I, Claudius by Robert Graves

I had been meaning to watch the British TV series made based on this book for some time and so when my girlfriend at the time swore up and down that it was one of her favorite books, I finally decided to read the book instead. I don't think it would qualify as one of my favorites, but I certainly thoroughly enjoyed it. The author does a fantastic job of creating a well researched portrait of a time and place full of murderous, promiscuous & incredibly self obsessed people realistically come to life. His depiction of Augustus' wife Livia, who acted utterly without remorse on the assumption that all her sins would be forgiven once she was deified posthumously, was particularly memorable.

That said, the seemingly endless catalog of names made things hard to follow at times. Not that that is really Graves' fault, but it still was a bit of a barrier to following/enjoying things.