In the diptych that makes up I, Claudius and Claudius the god and his wife Messalina, the breadth and depth of knowledge about classical antiquity by Robert Graves (1895-1985) are combined with prose that breathes a powerful and lively imagination. capable of reconstructing all the greatness and misery of imperial Rome. First volume of the supposed "autobiography" of this unique emperor, intended to be against his own inclinations, the intrigues, depravity, bloody purges and cruelty of the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, which culminated in the madness of the period of Caligula, serve as the historical framework for the plot of the novel.