“ON ONE SMALL condition,” said Claudius, having been asked to promise his feared grandmother the Lady Livia Augustus that he would implore the new Roman Emperor Caligula to make her a goddess after her death.
“You see, there’s so much I want to know,” continued Claudius. “I’m a historian and I want to know the truth. When people die, so much dies with them, and all that’s left are pieces of paper that tell lies.”
“He wants to know the truth and he calls it a small condition!” exclaimed the Lady Livia Augustus.
“Grandmother, who killed Marcellus?” asked Claudius.
“I did!” said the Lady Livia Augustus.1
1 From the 1976 BBC Masterpiece Theatre production of I, Claudius. (Based on: I, Claudius: from the autobiography of Tiberius Claudius born 10 B.C. murdered and deified A.D. 54. and Claudius the God, both authored by Robert Graves. New York: Vintage International Edition, 1989, originally published by Random House, 1935.