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📖 VIDEO INFORMATION
📺 "A Touch of Murder"
Original Airdate: 20 September 1976
Rome, AD 54. Knowing that he will soon be assassinated, the Roman Emperor Claudius begins a secret history of his family, planning for it to be found long after he is dead. He begins his tale seventy years earlier, in 24 BC, as the newly-cemented Emperor Augustus begins to favour his nephew and son-in-law Marcellus over his old friend and ally Agrippa.
After Agrippa is insulted by Marcellus at a banquet honouring the Battle of Actium, he leaves Rome in protest. Augustus' wife Livia wants her son Tiberius to become Augustus' heir, so she secretly poisons Marcellus, who eventually dies. Augustus has Agrippa return to Rome. To seal their renewed friendship, he gives his daughter Julia, Marcellus' widow, to Agrippa to be his wife, infuriating Livia, who wanted Julia to marry Tiberius to cement his status as Augustus' heir.
Rome, 9–8 BC. Nine years have passed. Agrippa is dead and Tiberius has been forced to marry Julia, divorcing his wife Vipsania Agrippina. Still deeply in love, he continues to meet Vipsania secretly, enraging Augustus, but Livia defends him by claiming that Tiberius had informed her of the meetings. Tiberius is briefly comforted by the presence of his brother Drusus, who quarrels with Livia before leaving on campaign. Drusus writes to Tiberius, asking for his brother's help in convincing Augustus to retire and return Rome to a Republic, but the letter is intercepted and read by both Livia and Augustus.
Augustus dismisses the letter as youthful impetuousness, but Livia is clearly troubled. Drusus falls from his horse and crushes his leg, and his condition worsens under the oversight of Livia's personal physician. He dies in the presence of his wife, Antonia, and their recently born son Claudius, leaving Tiberius heartbroken. A year later, a drunken Julia enrages Tiberius with taunts about Vipsania, and he strikes her across the face, resulting in his banishment from Rome. Augustus looks forward to sharing his power with his grandsons Lucius and Gaius when they come of age, but Livia is already planning ahead.
