A review by samble
I, Claudius by Robert Graves

3.75

having read graves’ translation of suetonius prior, this almost feels like reading it again. certainly not a bad thing, but for a book proclaiming to be the fictionalised autobiography of claudius, it certainly didn’t focus on him for most of it. i felt this a shame, as a decent majority of those parts where claudius was the main focus were some of the best parts of the book. that aside, credit to graves where it is due as this book read like an ancient source, with a modern flair (though graves’ biases, alterations and interpretations were sometimes more noticeable than desired).

also, minor gripe as a classics student, but livia is done absolutely no justice by graves (nor by most roman historians). her portrayal, while necessary for the fictional plot, was not as historical as i would have liked