I, Claudius

I, Claudius was a novel. The Tenth Doctor said it made the Roman Emperor Caligula look worse than he really was. (PROSE: The Lonely Computer) Brian Blessed played Augustus in a television adaptation. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles)

The television series' title was written in a script that made its u's look like v's, so Donna Noble nicknamed the show "I, Clavdivs" for a laugh. When she visited Pompeii with the Tenth Doctor, Donna reacted to learning about the TARDIS' translation circuit enabling her to speak Latin by saying she was "giving it the old I, Clavdivs!" The Doctor was confused, and did not find the joke funny when Donna explained it to him, to which she told him that he'd had to be there. (PROSE: The Fires of Pompeii)

In Roma I, Marcus Americanius Scriptor commissioned and extensively edited an award-winning ostensible-autobiography of Claudius written by his fellow soldier Sepulcrius. (PROSE: Warlords of Utopia)

Behind the scenes

The title of this novel has been referenced by:

• The I, Who guidebooks.
• The I, Davros audio series.
• The novel I, Alastair in the Lethbridge-Stewart series.
• The audio drama I, Rorius in the Lone Centurion series.
• The audiobook I, Kamelion in the Interludes series.

The novel has been adapted several times:

• David Warner played Claudius in the 1972 stage adaptation.
• Derek Jacobi played Claudius in the 1976 BBC serial and Augustus in the 2010 BBC Radio adaptation. He also narrated two abridged audiobook versions.
• The 1976 serial featured Brian Blessed as Augustus, Siân Phillips as Livia, George Baker as Tiberius, John Hurt as Caligula, Frances White as Julia, Patricia Quinn as Livilla, John Castle as Postumus, Fiona Walker as Agrippina, Sheila Ruskin as Vipsania, Kevin Stoney as Thrasyllus, Jo Rowbottom as Calpurnia, Kevin McNally as Castor, John Cater as Narcissus, Sam Dastor as Cassius Chaerea, Stratford Johns as Piso, Renu Setna as Musa, Christopher Biggins as Nero, Christopher Guard as Marcellus, Denis Carey as Livy, Guy Siner as Pylades, Roy Stewart as Sentor, Esmond Knight as Domitius, John Franklyn-Robbins as Atticus, Peter Bowles as Caractacus, John Laurimore as Lentulus, John Bennett as Xenophon, Bruce Purchase as Sabinus, James Bree as Montanus, George Pravda as Gershom, Donald Eccles as Pollio, Geoffrey Hinsliff as Rufrius, Pat Gorman as the captain of the guard, Souad Faress as Agrippina's slave and Messalina's friend and John Scott Martin as one of Julia's lovers and Piso's slave. It was produced by Martin Lisemore.
• Tom Goodman-Hill played Claudius in the 2010 radio adaptation.
• Tim McInnerny played Tiberius in the 2010 radio adaptation.
• Samuel Barnett played Caligula in the 2010 radio adaptation.
• John Friedlander was the visual effects designer on the final episode of the 1976 serial.