“Old King Log” quotes from I, Claudius

By dulling the blade of tyranny, I reconciled Rome to the monarchy.

Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out.

But what is said about us in our lives is not always what history says. And doubtless history will have its say, as it always does. And about that, I have done something. Oh, not something that need concern you, but something.

What a pretty thing a fire is!

Unable to poison Claudius' food, Agripinilla must have poisoned hers. It was in a dish of mushrooms, which he loved and out of which she had been eating. He had finished his own and had called for more, which he often did. Then she offered him hers, out of her own dish. At first I thought nothing of it. When you're used to seeing someone eat out of a dish it doesn't occur to you that it may contain something different in just one part. And then, she lifted the mushroom onto her fork and held it out for him to take. I knew then there was something different about it. And I knew too, as certainly as I knew that, that he knew. He knew it was poisoned, that his end was near, and he didn't care. He welcomed it.

Britannicus... what will happen to him?

Nero will kill him.

And Narcissus?

Agrippinilla will kill him. Then Nero will kill her.

It all sounds depressingly familiar.

Yes, isn't it?

And the Empire?

Oh that will go on, as Livia said it would. But they'll be no more Claudians after Nero. He'll be the last. But the Emperors won't be a bad lot after him. Well, give or take a few.

Farewell, Tiberius Claudius, God of the Britons, one-time Emperor of the Roman world. Farewell.