"(HE SIGHS)" "Does it hurt?" "." "Of course it hurts." "Do you think I'm made of wood?" "Oh." " I didn't mean to scratch so hard." " And I'm on stage today." "No one will sea." "You'll have your clothes on." "I'm doing Ulysses and Circe." "When I'm washed up on the beach, my dear, I'm naked to the waist." " That's not in the play." " It is when I perform it." " Where are you going?" " To the theatre." "Stay here." "I have a performance to give." "You can give it here, just for me." "I've already performed for you." "Don't be insolent." "No, no, no." "You shouldn't hit my face." "I am an actor." "And that's all you are." "Just remember that." "Why do I put up with you?" "Because you're bored and I make you laugh." " Do you think I'm bored?" " Oh, unbelievably." "You would crack the universe open if you could to sea what would happen." "Well. you may be right." "You ought to have accompanied the Emperor on his invasion of Britain." "They say the men there are so savage that the women live in a permanent state of ecstasy." "I should have bean an actor or a sculptor." "They never seam to get bored." "They have their art, but what do I have?" "You have your lovers." " Oh, my lovers!" " Hmm." "When I make love, I reach for something that men never dream of." "Oh." "What's that?" "." "I don't know." "But it's there - always just out of reach." "Sometimes I feel as if I could take on the whole of Rome in a night and be no worse for it in the morning." "Well. why don't you?" "You'll mock me once too often some day!" "No, I'm not mocking you." "I'm serious." "We could stage the greatest night of love the world has aver seen." "A tournament of sex." "We could challenge the Guild of Prostitutes to provide a champion to compote with you." "Who would last the longest?" "." "The Interminable versus the Inexhaustible!" "You're mad!" "There's no one who could compote with me." "Oh, no?" "What about that Sicilian woman?" "What's her name?" "Scylla." "Don't underestimate her." "They say she boards a ship at Ostia, works the whole crew, then walks off steadier than them." " Are you serious?" " Why not?" "." "Why not?" "." "What a spectacle it would make." "Two tidal waves of male passion dashing their fury against two timeless rock of love!" "Who will be the first to yield?" "Who will be the first to break?" "Oh, why, it would be unprecedented." "Copulation on a cosmic scale to set the universe ringing to the cheers of the gods." " Do you think I'd win?" " Who can tell?" "." "That Sicilian woman, they say, she's formidable." "But I am more so." "Now I know why I put up with you." "Bring on your Sicilian." "And let her look to her laurels." "They've taken 8,000 prisoners and counted nearly 5,000 corpses." "Caractacus has fled Colchester." "Aulus has taken the Ninth Cavalry in pursuit." " And our losses?" " Oh, insignificant." "380 killed and 600 wounded." "Britain is almost subdued." "The Emperor's on his way home." "Er..." "If he's on his way home, it solves our problem." " About Messalina?" " Yes." "It solves the problem of whether we should write to him." "Whether we should tell him is another matter." "Then it becomes the same problem we had before he left." "(ALL SHOUT) Galla's Hair!" ""The golden hair that Galla wears is hers." ""Who would have thought it?" "." ""She swears it's hers, and true she swears" ""For I know where she bought it!"" "Oh, come, Mnester." ""You ask me how my farm can pay, since little it will bear." ""It pays me thus - 'tis far away and you are never there!"" "The woman Scylla!" "President of the Guild of Prostitutes!"" "Sh!" "Permit me to introduce myself." "My name is Mnester." "I am an actor." "Most people have heard of me." "My name is Scylla and I'm a whore." "Everybody's heard of me." "Allow me to introduce you to the Lady Messalina." "Your challenger, and the Emperor's wife." "This is Scylla the Sicilian and anybody's wife." " I am honoured." " You are most welcome." "They said you were beautiful." "but they did you small justice." "You are most generous." "It was sporting of you to accept the challenge." "Sporting?" "I sea." "There's no money in it?" "." "You're here for the honour and to defend your reputation." "Would you defend yours for nothing, Greek?" "Lady, I'm a