# Quote — Robert Graves, Claudius the God

> The frog-pool wanted a king.
>
> Jove sent them Old King Log.
>
> I have been as deaf and blind and wooden as a log.
>
> The frog-pool wanted a king.
>
> Let Jove now send them Young King Stork.
>
> Caligula's chief fault: his stork-reign was too brief.
>
> My chief fault: I have been far too benevolent.
>
> I repaired the ruin my predecessors spread.
>
> I reconciled Rome and the world to monarchy again.
>
> Rome is fated to bow to another Caesar.
>
> Let him be mad, bloody, capricious, wasteful, lustful.
>
> King Stork shall prove again the nature of kings.
>
> By dulling the blade of tyranny I fell into great error.
>
> By whetting the same blade I might redeem that error.
>
> Violent disorders call for violent remedies.
>
> Yet I am, I must remember, Old King Log.
>
> I shall float inertly in the stagnant pool.
>
> Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out.

- Author: [Robert Graves](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves.md)
- Book: [Claudius the God](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves/claudius-the-god.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Graves#Claudius_the_God_(1935)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves/claudius-the-god/the-frog-pool-wanted

## More from this book

> Nobody is familiar with his own profile, and it comes as a shock, when one sees it in a portrait, that one really looks like that to people standing beside one. For one's full face, because of the familiarity that mirrors give it, a certain toleration and even affection is felt; but I must say that when I first saw the model of the gold piece that the mint-masters were striking for me I grew angry and asked whether it was intended to be a caricature. My little head with its worried face perched on my long neck, and the Adam's apple standing out almost like a second chin, shocked me. But Messalina said: "No, my dear, that's really what you look like. In fact, it is rather flattering than otherwise."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves/claudius-the-god/nobody-is-familiar.md)