I Claudius begins at the birth of the Julio-Claudian Roman Empire in the company of Augustus and Agrippa.  Here also begins the detailed depiction of female power in the Roman Empire, portrayed by power hungry Livia.  Throughout the film, Livia and her offspring consume most of their time power hunting; they poison, execute, excommunicate and abuse the power of their family.

 The plot is extremely difficult to entertain initially for the viewer that has little or no knowledge of extravagant and imperial Roman life.  There are no basic ‘tutorial’ scenes to first demonstrate what the characters do from day to day, which one may later find as appropriate- the life of the emperor's family accurately demonstrates the vicissitudes of Epicurean lifestyle, where power yields unlimited access to money, lust and corruption.

 Young Claudius is born into this world.  His parents, as the case with most parents of their class, paid little attention to Claudius.  Claudius becomes an embarrassment to the family and is subsequently overlooked by Livia, who plots to rid of any man capable of ruling the empire other than her son.  Claudius, stuttering and limping, appears incapable of walking at full pace, much less being a future ruler of an empire.

 Mocked, Claudius retreats into his studies, quickly assuming the role of a quiet, dumb man.  Nobody pays much mind to him if he is in the room or about the halls, and he overhears a great deal of plotting.  He realizes that a simple and oblivious lifestyle will allow him to escape the paranoia of being executed by Livia or others in search of power.

 Small Claudius’ friends are few- he befriends Herod, future king of Jews.  His other playmates ridicule him.  One of these is his relative Caligula, perhaps one of the most infamous Romans in history.  Early on, Caligula begins his ravage of power, forming incestuous relationships with his sisters.
 As more of his relatives are eliminated, Claudius attempts to remain in the shadows.  With his marriage to an extremely tall woman (a joke arranged by his family), Claudius is eventually invited to a gladiatorial event, despite the protest of Livia.  He assumes a chair in the section reserved only for the imperial family, to which he belongs.  Standing and waving as is the duty of his family, the crowd cheers him excitedly.  Claudius is well liked by the people.  His relatives, however, symbolically chase him out of the seats of the imperial family, and he watches the games alongside his friend, Herod.

 Caligula accedes to power as emperor.  He uses his absolute power to do many ridiculous things, one of which is making a horse a senator and allowing it to don the deep purple stripe customary of the senators.  Convinced that he is a god, Caligula mimics the myth of Zeus and Saturn, by attempting to carve his own child from his pregnant sister.  With disorder and corruption abound, the senators and people consider a return to a Roman Republic.
 After tolerance for Caligula’s reign of terror had reached a maximum, his own Praetorian Guard executed him.  As they looked for a new man to lead them to a more republican standard, they found the scholar Claudius, well loved by the people.  He was the only one left.

 Claudius knew his fate when he accepted the role of emperor.  Now on his third marriage, he sees his wife Messalina imitate the same qualities he’d observed in his demanding grandmother Livia, now deceased.
Upon finishing this video series, one feels as if he or she has experienced the lives of the characters as the video portrays them.  In Roman times, one may have felt sympathetic toward an unfaithful man or woman or even those spoiled in the most lavish of gifts.

 I Claudius is an accurate portrayal of the cycle of historical events in Rome as we know it: a society that does not evolve in its values and ideals that eventually does not survive.  I Claudius is the story of not one man but many people, all represented by a ruling class whose demanding power brings an end to the peaceful times of Julio-Claudian Rome, as pyromaniacal Nero prepares to burn his own city into a foreboding end.
 
 

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