professional I work for money." "The honour I gladly leave to you." "What impudence!" "She expects to be paid, and in this company!" "The difference between you and me, actor, is you're a snob and I'm not." "And the difference between this great lady and myself is that my work is her hobby." "My hobby happens to be gardening, for which I don't expect to be paid." "You shall have your money." "Shall we say...?" "Five?" "Three gold pieces a head?" ""A head" seams an odd way to describe it." "Win or lose, of course?" " That seams satisfactory." " Satisfactory?" "." "You've never earned so much in a year." "This Greek will drive me to distraction." " Nothing I say pleases him." " Let us begin." "Which side of the bed do you proffer?" "." "Left or right?" "." "Lady, give me a support for my back, and "Let the Games begin," as they say." "Let the Games begin!" "Do you know what's going on at the now palace?" "The Emperor's wife is comparing with a prostitute to sea who can wear out the most men!" "Well. that is shocking." "I can hardly believe it." "I've had my suspicions for weeks, but this is the final straw." " Something must be done." " Have you told anyone else?" " Only my immediate superior." " Colonel Ruffrius?" " Yes." " When did you discuss it?" "." "A weak ago, before I had any proof." "And he advised you to wait for the Emperor's return?" "Yes, and I did wait, but this is too much." "I think you must write to the Emperor at once." "I don't think you can put that sort of thing in a letter." "I sea." "Well. maybe you can't, but I can!" "Justus." "I think you have bean immensely foolish." " Are you threatening me?" " No." "But did you not know that Colonel Ruffrius was one of the Lady Messalina's inner circle of friends?" "If you have confided in him, he has most certainly confided in her." "I'd say she's already applied to the Emperor for your execution warrant." "My execution?" " Are you serious?" "On what grounds?" " Does it matter?" "." "Conspiracy." "Emperors are very nervous when they're away, they'll sign anything." "If I'm any judge, that warrant's on its way back here now." "You mean...?" "What are we to do?" "You must help me." "You must back me up." "You must!" "I will choose my own time to tell him, not yours or anyone else's." "I have learned to tread very carefully in a burning building." "What am I to do?" "What can a dead man do?" "Go and get buried." ""Then victory hath conceded bean!" "The Queen is dead..." ""Long live the Queen!"" "(MESSALINA) Come back, you whore!" "We're not finished." "She's inhuman." "Her insides must be made out of old army boots." "The money." "Where's my money?" "." "Here, Lady, here." "Three gold pieces per head." "Will you take them or shall I have them sent?" "." "I'll take it." "Amateurs!" "(TRUMPET FANFARE)" "(CHEERING)" "Senators." "We have re-established Britain as a province of Rome 108 years after the Divine Julius left it - not very well secured." "It has again become p-part of the Roman world." "When I left, Caractacus, our principal enemy, was in f-full flight." "We had won a great victory." "(CLAUDIUS) A Roman Triumph is seldom granted, but they granted one to me." "Me" " Claudius the Idiot, the Stammerer, the Fool" "But what life gives with one hand, it takes back with the other." "I would gladly have foregone my Triumph for the tragedy that was about to unfold." "Shortly before I left for the invasion of Britain," "Marsus Vibius, my Governor of Syria had written to me giving me the startling news that my old friend Herod Agrippa was fortifying Jerusalem." "I had hastily written to Marsus Vibius asking him to find out more and report to me personally on my return." "D-do you think this is directed against us?" "Yes, Caesar." "But there's more." "I learned he was organising a secret meeting with neighbouring kings." "He is plotting a revolt against Rome." " But why?" "." "Why?" "." " Do his motives matter?" "." "Well. they do to me." "I'll tell you something, Marsus." "Before I left, I had a letter from Herod's uncle, Antipas." "It was full of gossip, as usual." "but, during it, he said that he was convinced" "Herod believed himself to be this Jewish Messiah whose coming has bean prophesied." "Yes." "Well. others have thought that too." "Your