Claudius I Trivia

1. Caesar Augustus is very pleased with one of the entertainments in his first scene. He is told they are going to eat well. What group is it?

From Quiz I, C-C-Claudius

Answer: The dancers

Augustus insists that the dancers eat "better than us," but not as well as the kitchen staff.

From Quiz 'I, Claudius'

Answer: The anniversary of the Battle of Actium

The series opens with the aged Claudius, who begins to describe the gathering to commemorate the battle. Many of the main characters are pointed out to us, and the rivalry between Marcellus and Agrippa is brought to the fore.

From Quiz The Television Series 'I, Claudius'

Answer: on 'Masterpiece Theater'

'I, Claudius' was probably one of the most daring shows PBS had ever aired at that point.

From Quiz 'I, Claudius' Rules 1

Answer: Derek Jacobi

I believe the international success of this program gave his career a boost.

From Quiz I, C-C-Claudius

Answer: Empire

Livia acts as though she loves them and will take good care of them. She later gets rid of them both to make way for her son becoming emperor.

From Quiz 'I, Claudius'

Answer: Lentulus

He obviously believed that the Emperor was dying, and that he wouldn't need to act on his promise. Unfortunately for him (and for everyone else) Caligula recovered. Although Lentulus thought that his pledge would be forgotten, Caligula made a point of remarking that he was there, and Lentulus was there, and they couldn't both be there....

From Quiz The Television Series 'I, Claudius'

Answer: Derek Jacobi

Kevin Kline is actually more known for ridiculing a stutterer (in 'A Fish Called Wanda') than for portraying one.

From Quiz 'I, Claudius' Rules 1

Answer: Livia

Livia generally poisons people who get in the way of her ambitions for herself and her family.

From Quiz I, C-C-Claudius

Answer: She'd had affairs with dozens of men.

Livia unearthed Julia's affairs so that her own son, Tiberius, would have a greater chance at becoming emperor.

From Quiz 'I, Claudius'

Answer: Once

Tiberius was happily married to Vipsania, but his mother had other plans. She wanted to enhance his standing by marrying him to Augustus' only child, Julia. Livia brought about the death of Julia's first husband, Marcellus, when it looked likely that he would become Augustus' successor. She also did away with Julia's second husband, Agrippa, for the same reason. As we all know, the marriage of Julia and Tiberius was not spectacularly successful, particularly as Tiberius was still in love with Vipsania. Tiberius is unable to stay away from Vipsania, and goes to see her. It's a touching scene, especially when Tiberius says: 'I'm afraid of what I will become without you.'

From Quiz I, C-C-Claudius

Answer: Get married

He uses Claudius as an example of a fine product of marriage: a Roman child. The men laugh at the head-twitching, stammering boy.

From Quiz 'I, Claudius'

Answer: Weighted dice

Claudius had a great fondness for dice, and so was very happy to receive this gift from his great friend. The dice were weighted so that whoever threw them would throw 'Venus', the highest combination, all the time. Claudius lends the dice to Caligula when the emperor was getting stroppy about being on a losing streak - and probably saved a few lives by doing so.

From Quiz The Television Series 'I, Claudius'

Answer: a serpent

I'm not up on my reptilian studies, but I always liked to think it was an asp.

From Quiz 'I, Claudius' Rules 1

Answer: One day, Claudius will protect Rome

Naturally, the family thought the idea of Claudius being Rome's protector laughable.

From Quiz I, C-C-Claudius

Answer: Livia

Her money funds the games, and she wants the best show she can get, and that includes authentic deaths.

From Quiz The Television Series 'I, Claudius'

Answer: Tiberius

Tiberius actually wanted nothing to do with her plans, but she manipulated his life to the extent that he couldn't escape her will. Drusus was another of her sons, whom she had killed because he favored a return to The Republic.

From Quiz 'I, Claudius' Rules 1

Answer: she towered over him in height

One thing we know for sure is Urgalanilla was a giant compared to Claudius. His family found the match positively hilarious.

From Quiz I, C-C-Claudius

Answer: Women and fools

"Which is strange, when you come to think of it, because it's filled with nothing but old women and fools!" This show has excellent dialogue. Incidentally, Caligula later inducted a horse as a Senator.

