Despised by his own family as little more than a stammering fool, the nobleman Claudius watches silently from the shadows as ancient Rome spirals into madness. He witnesses the cunning schemes of the wise Augustus and his villainous wife Livia, the sadistic reign of Tiberius, and the insane excesses of Caligula.

Quietly surviving the bloody purges and mounting cruelty of the imperial dynasty, Claudius records every betrayal and debauchery in his secret autobiography. But as the empire teeters on the brink of chaos, could this underestimated nobleman hold the key to Rome's future?