Snapshot · Fin vs History
There is a historical theory that Claudius deliberately exaggerated his afflictions and played the fool to avoid being perceived as a threat and thus being purged.
Where this was said
At 29:09 · chapter starts 22:36
The episode takes a lengthy and very funny detour through the parallel universe of Tony Blair — 'Augustus is Blair if he didn't invade Iraq' — during which Fin and Horatio speculate about whether Cherie Blair secretly orchestrated 9/11 as a ventriloquist manoeuvre to drag Tony into the Middle East. When control is eventually recovered, the timeline resumes: Augustus dies in 14 AD and Tiberius takes power. Claudius is now 23, and he appeals to his uncle Tiberius for permission to begin his cursus honorum — the structured Roman political career path. Tiberius says no. Claudius asks again. No. And again. No. Because he's clapped. Because he's disabled. The hosts relish this bureaucratic cruelty. Claudius retreats to his writing.
Claudius's grandmother Livia prayed aloud that the Roman people might be spared 'so cruel and undeserved a misfortune' as having Claudius as emperor.
Eagles fighting overhead drop an injured wolf cub into the arms of young Claudius in his garden, and an oracle declares he will become emperor. His grandmother's response: she prays loudly that Rome is spared the misfortune. Even the gods seemed to be trolling her.
Every close relative of the Julio-Claudian line got purged. Claudius didn't, because nobody saw him as a threat. The theory: he wasn't playing the fool, he was being the fool strategically. He's Tom Wambsgam 2,000 years before Succession was written.
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