' murderous tendencies is that Livia murdered mostly for personal gain and for (in her mind) the Good of the Empire.  (Camilla may have taken issue with that.)  Tiberius takes people out because he's embarrassed by them, scared of them, angry or he just feels like it.  He's ruled by his desires, and Livia used her head.  Of the two, I'd much rather live under Livia's rule than Tiberius'.  She, at least, was consistent in her scariness -- Tiberius' feelings changed daily. 

And, of course, I like Livia more than Tiberius for the same reason that I found Maxim more likable after I found out what Really Happened to Rebecca -- Livia is a tough lady, and Tiberius is a wiener.

• Auuugh.  See?  In two pages, Tiberius has banished Agrippina (who he first beat until she lost the sight in one eye) and Nero, locked up Drusus, had the Senate Recorder (who spoke out against Tiberius' desire to go after Germanicus' family) killed (it says he committed suicide), and locked up Gallus in a tiny room where he's being kept, alive and miserable.  I'm still hoping Gallus will make it, though -- if he died in that tiny room, wouldn't Claudius have said so, to finish off his part of the story? 

• Well, that's a different way of going about things:

The first thing that happened was that Helen became an invalid--we know now that Livilla had given her the choice of taking to her bed as if she were ill or of taking to her bed because she was ill.

Nice to give Helen a choice, I guess.  I'd have gone to Naples, too -- who in their right mind (that clearly excepts Livilla) would want to marry Sejanus?

• So.  Sejanus.  I admit that Tiberius' handling of Sejanus himself was somewhat impressive (though I wonder how much of the planning was done by him and how much was done by Caligula). While I was glad to see him go, my eyeballs popped more and more as I read about what was done to his family and friends.  Horror-level-wise, it even beat the lobster.  Livilla's death was something else, too.

• What does Tiberius do with all of the money he's raking in?  Swim in it like Scrooge McDuck?

Chapter Twenty-Eight -- FINALLY!

• Auuugh.  They all died.  Gallus, Agrippina, Drusus, Nero.  And Tiberius' letter to the Senate about Gallus' death "...regretting, in the case of Gallus, that "the press of public business had constantly postponed his trial so that he had died before his guilt could be proved"."  He killed my Gallus, and he killed him slow.  I hate Tiberius so very, very much.

• "She was accused of adultery with a slave and not being able to deny the charge (for she was found in bed with him) took her own life."  That's the first time I've laughed in a while.  (Which obviously isn't to say that I'm not enjoying myself.  I laughed, too, when Claudius said that when Tiberius suffered from attacks of remorse, Caligula cheered him up by talking about new kinds of vice.)

• I keep reading Macro as Marco.

• What a scene!  The I'm-Not-Dead-Yet-Tiberius scaring the wits out of the would-be-thieving-slave, Caligula terrified about stealing the signet ring early, and Macro taking matters into his own hands and smothering Tiberius.  It probably makes me a bad person, but the whole picture was pretty comical.  I do suspect that the days of Caligula will make me long for the days of Tiberius.  Funny that Livia told everyone that Augustus was still alive for a day after he'd already died, and Marco told everyone that Tiberius had been dead an hour when he was still alive.

• I'm rather glad to see that the people of Rome didn't suddenly decide that Tiberius was wonderful just because he was, you know, dead. 

Chapter Twenty-Nine -- Hey, Big Spender.

• "It amused Caligula at first to encourage the absurd misconception that everyone but myself and my mother and Macro and one or two others had of his character, and even to perform a number of acts in keeping with it."  Claudius has me giggling again.

• Somehow I suspect that Caligula will have no qualms about taking out Macro, not to mention Gemellus. 

• What was with Tiberius' will?  Was he feeling super-guilty when he wrote it?

• And why is Caligula bothering to do right by Claudius?  Is it because of Thrasyllus' predictions?  Those seem to be the only thing he'd put much stock in -- it isn't like he had any real respect for Livia or Tiberius.

• Calpurnia is fab: 

"I'd prefer cash," she said, "if you don't mind."

• Caligula has gone through seven million gold pieces in three months.  I'm with Calpurnia.  There is no fun on the horizon.

• "...Caligula's stern speeches against all sorts of immorality..."  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!  And then:  "His own morals seemed not to come into the scope of his scriptures."  Heh.

• Part of me wants to know what Caligula and "The Scouts" get up to.  Most of me doesn't.

