Status Updates From Jeg, Claudius (Claudius, #1)

“Though Tiberius hated his mother more than ever, he continued to let her rule him. All the appointments which he made to Consulships or provincial governorships were really hers: and they were very sensible ones, the men being chosen for merit…For I must make it plain…that however criminal the means used by Livia to win the direction of affairs for herself…she was an exceptionally able and just ruler…”

“ Germanicus insisted on Agrippina’s going away, though she swore that she was afraid of nothing and would far rather die with him there than have news from safety of his murder by the mutineers. But he asked her whether she thought that Livia would make a good mother for their orphaned children, and this decided her to do as he wished.”

“ There was talk of leaving the Rhine unguarded and marching into France, sacking cities, carrying off the women and setting up an independent military kingdom in the South-West, protected in the rear by the Pyrenees. Rome would be paralysed by this move and they would remain undisturbed long enough to be able to make their kingdom impregnable.”

“ It is a comment on my brother’s extreme simplicity that he did not realize the effect his words were having. By his father he meant Tiberius (who also was often styled Germanicus), but the veterans thought he meant his real father; and by Augustus’s successor he meant Tiberius again, but the veterans thought that he meant himself.”

“Augustus was over seventy years of age. Until recently nobody had thought of him as an old man. But these new public and private calamities made a great change in him. His temper grew uncertain and he found it increasingly difficult to welcome chance visitors with his usual affability or to keep his patience at public banquets. He was even inclined to be short-tempered with Livia.”

“The real reason for her banishment was that she was just about to bear another child, which if it were a boy would be a great-grandson of Augustus, and unrelated to Livia; Livia was taking no risks now. Julilla had one son already, but he was a delicate, timorous, slack-twisted fellow and could be disregarded.“