From Quiz 'I, Claudius'

Answer: Drusus (to Livia)

Livia had a powerful ambition: that her son Tiberius should become emperor. She never considered Drusus for that role as he believed that Rome should become a republic once more. You get the feeling that Drusus had much more in the way of moral fibre and ethics than Tiberius, who went off the rails quite quickly after he lost the good influences in his life. Drusus probably wouldn't have made such an easy channel for Livia's dreams. Therefore, Livia didn't have much love for Drusus, and he knew it. When he mentions her 'children', he was most likely referring to himself, Tiberius and to Rome. On his deathbed he remarked to Tiberius that 'Rome has a brutal mother'. Claudius didn't have a very good relationship with his mother, although he clearly loved her. She probably loved him too, but couldn't get past his physical infirmities. As Roman matrons were expected to produce strong, healthy sons, she might have felt that she had failed in her duty as a wife and mother when she produced such a sickly child. Tiberius resented his mother for her plotting and her ambition, and Caligula didn't really seem to show any great love for his mother either.

From Quiz The Television Series 'I, Claudius'

Answer: her extramarital affairs

Augustus is represented as a forefather of what we may call 'family values.' He was very interested in seeing young Roman nobles well-married and monogamous. When his daughter's promiscuous ways were revealed to him, he allowed himself no choice but to banish her.

From Quiz 'I, Claudius' Rules 1

Answer: Germanicus

Germanicus died before he could reach his full potential.

From Quiz The Television Series 'I, Claudius'

Answer: Herod Agrippa

Herod Agrippa is an interesting companion to Claudius: Where Claudius is naive, Herod is worldly; where Claudius is ugly and crippled, Herod is handsome and suave. However, his end is hideous. He succumbs to madness, believing himself to be The Christ, and suffers a rotting body before finally dying.

From Quiz 'I, Claudius' Rules 1

Answer: Caligula

How noble Germanicus and Agrippina managed to produce such a twisted child as Caligula we'll never know!

From Quiz I, C-C-Claudius

Answer: A vase from India

Tiberius gave her a horoscope. This is the scene where Livia finds out that Claudius has been pulling the wool over everyone's eyes by pretending to be an idiot all those years. She then advises him to keep on playing the fool.

From Quiz 'I, Claudius'

Answer: Three

Silanus didn't quite react in the way Messalina anticipated: he rejected her advances, and she slaps him three times to display her displeasure. Basically, she didn't get her own way, so she had a tantrum. Messalina's plans blew up in her face, as Silanus later tried to assassinate Claudius. He did this as Messalina had told him that her husband knew all about her love for him, and condoned it as he wanted to sleep with the wives of many senators and didn't want her to get bored in the meantime. Believing Claudius to be dissolute and depraved, Silanus resolved to kill him. He failed, and despite Messalina's pleas, he was executed. Messalina had brought about the death of her great love.

From Quiz The Television Series 'I, Claudius'

Answer: John Hurt

Never have curly golden locks seemed so out of place.

From Quiz I, C-C-Claudius

Answer: He didn't want his child to be stronger than himself.

He feared that a child stronger than himself would kill or rule over him. He thought he was Zeus.

From Quiz 'I, Claudius'

Answer: The Lady Antonia

Tiberius resented his mother Livia's machinations and ambition on his behalf, and positively despised Julia, whom he was forced to marry. He also harboured a great hatred for Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus, and often accused her of twisted ambition and haughtiness. Agrippina seems to have been the model Roman matron, who took great pride in her lineage, her husband and her sons - the more Tiberius persecuted her, the more verbal she was in her condemnation of him. He later had her exiled to the island of Pandataria, where her own mother, Julia, hated wife of Tiberius, was sent by Augustus. Tiberius' attitude to Antonia, the mother of Claudius, was entirely different. When she exposed her daughter Livilla's treason, Tiberius looked kindly on her, and described her as a noble and good woman.

From Quiz The Television Series 'I, Claudius'

Answer: his bride is a foot taller than him

Poor Clau-Clau-Claudius.

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