A Comparative Essay of I Claudius by Robert Graves and Augustus by Alan Massie

"Autobiography is now almost as common as adultery, and almost as reprehensible," wrote Lord Altrincham. Whether writing an autobiography is as reprenhensible is open to debate, but Lord Altrincham did get one thing right: that many people, even the most obscure citizen, are writing autobiographies. Some authors are even taking to writing fictional ones for historical figures who have been dead for millenia.
In these books a modern author assumes the role of a historical figure and recounts the subjects life and history of the time period through a first person narritive.
Claudius the God by Robert Graves and Augustus by Allan Massie are two such books. The protagonists in these novels, Claudius and Augustus, were both emperors of Rome at the height of its power making them ideal candidates for such a work.…