“Reign of Terror”
In this episode: Tiberius (4), Nero Claudius Drusus (3), Caligula (2), Antonia Minor (2), Sejanus (1)
My dear - you look like a Greek tragedy.
And you look like a Roman farce.
That tongue of yours has cost you dear and will cost you dearer.
You pitiful worm-eaten old ruin, it's not my tongue that's cost me dear, but the love that people have for me and my family.
I've no need of a trial to prove your guilt.
A song sung by every small town corrupt policeman, which is what you are and what you should have stayed. I've watched your career with fascination, Sejanus, it's been a revelation to me. I've never fully realized how a small mind, allied to limitless ambition and without scruple, could destroy an entire country full of clever men.
[after being asked by Antonia to hide a letter for Tiberius inside his history of Carthage] Well, I suppose I could, but I don't want to give him this copy. It's got elephants drawn all over it.
You are the biggest fool any mother was ever punished with. Who cares about your stupid history of Carthage? Nobody's going to read it anyway, and certainly not Tiberius. The only way you'd get him to read it is if you drew naked women all over it, and then he'd only look at the pictures!
[about Macro] Do you know him personally?
No, but I've slept with his wife several times.
And is deception with the wife regarded these days as a sound introduction to the husband?!
I shall make you my successor, Gaius Caligula! I’ve decided. You shall stay here with me. Rome deserves you. I will nurse you like a viper in her bosom.
Is that a joke, uncle?
Not yet, but it will be.
[Planning the deaths of Sejanus and his followers with Caligula]
You and I will draw up a list during dinner. A long list. The city will be purged! As surely as if she had gorged herself on figs for a year! I will open Rome's bowels! The streets will run like a sewer!
I can't do it. I can't just kill them: they're underage.
They're on the list. Now get on with it.
The girl is a virgin. It's unprecedented to kill a virgin. It will bring bad luck to the city.
Then make sure she's not a virgin when you kill her. Now get on with it!
[Antonia is sitting outside Livilla's locked door]
[screaming and pounding from the inside] Mother! Let me out! Let me out!
For Heaven's sake, let her out! How long are you going to leave her in here?
Until she dies.
Dies? Dies?! Have you gone mad?! She's your daughter! How can you leave her to die?!
That's her punishment.
How can you bear to sit out here and listen to her?!
And that's mine. Leave me, Claudius. I shall not move from here until they open the door and find her dead. Leave me.
No... No...! [leaves, sobbing]
[On hearing the fate of Sejanus's children]
[sobbing] Rome, you are finished! Finished! You are despicable.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's I, Claudius pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
