Published by Penguin for more than sixty years, the author and scholar Robert Graves wrote two of the greatest historical novels of the twentieth century: I Claudius and Claudius the God. Written as Claudius' autobiography, they follow his progress from a stammering figure of fun to the ruler of the Roman Empire. Here, in extracts from both books, he describes the glory and decadence of the mad Emperor Caligula's reign - an age of wild debauchery and whimsical cruelty.
Published by Penguin for more than sixty years, the author and scholar Robert Graves wrote two of the greatest historical novels of the twentieth century: I Claudius and Claudius the God. Written as Claudius' autobiography, they follow his progress from a stammering figure of fun to the ruler of the Roman Empire. Here, in extracts from both books, he describes the glory and decadence of the mad Emperor Caligula's reign - an age of wild debauchery and whimsical cruelty.