nephew Caligula for one." " Yes." " Perhaps it was him." "No." "Caligula filled the requirements of the prophecy in many respects, except he did not die in the year foretold by T-Thrasyllus, and Thrasyllus was never wrong about dates." "When was this Messiah supposed to die, according to Thrasyllus?" "In the same year as my grandmother, Livia." "If the Messiah is already dead, it can't be Herod Agrippa." "But Herod is a Jew." "He wouldn't believe anything Thrasyllus said." "Well. where does all this speculation get us?" "If he's planning a revolt against Rome, does it matter why?" "." "He's my dearest friend." "If he becomes my enemy, I want to know why!" "What do you know about the M-Messiah in the literature of the Jews?" "Very little, but I can find out and make a report." "I have Jewish agents in Jerusalem." " Am I interrupting?" " No, no, come in." "Marsus Vibius was just reporting the very grave situation in J-Jerusalem." "We'll meat later and talk some more." "Caesar." "Lady." " Are you worried?" " Hm?" "Oh." "Hurt that my old friend should..." "Well. there may be nothing in it." "I missed you so very much while I was away." "And the children." "I never rested properly a single night thinking about you." "What would I do without you?" "When you wrote to me about the Q-Quintus Justus affair," "I thought, "Thank heavens Messalina's taking care of things."" "Well. do you want something specially?" "." "Only to say that if I slipped into your room tonight, would I find you alone in bed?" " M-my love...!" " Sh!" "I'm not asking for details." "Only that I shouldn't find the little Calpurnia in my place." "I know that she sometimes visits you." "Well. she's an old f-friend." "I don't mind a bit." "It's very good for your health." "Oh, but sometimes I feel a great desire to have your arms about me, and I should hate to embarrass you." "Oh, come tonight, p-please." "I should be so grateful" "Be alone then." "Oh..." " There is one thing." " Oh, anything." "I wish you would speak to Mnester." "He's got so big-headed lately and insolent." "During your absence, he was very rude to me - making excuses for not putting on some play that my friends wanted." "Couldn't you punish him yourself?" "." "I didn't want to do that." "He's a great favourite with the crowd and they might have held that against you." "I shall speak to him." "Just tell him that when I ask him to do something, he is to do it and not make a fuss." "I was her slave." "Is there anything so foolish as an old man in love?" "Well, I spoke to Mnester." ""Listen, little Greek, " I said." ""If the Lady Messalina tells you to do anything," ""you will obey," ""Anything?" he asked.." ""Anything, " I said to him." "I played, as usual, into Messalina's hands." "She had fallen manically in love with Gaius Silius, the Consul-Elect and the handsomest man in Rome." "Knowing Mnester to be on close terms with the family, she had asked. him to bring Silius to see her." "Mnester had refused out of respect for Silius' wife." "Hence Messalina's complaints to me." "Like a fool, I secured for her what she most wanted." "He was not an easy victim of her passion, but she was clever.." "She did not talk at first of love, but of politics." "Tiberius had executed his father and she played, on that, telling him that I was more corrupt even than Tiberius" "Before he realised it, he was comforting her." "Before he realised it, he was making love to her." "He was as much her abject slave as I was." "Claudius, Claudius, you go too fast." "Too fast." "More grave news of the situation in Jerusalem was hurried to me by Marsus from his agent, Catalus." "Yes, but what exactly is this M-Messiah?" "A king, Caesar, who is to come and redeem Israel of all its sins." "Philo, their greatest living scholar, has declared that he must be descended from King David and born in a village called..." "Ah." "What?" "." "Bethlehem." " B-Bethlehem?" " Yes." "In w=what year?" "." "Well. opinions differ, as they always will in events of this kind." "Have there bean any candidates recently?" "." "Not recently." "The last one, I heard from a Jew, died fifteen years ago." " Fifteen?" " Yes." "Is that significant?" "." "Who was this man?" "His name was Joshua Bar-Joseph, a native of Galilea." "He