ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates whether Robert Graves's Claudian novels should be considered as history by virtue of his casting the protagonist as the actual Roman emperor and historian Claudius reflecting on and chronicling his own life story. It also examines whether these novels do, indeed, closely follow the facts related by three classical historians of the period: Cassius Dio, Tacitus and Suetonius. Graves is true to the accepted facts of Claudius's life: that he was born in 10 BCE at Lugdunum, Gaul, and the first Roman emperor born outside the Italian Peninsula. Claudius's heart, however, lay with more scholarly pursuits such as linguistics, literature, the writing of history and study of law. Strangely, despite the negativity surrounding Claudius, he remained popular with the common people, in both fact and fiction, as supported by Suetonius, who claims that he was twice chosen by the Equites to head a deputation.
