Vittoria Belvedere: Julia Caesaris

Augustus: The First Emperor

Julia Caesaris

Julia: Who will love Gaius and Lucius? You? You are not capable of real love, only your dream - your perfect Roman Empire. You should have killed me when I was born, father! Instead you tortured me slowly, with never ending pain.
[pause]
Julia: They call you Augustus... But you are not a god.

Livia: Why haven't you told them?
Julia: You know?
Livia: Yes, why does that surprise you? Go and tell them now before they embarrass us in public.
Julia: How do I tell them their father is dead, Livia?
Livia: They barely knew him.
Julia: Marcus Agrippa was a good father and a loving husband.
Livia: Oh, come now Julia! Don't play the poor young widow to me.
Julia: You are a merciless woman!
Livia: [pause] Perhaps. It is necessary.

Iullus: I love you.
Julia: But Iullus, my father...
Iullus: Wouldn't approve? What else does he want from you? Didn't it satisfy him enough to have married you to *old* Agrippa in order to beget an heir from your marriage bed?
Julia: I was faithful to Agrippa until he died...
Iullus: So, come to my bed.
Julia: I can't, Agrippa...
Iullus: He's dead, Julia! And you've mourned that beloved, so-called husband for months. You've done your duty for Rome!

Livia: You must marry Tiberius.
Julia: I can't stand him.
Livia: I'm not asking you to love him.
Julia: Good, cause I won't!
Augustus: Shut up, the pair of you! If a fight is what you want give me three days notice to place the bets.

Scipio: Hail to our queen!
Julia: Scipio! Don't holler so loud.
Scipio: No worries, we're in disguise. You don't want your father to arrest us for scandal in Rome, do you?
Julia: You do scandalize Rome!
Phoebe: Which is why you love us! Your father caught us one time.
Scipio: He called us "naughty children"!
Julia: He's absolutely right!
Iullus: Indeed. Augustus is *always* right!

Tiberius: I'll find Iullus and kill him!
Julia: No, you won't. You'll go back to the boarder and continue playing "soldier" or I'll have father throw you in prison as a deserter.

Tiberius: My duty is to maintain authority over Rome's legions; you undermine that with your adultery which you don't even attempt to conceal. I can not live with that!
Julia: Then do us both a favour and fall on your sword!

Julia: You already have what you wanted of me, father. Heirs. My sons. Now let me live my life!

Augustus: My grandsons! Gaius and Lucius! Beautiful, aren't they? Devil see them, the pair of them- they take after their mother!
[Julia enters through the crowds]
Julia: They do not! They take after their father and their grandfather. Come along boys, your grandfather is far too busy being "king" to play with his grandsons.
Augustus: Julia, I'm not a king- there are no "kings" in Rome.

Julia: Have I ever been anything more to you then a instrument to fulfill your destiny.
Augustus: I have never loved anyone in my life as much as I love you.
Julia: Then why are you taking my life away from me?
Augustus: Julia, I want you to be happy, but you have to remember that you aren't just my daughter; you are the daughter of the Empire. As Rome's princess, your body and soul belongs to state, and the state is the body of world - if Rome falls, civilization falls!

Augustus: You're not finished dressing...
Julia: Actually I am, it's the current style. Would you have me weave my dresses as I did when I was a little girl?
Augustus: Perhaps, with a little more wool.

Augustus: You've not changed from your wedding dress?
Julia: I thought that maybe, if I slept in it, when I next awoke it would be gone like a bad dream.

Augustus: Iullus Antonius blames me for his father's death, he thinks I destroyed the republic, he thinks I'm a tyrant!
Julia: You *are* a tyrant!

Julia: Tiberius! I was not informed that you were returning to Rome.
Tiberius: You mean "warned"?
Julia: Why should I need to be "warned"?
Tiberius: The northen boarder is as far away as your father could send me, but reports of your affair with Iullus arrive regulary... In explisite detail.