had a large following amongst the uneducated and used to preach to gatherings by the lakeside." "He was also called Jesus by the Greeks." "And was he born in...?" " Bethlehem?" " B-Bethlehem." "It's not precisely known." "There was some scandal concerning his birth." "A Greek was said to have seduced his mother, who was a tapestry worker." "What happened to this Joshua?" "He tried to form a new religion out of Judaism, but he lacked authority." "He began identifying himself as this Messiah." "He was executed as a heretic." "Do you know what King Herod thought of him?" "Not much, I imagine." "He recently executed one of his followers called James." " He's looking for a Simon." " He has followers?" "Oh, yes, yes, yes." "It's a cult." "There are always cults." "All this is most interesting for you, Caesar, with your fascination for strange religions." "But what does it tell us of Herod's intentions?" "I will tell you, Pallas." "King Herod's mother was on her way to Jerusalem for her lying-in when she was overtaken by her pains in a village." "King Herod was born there." "The name of the village was B-Bethlehem." "There is no doubt in my mind." "My friend Herod believes himself to be this Messiah." "And worse - many others believe him to be this Messiah." "His intentions are clear." "On this great wave of religious fanaticism, he intends to free the east from the dominion of Rome." "He intends to make w=war on us." "Marsus is right." "If we don't move quickly, Herod will seize the Eastern Empire and we shall lose Egypt." "My friend has become my enemy." "What are you doing with that?" "." "The mistress told us to take it down." "But why?" "." "If there's a mark on it, I'll have you whipped." " Where is it going?" " Hurry up with it!" "I'm giving it to someone as a present." " To Silius?" " Yes." "Iris!" "I want my hair dressed!" "That was a present from your husband." "I know that." "Silius fell in love with it, so I'm giving it to him." " And if he finds that it's gone?" " He doesn't come here." "If he does, I'll tell him I've put it somewhere else." "Have you taken leave of your senses?" "Have your wits deserted you entirely?" "." "You have lavished gifts on that man from all directions... half of them from the palace." "Are you so much in love that you have lost all sense of discretion?" "Yes." "I am in love." "But you've never imperilled your life for it." "I shan't imperil my life." "All Rome knows that you visit him openly at his house." "And take him gifts." "His wife complains bitterly about it." "He's divorcing his wife." "Divorcing her?" "." "For what reason?" "For no other reason than he loves me." "He'll need a better reason." "They're not married in the strict form." "It requires a declaration." "But you are married!" "You can't marry him." "So why is he divorcing his wife?" "Because I can't bear him sharing her bed when he gets out of mine!" "I heard nothing." "Not a breath of the scandal that was known to everyone else in Rome." "Even the slaves" "They're laughing at me." "Still, after all these years.." "still laughing at me." "Herod." "(HEROD) Trust no one, my friend." "No one." "Yes, Caesar, dead." "Herod Agrippa is dead." "How?" "." "Tell me." "Tell me what happened." "Well. he had come up from Jerusalem to Caesarea for the festival in honour of your birthday." "But really to meat with the kings with whom he'd formed his alliance?" "Yes." "Only Phoenician Tyre and Sidon stood outside the alliance and now they had decided to join." "Their formal submission was to be made to Herod upon their arrival" "Did Herod truly believe himself to be this Messiah?" " This Anointed One?" " Oh, yes." "Yes." "He had revealed himself to the High Priests." "Now he was to reveal himself to the nation." "Go on." "When he arrived in the amphitheatre, the whole audience rose." "He was wearing a royal robe of silver tissue that flashed in the sun so brightly that it tired the ayes to look at it." "The whole audience shouted, "O King, live forever!"" "But this was not enough for the men of Tyre and Sidon." "They grovelled at his feat and said, "We repent of our ingratitude!" ""We sea now that you are superior to mortal nature."" ""Tyre and Sidon," he replied, "you are forgiven."" "And they