 The elderly Roman emperor Claudius writes his memoirs, telling of the history of the Roman empire through his own period of rule. It begins as Augustus is emperor, and his scheming wife Livia will stop at nothing to make her son from a previous marriage Tiberius the next emperor. This conflict sets the stage for a long period of intrigue and double-crosses among the Roman elite, all of it witnessed by Claudius, whose limp and stammer cause everyone to think him simple-minded and thus leave him alone. But Claudius in fact posesses a very keen intellect, and is determined to see justice be done and Rome returned to a Republican form of government.