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“I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus This-that-and-the-other (for I shall not trouble you yet with all my titles) who was once, and not so long ago either, known to my friends and relatives and associates as "Claudius the Idiot", or "That Claudius", or "Claudius the Stammerer", or "Clau-Clau-Claudius" or at best as "Poor Uncle Claudius", am now about to write this strange history of my life…��

So begins the story of how the most unexpected man reluctantly finds himself Emperor of the Roman Empire.

Through Claudius’s own historical narration the reader is thrown into a sea of unimaginable intrigue and drama. This novel spans some 50 yrs, so there are a lot of characters to keep track of but the story is told in a way that when confusion for the reader is expected clarity is quickly provided. It does jump around from person to person & event to event quite a bit, so you really have to pay attention or else you’ll get confused. When I found myself even the tiniest bit distracted I went back to make sure of what was going on. I took off half a star because of this.

Very glad I chose to listen to this rather than reading it�� think I would’ve grown frustrated trying to keep the timelines and characters straight.

I’m surprised at how much I ended up enjoying this. I have grown very attached to Claudius and am completely invested in his story, enough so that I’m heading straight into Claudius the God which picks up right where this novel ends. I highly, highly recommend this well written novel to readers that enjoy deep-diving into history. 4.5 stars.