This is the continuation of the fictionalized history begun in I, Claudius which ended with the death of the Roman Emperor Caligula. This part begins with the battles in the Roman senate over whether or not the lame and "mentally deficient" Claudius should, in fact, become the emperor. The rest of the story covers his thirteen year reign including the political intrigues, treachery and backstabbing that was common in that era. After the horrific reign of Caligula with its violence and excesses, Claudius' time in power seems quite calm and reasonable. Messalina, the favorite of Claudius' four wives, embraces the power of being the emperor's wife. Behind his back, she carries out her own intrigues and affairs. His love for her led him to overlook what is happening when it came to her activities. While Claudius sincerely tried to improve things for his Roman subjects, including the ones in conquered lands, there was still plenty of violence, retaliatory murders, and execution but not close to the scale of Caligula's time. This book was a bit of a slog to get through. It gets bogged down in the military operations in Britain. Now I need to re-watch the PBS series from the 1970s.
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