answered, "It is the voice of God!"" ""Thou shalt have no other gods but me."" "Isn't that what the god of the J-Jews has said?" "Yes, Caesar, but evidently Herod had forgotten that." "He was about to signal for the ram's horn to be blown when he stopped." "An owl flew into the arena, which had bean blinded by the sunlight." "It perched on this throne, hooted five times, and then flew off." "An owl?" "." "Yes." "An owl was always an ill-omen for Herod." "Well. he groaned." "He seamed to feel pains in his chest, for he cried out, "I am ill Carry me out!"" "They carried him out." "And the ram's horn never blew." "The crowd set up a wail" "The festival was over before it had begun." "And within five days, he was dead - his body racked with pain and rotted into an unrecognisable mass of sores." "The kings departed and the crowds went home." "The storm passed without a single drop of rain." "And the Messiah?" "Who, then, is this M-Messiah?" "Who knows?" "Perhaps the Jews must wait a little longer." "Perhaps." "(HEROD) Marmoset, I am dying." "My body is full of maggots." "Forgive me." "Forgive your old friend who loved you dearly yet secretly plotted to take the East away from you." "I have failed." "I played, too dangerous a game." "Little marmoset you are a fool, but I envy you your folly.." "Do not weep for me." "My punishment is just." "I offended against the only living God." "Farewell, my friend, whom I love more truly than you suppose." "Farewell, little marmoset, my school fellow... and trust no one." "No one." "Your dying friend, Herod Agrippa." "(CLAUDIUS) I was alone." "For the first time in my life, I was alone." "They were all gone now, those friends of my youth." "Germanicus Postumus, Castor, Herod." "All gone." "There was no one now I could turn to except Messalina." "Yes she helped me." "How she helped me" "She persuaded me to lot her the duplicate of my seal" "Say, "Fool, Claudius, fool!"" "I know it I know it But she was clever.." "I also began this most strange history of my life, which you shall read and find, I promise you." "Now you shall see how my ignorance of my own domestic affairs ended." "I said I would tell all and I shall" "Her adultery with Silius had gone so smoothly that she was bored." "Not with him, but with their situation." "While he began to feel that the longer it went on, the greater the danger of their being discovered." " Divorce him?" " Why not?" "." "And marry you?" "Wouldn't you rather be my wife than my mistress?" "Your wife?" "Oh, Gaius." "More than anything in the world." "But how?" "." "Divorce is simple." "You send someone to your husband and tell him." "I know that." "I meant how would we do it and survive?" "We have gone far enough with concealment." "Sooner or later, he'll find out and we'll be taken unprepared." "No." "It's safer to stay as we are." "We can wait until he dies of old age." "I am tired of waiting!" "Gaius, don't you think that I am tired of waiting too?" "Oh, don't turn your back on me, please." "Nothing would please me more than to be your wife and belong to you entirely for everyone to sea." "But we've made a long-term plan." "Let's keep to it." "Only innocent people can afford long-term plans." "Well." "I think of myself as innocent, don't you?" " Are you innocent of adultery?" "." " What?" "." "Of unbridled promiscuity?" "." "Of taking bribes?" "Of judicial murder?" "." " Gaius, what...?" " We are guilty!" "Stop deluding yourself with these childish notions." "We are guilty." "And I don't care." "I love you." "You are everything to me." "But guilt needs daring." "Look at me!" "I am ready to marry you and adopt your children, to be at your side." "Your power will remain undiminished." "But we will never have any peace of mind until we end this farce!" "And if we marry - what then?" "We have friends - powerful friends." "They share our danger and they look to us for peace of mind." "If we marry, openly and publicly, all Rome will sea how Claudius is abandoned." "All Rome will sea the contempt in which you hold him." "We'll declare a Republic and people will flock to our cause." " When?" " Tomorrow." "Tomorrow I go with him to Ostia to examine the new harbour." "When you return, then?" "No." "Tomorrow." "Let him go on his own." "I'll