Robert Graves - Claudius, The God

Claudius was the fourth Emperor of Rome (r. 41-54 A.D.). Historically, Claudius’ family kept him out of public life until his sudden coronation at the age of forty nine. This was due to his disabilities, which included a stammer, a limp, and various nervous tics which made him appear mentally deficient to his relatives. This is how he was defined by scholars for most of history, and Graves uses these peculiarities to develop a sympathetic character whose survival in a murderous dynasty depends upon his family’s incorrect assumption that he is a harmless idiot.

Graves’s interpretation of the story owes much to the histories of Gaius Cornelius Tacitus, Plutarch, and (especially) Suetonius’ (Lives of the Twelve Caesars). Graves translated Suetonius before writing the novels. Graves claimed that after he read Suetonius, Claudius came to him in a dream one night and demanded that his real story be told. The life of Claudius provided Graves with a way to write about the first four Emperors of Rome (Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius) from an intimate point of view. In addition, the real Claudius was a trained historian and is known to have written an autobiography (now lost) in eight books that covered the same time period. I, Claudius is a first-person narrative of Roman history from the reigns of Augustus to Caligula; Claudius the God is written as a later addition documenting Claudius’ own reign.

Graves provides a theme for the story by having the fictionalized Claudius describe a visit to Cumae, where he receives a prophecy in verse from the Sibyl, and an additional prophecy contained in a book of “Sibylline Curiosities”. The latter concerns the fates of the “hairy ones” (i.e. The Caesars - from the Latin word “caesar”, meaning “a fine head of hair”) who are to rule Rome. The penultimate verse concerns his own reign, and Claudius assumes that he can tell the identity of the last emperor described. From the outset, then, Graves establishes a fatalistic tone that plays out at the end of Claudius the God, as Nero prepares to succeed Claudius.

At Cumae, the Sibyl tells Claudius that he will “speak clear.” Claudius believes this means that his secret memoirs will be one day found, and that he, having therein written the truth, will speak clearly, while his contemporaries, who had to distort their histories in order to appease the ruling family, will seem like stammerers. Since he wishes to record his life for posterity, Claudius chooses to write in Greek, since he believes that it will remain “the chief literary language of the world.” This allows Graves to explore the etymology of Latin words (like the origins of the names “Livia” and “Caesar”) that would otherwise be obvious to native Latin speakers, who Claudius (correctly) believes will not exist in the future.

Announce URL:	http://tracker.publicbt.com/announce
This Torrent also has several backup trackers
Tracker:	http://tracker.publicbt.com/announce
Tracker:	udp://tracker.publicbt.com:80/announce
Tracker:	udp://tracker.leechers-paradise.org:6969
Tracker:	udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969
Tracker:	udp://explodie.org:6969/announce
Tracker:	udp://tracker.desu.sh:6969
Tracker:	udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce
Tracker:	udp://tracker.tiny-vps.com:6969/announce
Tracker:	udp://tracker.vanitycore.co:6969/announce
Tracker:	http://tracker.baravik.org:6970/announce
Tracker:	http://tracker2.wasabii.com.tw:6969/announce
Creation Date:	Thu, 14 Oct 2010 23:22:34 -0400
This is a Multifile Torrent
29 Claudius The God - Part 29.mp3 9.72 MBs
09 Claudius The God - Part 9.mp3 9.37 MBs
07 Claudius The God - Part 7.mp3 9.3 MBs
03 Claudius The God - Part 3.mp3 9.27 MBs
10 Claudius The God - Part 10.mp3 9.21 MBs
30 Claudius The God - Part 30.mp3 9.21 MBs
08 Claudius The God - Part 8.mp3 9.19 MBs
27 Claudius The God - Part 27.mp3 9.09 MBs
23 Claudius The God - Part 23.mp3 9.07 MBs
28 Claudius The God - Part 28.mp3 9.05 MBs
01 Claudius The God - Part 1.mp3 9.03 MBs
25 Claudius The God - Part 25.mp3 9 MBs
02 Claudius The God - Part 2.mp3 9 MBs
15 Claudius The God - Part 15.mp3 9 MBs
13 Claudius The God - Part 13.mp3 8.99 MBs
17 Claudius The God - Part 17.mp3 8.98 MBs
04 Claudius The God - Part 4.mp3 8.94 MBs
21 Claudius The God - Part 21.mp3 8.84 MBs
05 Claudius The God - Part 5.mp3 8.81 MBs
11 Claudius The God - Part 11.mp3 8.81 MBs
26 Claudius The God - Part 26.mp3 8.8 MBs
14 Claudius The God - Part 14.mp3 8.79 MBs
18 Claudius The God - Part 18.mp3 8.79 MBs
24 Claudius The God - Part 24.mp3 8.77 MBs
16 Claudius The God - Part 16.mp3 8.71 MBs
22 Claudius The God - Part 22.mp3 8.7 MBs
12 Claudius The God - Part 12.mp3 8.69 MBs
06 Claudius The God - Part 6.mp3 8.63 MBs
19 Claudius The God - Part 19.mp3 8.46 MBs
20 Claudius The God - Part 20.mp3 8.02 MBs
Torrent_downloaded_from_Demonoid.com.txt 47 Bytes
Combined File Size:	268.26 MBs
Piece Size:	512 KBs
Comment:	Updated by AudioBook Bay
Encoding:	UTF-8
Info Hash:	df6d261771354a490d1a52b9990cbfa8f6026554
Torrent Download	Torrent Free Downloads
Tips	Sometimes the torrent health info isn’t accurate, so you can download the file and check it out or try the following downloads.
Direct Download	Start Direct Download
Tips	You could try out alternative bittorrent clients.
Secured Download	Download Files Now
Ad