Status Updates From Augustus

I love this talk of love from Octavius and comparing it to Julia’s journal

Dude every line from Octavius in book three is so beautiful, John Williams writing is at its peak here

“ it is still possible to lead a decent life in the privacy of one’s own heart and mind”(27). Atia, Augustus’s mother, as she urges him to reflect on the meaning of his father’s death and what it means for his own future.

Gooood lordddd! This final chapter of Book two made everything come together for the arc it was trying to tell. Even without being finished I fully understand why John Williams won the award he did for this, this book is a masterpiece of writing! That final bit between Octavius and Julia almost broke me, a man who created happiness for almost all, and yet he is forced to rid himself of his love closest to him…

“ I have conquered the world, and none of it is secure; I have shown liberty to the people, and they flee it as if it were a disease; I despise those whom I can trust, and love those best who would most quickly betray me. And I do not know where we are going, though I lead a nation to its destiny.”

“ from what source does that lie suck its energy, so that it grows strong stronger than the truth? We have seen murder, theft, and pillage in the name of the Republic-and call it the necessary price we pay for freedom”(18).

“ how all the pain in English enjoy merge together, and even the ugly and dead seem beautiful, and even the fear of death and defeat are like the steps of a game!”

Oh wow I think this part of her journal let me fully understand Julia. A woman who finds true pleasure and at the same time the rights of her own body and her own feelings, and yet she’s stuck in a society that forces her to hold back and subdue those purposes and pleasures. I also understand the Aphrodite statue symbolism now perfectly

“But there is much that cannot go into books, and that is the loss with which I become increasingly concerned”(16).

But now he is Emperor of the world, and I must look beyond that to see him as he was then; and I swear to you that I, whose service to him has been my knowledge of the hearts of both his friends and enemies, could not have foreseen what he was to become(15).

Perhaps we are wiser when we are young, though the philosopher would dispute with me. But I swear to you, we were friends from that moment onward; and that moment of foolish laughter was a bond stronger than anything that came between us later- victories or defeats, loyalties or betrayals, griefs or joys. But the days of youth go, and part of us goes with them, not to re-turn(13).

Book two has fully made this book a masterpiece! I loveddd the forming acts of rebellion from Julia as she releases more and more to the prison of a world she’s been forced into

“Overtime, our sense of who we are can be irrevocably altered by circumstance and accident” (ix).