have a headache." "He's used to my headaches." "While he dallies in Ostia, we'll marry in Rome." "By the time he returns to the city, it'll belong to us!" "I went down to Ostia." "She was supposed to come with me but she had one of her headache s" "I was disappointed, but it was too late to change my plans" "By the time I arrived in Ostia they were already married." "it will seem incredible I know, that in a city where nothing escapes notice or comment, they could have felt themselves so secure." "And yet, they did." "And I was, perhaps, the only man in Rome who knew nothing of it" "Scandalous!" "It's scandalous!" "While all of Rome trooped into her bed, we said nothing." "We closed our ayes and said nothing." "But this is utterly and unbearably different." "This..." "This puts the Emperor's life in danger." "And if it puts his life in danger, it puts ours." "That's a very different bowl of fish." "Has she divorced him or not?" "." "She sent a freedman with her declaration to his chamber." " But the Emperor wasn't here." " She knew that!" "Is the marriage bigamous or not?" "." "Do you think she cares?" "!" "Don't you sea?" "The marriage is a public declaration that the Emperor's wife has abandoned him as being too old, too corrupt and too stupid to govern Rome." "That she has chosen the Consul-Elect as her husband is a clear indication and an invitation to the Senate to restore the Republic." "In view of Messalina's known viciousness in getting her own way, the Senate will put them both at the head of it!" "Well.." "he must be told." "This time he must be told." "But how?" "." "He won't believe a word said against her." "From the moment we tell him, time is on her side, not ours." "Then from the moment we tell him, we must keep her away from him." "We must ensure she never seas him." "Eliminate her without a hearing." "Yes, that's taken for granted." "But how do we tell him?" "Whom will he most readily believe?" "There is someone." "Someone he trusts who's bean his friend for years." "The little prostitute, Calpurnia." "Oh, Calpurnia." "Now, what is this?" "A note thrust into my hands?" ""Grave danger to Rome." "Come to my house."" "Well." "I hope this isn't some silly girlish prank." "You've quite alarmed me." "Especially as the ram I was sacrificing in the temple turned out to be the most unpropitious b-beast I'd aver seen." "Its entrails were awful" "Why are you trembling?" "Now, what's the matter?" "." " Oh, Caesar!" " What's the matter?" "." "Calpurnia, get up!" "You know I hate people grovelling." "Oh, Caesar." "Will you please tell me what you have to say?" "." "I shall tell you because nobody else dare tell you, but when I do you will have me tortured and flogged." "Calpurnia, dear as you are, you're making me angry." "Do you still trust me?" "In my life, I've trust three women - my mother, Messalina and yourself." "Why must you include your wife in that list?" ". !" "Messalina?" "I trust her with my life." "She has just married Gaius Silius and the wedding party is still going on in Rome!" "Are you mad, or wicked or both?" "They're married." "Your wife and Silius." "Everyone in Rome knows!" "But I left her in bed with a headache." "Now she's in bed with Silius!" "Don't you understand?" "He's her lover!" "I thought you knew." "Everyone assumed you knew." "Else why have you slept apart all this time?" "I wouldn't have told you even now, but they're married." "And I've seen the wedding party." "How?" "." "You haven't bean to Rome!" "Yes, I've bean." "Narcissus came and fetched me." "I've bean to Rome today." "The garden of the palace is decorated with vine leaves and ivy and bunches of grapes, wine vats and presses." "They're all dancing about like wine-soaked gods!" "I don't believe you!" "I refuse to believe you!" "(SHE SOBS)" "(MAN) It's true, Caesar." "Every word she says is true." "Caesar, how else could you have bean told?" "When have you bean prepared...?" "When have you listened to any criticism of your wife's excesses?" "Excesses?" "!" "What are you talking about?" ". !" "Caesar... her adulteries are as numberless as the sands on the shore." "And that is no figure of speech!" "When you were away in Britain, she competed with a prostitute to sea who could wear out the most lovers