• "Caligula's three sisters, Drusilla, Agrippinilla and Lesbia, had all been married to noblemen; but he insisted on their coming to the Palace and living there.  Agrippinilla and Lesbia were told to bring their husbands with them, but Drusilla had to leave hers behind; his name was Cassius Longinus and he was sent to govern Asia Minor."  Greaaaaat.  That won't get people talking or anything.

• I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was:  I almost fainted when Caligula revealed the truth about Germanicus' death.  As for all of the I'm-A-God stuff, well, we always knew he was bonkers.

Previous posts:

Reading schedule
Chapters 1-3
Chapters 4-6
Chapters 7-10
Chapters 11-13
Chapters 14-16
Chapters 17-19
Chapters 20-22
Chapters 23-26

Other reader/bloggers:

Becky's Book Reviews
Adventures in Multiplicity

Comments

[Becky]

Here's my link

[Tom]

I just wanted to let you know that I am thoroughly enjoying your comments. It's wonderful that you are enjoying this book so much. I think this would make great high school reading.

[cc]

It's just so goddamn grim. The "execution" of Sejanus' children is one of the worst things I've ever, ever, ever read. And it happened. It's mentioned by Tacitus.

"It was next decided to punish the remaining children of Sejanus, though the fury of the populace was subsiding, and people generally had been appeased by the previous executions. Accordingly they were carried off to prison, the boy, aware of his impending doom, and the little girl, who was so unconscious that she continually asked what was her offence, and whither she was being dragged, saying that she would do so no more, and a childish chastisement was enough for her correction. Historians of the time tell us that, as there was no precedent for the capital punishment of a virgin, she was violated by the executioner, with the rope on her neck. Then they were strangled and their bodies, mere children as they were, were flung down the Gemoniae." (Book VI)

Awful as she is, Livilla's death always gives me a shudder too; remember way back at the beginning where she's making fun of Claudius after the wolf cub drops from the sky and Antonia says, "I'll lock you in your room without supper."? Yeah. Ugh.

Thank goodness for Calpurnia, right?

There's recently been kind of a reassessment of both Tiberius and Caligula in serious historiography (since all the sources we have belong to the senatorial order and they are the ones who suffered most from the "bad" emperors--remember Claudius' simile of the rotten apple?). One of the interesting theories is that Caligula really was a "good" emperor until that mysterious illness and it really did trigger some kind of insanity.
I think the project as a whole is complete nonsense, but it's good in that it forces one to actually *think* about how we judge not only the emperors but the accounts we have of their behavior.

[Colleen]

Okay this is my innter trekkie talking but what in the world is the significance of Tiberius being Jim Kirk's middle name? Does it mean he is blood thirsty or misunderstood or what? After reading all your comments I just wonder why in the world Tiberius was the name they chose for him - it has to be significant (I mean please - it's not a common name!)

Okay - putting away my starfleet uniform now.... :)

[Heidi]

I wondered if Caligula's godhood came from advanced syphilis...

I *do* want to know what happened among the Scouts. ;)

thanks for the belly-laugh, Colleen.

Off to read the next....

[Leila]

I love the pictures you've been posting of your book and notes, Heidi. I wondered about syphilis, too.

Colleen, that was hilarious. Sadly, I don't have an answer for you. CC? Any thoughts on that one? Is there a different, more likable Tiberius out there? Or are there differing viewpoints about this one? It does seem like an odd choice of name for a Star Trek hero.

I'm still reeling from the passages (both in I, Claudius and what CC quoted above) about Sejanus' children. I'm usually pretty good at wrapping my head around people's motivations and taking a step back when I look at different cultures -- but killing them all (and not even remotely quick and clean deaths at that) seemed so brutal and pointless. It wasn't even to hurt Sejanus, as he was executed first, right? Unless there was concern that the kids would grow up and want revenge? Or was it a warning to everyone else to keep them from getting uppity?

I forgot about that "I'll lock you in your room without supper" line. That's fantastic in a really horrible way.

...but it's good in that it forces one to actually *think* about how we judge not only the emperors but the accounts we have of their behavior. And that goes for history in general, right? That the history we read is always someone's version of events, no matter how objective they're trying to be.

[emmaco]

CC, that scene was bad enough without knowing it was real. Grim indeed.

[cc]

Well; the Romans really only had 12 or so "first names" in common use, and Tiberius is one of them, but let's face it: if you're talking about Tiberius, there's only one that springs to mind.

I'm not a Star Trek person at all, so my entirely uneducated guess (after the first thought: "Well they're both perverts.") is that the writers wanted to evoke the long history of human government and they didn't want to be super-obvious about it (so they didn't use "Caesar") and they didn't want it to get lost (and so they didn't use "Augustus" or "Alexander".