Powerful but easily manipulated by Livia’s domestic "advice."

The deadliest threats to the Roman elite come from within their own dining rooms.

Morose and reluctant, he feels like a pawn in his mother’s grand design.

I, Claudius (1976) – Episode 1: "A Touch of Murder" The series opens in 54 AD with an elderly, frail Emperor Claudius. He is writing his secret history, fearing his wife Agrippina intends to poison him. He reflects on his family’s past to explain how he became the unlikely survivor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.