the earliest possible age. it may sound strange,
but augustus was a greatgrandfather at the
age of fiftyfour and a greatgreatgrandfather
before he died at the age of seventysix; while
Julia, as a result of her second marriage too,
had a marriageable granddaughter before she
was herself beyond childbearing age. The gen
erations somewhat overlapped in this way and
the genealogical tree of the imperial family
became a rival in complexity to that of olym
pus. This was not only because of the frequent
adoptions and the marrying of members in
closer degree of kinship than religious cus
tom really permitted—for the imperial family
was by this time getting above the law; but
because as soon as a man died his widow was
made to marry again and always in the same
small circle of relationship.
Robert Graves, from i, Claudius. Among other
Julian Laws were stipulations making adultery
punishable by banishment and imposing sanctions
upon the celibate. Graves volunteered for military
service in 1914—wounded in 1916 at the Battle of the
Somme—and completed three volumes of poetry before
the war ended. He published in 1929 his memoir,
goodbye to all That, where he observes that his
father’s side of the family was “antisentimental to the
point of insolence,” while his mother’s side was “noble
and patient.” Graves published i, Claudius in 1934.
