While trying to protect the republic, the conspirators in Julius Caesar enable Mark Antony to triumph. In Rose Rage, the more Henry VI tries to fix things, the more they go wrong.

O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, / That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!

This is a city where you can go from Bernini to Michelangelo to Julius Caesar to Meier. This is what we want to protect, Rome's double identity. The city as a rigorous protector of its past but also driven towards the future.

As they spoke, the only thing I could think about was that scene from Julius Caesar where Brutus stabs him in the back. Et tu, Eric?

As I love the name of honour more than I fear death.

I sometimes think that never blows so red The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled; That every Hyacinth the Garden wears Dropt in her Lap from some once lovely Head