Julia: A Romance: Opening Lines
The historical thriller Julia: A Romance by Dora Benley will soon be published by Cheops Books LLC. One of the most humorous characters, the most delightful, is Julia’s father, Senator Gaius Julius Rufus, Julia’s father who is always out to save himself given the difficult political situation in Rome. Julia merely becomes a tool to get what he wants in the end.
The novel begins with these lines:
Prologue:
Senator Gaius Julius Rufus was born fifty years too late or one hundred years too soon. If he were born fifty years sooner, he could have taken his ease on one of his estates sprinkled, as flecks of pepper on a map, over the Apennines and the Campanian sea-coast without concerning himself in Roman politics. If he were born one hundred years later he would be a child at the dawn of the Augustan Age, the beginning of the pax Romana, and would have contented himself with the life of a country gentleman.
He was unlucky to be born during the first period of the Civil Wars that tore apart into two factions, populares and optimates, not only Rome but Italy. He was sixty years old in May of 81 B.C., having spent most of his adulthood in Rome away from his grape and olive vineyards attempting to remain neutral and friendly with both factions while not doing much for either.
