I, Claudius by Robert Graves

If you like your history lite then I, Claudius is your book. Written as an autobiography of the life of Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, who became Emperor of Rome in 41 A.D., I, Claudius is actually historical fiction. As such, there seems to be no way to measure the accuracy of the accounts given in this first part of Graves’s two-part series.

Nevertheless, I, Claudius is interesting – it reads like a novel – and reveals the sordid details of the lives and times of the Royal family from Augustus until the time when Claudius ascended to the throne.