What Is The Source Of The BBC's "I, Claudius"�?

The series is based on two novels by Robert Graves, "I, Claudius" and "Claudius the God," both published in 1934. The novels themselves are based on close study by Graves, a classical scholar as well as a novelist and poet, of Claudius's era. Claudius lived from 10BC-AD44, and the novels trace his life from childhood to death. Both the novels and the series take us through the era of Augustus Caesar, grandfather of Claudius, who was eventually poisoned by his wife Livia and succeeded by his son-in-law, the corrupt and murderous Tiberius. Tiberius's misrule was followed by  that of the much more dangerous Caius, or Caligula, who was insane. Finally, when Caligula was murdered by his own guards, the despised Cladius, thought by many to be an idiot, took the throne and proved to be a better ruler than many of his predecessors. In the end, however, Claudius himself was succeeded by the tyrant Nero.