Livia, the scheming wife of Augustus, seeks to disinherit her husband's grand-children in favour of her own son Tiberius.

Claudius enters the story as a stumbling , stuttering child, marked out for greatness by a falling wolf cub. Livia, wife of Emperor Augustus plots against his daughter Julia and manages to convince him to bring her son Tiberius back from exile.

Livia has engineered the downfall of Julia, who has been banished. Tiberius is recalled to Rome and is joint heir with Postumus. Poor stumbling, stuttering Claudius finds a friend in Herod, king of the Jews.

The Imperial Army on the Rhine has been wiped out and Tiberius is dispatched to avenge the defeat, followed later by Germanicus. Livia has discredited Postumus, who has been banished. Augustus has been feeling unwell, but is avoiding suspicions of poisoning by eating figs from his own garden.

As Augustus learned of Livia's plot against Postumus, she took action which resulted in Tiberius becoming emperor. The situation in the East now threatens Tiberius's position.

Germanicus has been murdered in Antioch and his wife Agrippina is convinced Tiberius ordered the killing. Livia has discovered that Caligula helped to poison his father. While Tiberius's perversions have become notorious, his right-hand man Sejanus, commander of the Praetorian Guard, gathers more power for himself, including a marriage alliance with Claudius.