Robert Graves

I, Claudius is one of those books I'd wanted to read for a long time, and now that I have, I can safely say: it does not disappoint. 

For mastery of Roman genealogy alone, Robert Graves is to have been celebrated: this novel of the Imperial family -- from Augustus, to Tiberius, and Caligula -- is, if nothing else, a detailed rendering of Roman lineage, of how marriages were made, and how rival claimants related to one another. For Graves not only to have mastered this lineage, but to have imagined the lives of its characters is a tremendous achievement. It would be hard to overstate just how complex this family tree is, and just how successful Graves is in bringing his characters to life. 

So this is a novel about Roman lineage, and about political machinations; but is also, equally, a novel about history. Surely, Graves has created a work of fiction, of historical fiction. And yet, by calling it that, we shy away from a more profound question which Graves seems to ask: namely whether a work like I, Claudius is as a effective as a traditional work of history when it comes to illuminating the past, to uncovering not only events, but the factors and forces which led to them. 

I recognize, of course, that Graves's novel is different from academic history, and that the latter has a different set of objectives and responsibilities. That said, reading I, Claudius alongside a traditional work of history may provide a more holistic understanding of Rome: one highlights the events, and the reasons for them; the other focuses on temperament, emotion, jealousy. True, academic history may evaluate behavior and ascribe meaning to it. But not in the same way, and not with the same intensity, as Graves.

This is a foundational novel: it established a new set of standards for what historical fiction could do, and, in turn, a new set of intellectual expectations of its authors. Graves was a novelist, of course, but he was a historian, too. And that, I think, is what sets this novel apart: his profound -- seemingly insatiable -- appetite for the past. In a way, the effect of I, Claudius is like reading a detailed work of history, composed by a gifted novelist. This is high praise, indeed.