Apollo Speaks to You through Me. Listen closely --

Robert Graves translated Suetonius 

before writing the novels and claimed that 

after reading Suetonius, Claudius came 

to him in a dream one night and 

demanded that his real story be told.

Apollo Speaks to You through Me. Listen closely --

"I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, oh, this-that-and-the-other -- 

-- who was once, and not so long ago, better known to my friends and relatives 

as Claudius, The Idiot, or "that Fool Claudius", or Claudius, The Stammerer --

-- am now about to write this strange History of My Life.

Are You There?

Yes you're there, I can feel it. I can feel your presence. Yes. I knew you would come the moment I began to write. Yes. It was inevitable. It was prophesied by the Sybil.

Spies. Spies everywhere. Spying on Me. In My Bed. At My Prayers. On The Street.

Even in the lavoratory. Spies.

I'll cheat them. Every one.

It was prophesied by the Sybil. I went to Cumae many years ago to consult her. She was most famous. Her prophecies had achieved worldwide renown and she did not consent to see everyone. Unexpectedly she consented to see me. I was terrified. "Oh Sybil", I said, "I've co-co-come to question you about Rome's fate and mine". 

"Hear me Cla-Cla-Claudius", 

she answered, mocking my stammer. 

"Apollo Speaks to You through Me. Listen closely --

What groans beneath the Punic curse 

and strangles in the strings of purse 

before she mends must sicken worse. 

Ten years, fifty days and three, 

Cla-Cla-Claudius shall be given thee 

a gift that all desire but he. 

But when he's done, and no more here, 

nineteen hundred year or near, 

Cla-Cla-Claudius shall speak clear."

Yes, that's what it means. In nineteen hundred years from now they'll hear me.

Not before.

No.

A Box. I need A Box.

I'll put all it all in here. My Story. My History of The Family. Yes. And The End of The Republic. Yes. And when I've finished, I'll seal it up and bury it where no one will find it.

No. No one.

Not for nineteen hundred years or more. And then it will turn up. Suddenly. People will read it. They'll know The Truth. My Voice, as the Sybil said, as she prophesied. For them. Not for these fools in Rome. But for them, out there, in remote posterity.

Yes, for you. Yes, it will all be in here. Sealed. You will find it. I promise you.

I, Claudius am now about to begin this strange history of my life, of my family, of Livia my grandmother, of Augustus Caesar, of Marcus Agrippa, yes, and his hatred for Marcellus...