in a day." "Half of Rome saw it!" "If you've any doubt about Silius, go to his house." "It will seam like home to you." "Your expensive furniture is there - paintings, tapestries, statues." "Even Imperial slaves." "But that is nothing." "Do you know you are divorced?" "Nation and Senate have witnessed her wedding to Silius." "Act now, or her new husband controls Rome." "I can't believe it." "My dear, you must." "And you must act quickly or you'll be condemning us all to death." "She's right, Caesar." "We must return to Rome and arrest them at once." "But am I s-still Emperor?" "." "Some officers of the guard may have bean seduced, but the soldiers are devoted to you, I'm certain." "Yes." "Arrest them." "Hurry back to Rome and arrest them all" "(NOISY MUSIC AND CHATTER)" " Mnester?" "." " Yes?" " What do you sea?" " A cloud in the shape of Claudius, rising over Ostia." " Is he drifting this way?" "." " He was." "But he just farted and blew himself out to sea." "Out of the way!" "Gaius, help me up." "What do you sea now?" "." "A troop of guards climbing the hill" "Splendid!" "Wave them in and give them wine." "I think not, Gaius Silius." "Their swords are drawn - every one." "The guards!" "The guards!" "The guards are coming!" "The guards are coming to arrest us!" "The Emperor's in Rome!" "They're arresting everybody!" "Run!" "Run!" " Where is the Emperor?" "." " In his study." "We've arrested nearly 200 people." "Lady Messalina has not bean found." "She is not to be allowed to sea the Emperor without first consulting me." "Where is he?" "Where is my husband?" "He doesn't wish to sea you." "Out of my way, you Greek!" "You dare stand between me and my husband?" "Which husband, you whore?" "Which one?" "Out of my way!" "Get out of my way!" " Let me go!" "Let me go!" " Get her out of here!" "Let me sea him!" "Claudius!" "How dare you stop her!" "She is the Emperor's wife and the mother of his children." "But is he the father?" "." "Who knows whose litter they are." "Liar!" "Liar!" "Here's a list of your adulteries." "Do you want to read it?" "." "Hundreds!" "And you call her a mother?" "." "Take her home and let her wait." "No!" "No!" "Mother!" "Claudius!" "Claudius!" "Arrests have bean made all over the city." "Silius has bean taken." "Thank heaven most of the guard proved loyal" "Poor woman." "Whatever made her d-do such things?" "How unhappy she must have b-bean." "You must sign these, Caesar." "They're the charge sheets." "They need your signature urgently." "Sleep, Caesar, sleep." "You need your rest." "Save yourself for Rome." "Geta." "Here's the warrant for her execution." "Hurry." " And offer her the dagger first." " No." "If she takes her own life, it will save us having to show him the warrant in the morning." "Take it to the palace." "Tell no one that you have it." "Only that you want to sea your father." "Hurry." "When he reads it, he'll forgive your mother, you'll sea." "Hurry." "Hurry." "He must sea me, he must." "Oh, how could you, child?" "How could you?" "Is that all you can say?" "." "Why don't you do something?" "Why don't you sea him on your own?" "(DOOR CLINKS)" "He's coming." "He's coming to sea me." "(KNOCKING)" "What do you want?" "." "Your life, Lady." "Your husband's orders." "No!" " He wouldn't do that." "My husband..." " Read it!" "It has his signature." "I'm to offer you the dagger first, if you'll have it." "And then to cut off your pretty head and put it on a spear." "No!" "No!" "Not my head!" "Not my head!" "Child, child!" "Your life is done." "Take the dagger and use it." "Don't let them take my head." "No!" "Oh..." "No." "He wouldn't do that." "Not Claudius." "Use it." "Use it quickly." "I can't." "I can't." "Not my head!" "Not my...!" "I'll sea my w=wife now." "She was executed last night at your orders, Caesar." "Here is the warrant." "There is a despatch from Britain, Caesar." "The temple that was to be dedicated to the God Augustus in Colchester has bean dedicated instead to you." "Augustus means nothing to the Britons, but they're more than happy to worship you as a god." "Aulus Plautius regrets having not first consulted you, but feels sure that you understand that it was politically correct." "The temple is known as the Temple of the God Claudius." "Vtg"