That Is The ROMAN WAY: To GIVE FAVORS To The FAVORITES.

As We All Know From The Roman EMPIRE, Big EMPIRES GO Down If The BORDERS Are Not Well-protected.

As A Child, I Was An OBSESSIVE Reader, As Was Everybody In My Family All Winter Long With My Father. I Think I Was Only 8 When I READ Edward Gibbon's 'The History Of The DECLINE And Fall Of The Roman EMPIRE.'

I Know That I Come From Mid-20th Century AMERICA, Urban, Specifically Downtown New York, Specifically An Italian-American Area, Roman CATHOLIC - That's Who I Am. And A Part Of What I Know Is There's A Decency To People Who Tried To Make A Living In The KIND Of World That Was AROUND Us And Also The Skid Row Area Of The Bowery; It Impressed Me.

When The French Nation GRADUALLY Came Into Existence Among The Ruins Of The Roman CIVILIZATION In Gaul, A New Language Was At The Same TIME Slowly Evolved.

The Main Motivation Was To Explore The EMPIRE's FALLING. I Mean 'Duck City' Is LIKE An Allegory For The Western Empire Or The United STATES. And I Was Thinking What Happens When It FALLS And Declines Like The Roman Empire.

One Time, I CAME Off Stage And A Guy Named Roman Decare, GOD Rest His Soul, He Was A Comic. 'Louie, If You Do That FAMILY STUFF, And You're A Clean Comic On Stage, You'll Become Famous.' And, For Some Reason, A Switch Clicked, And I Started Doing The Family Stuff, And It Became A Giant Part Of My Life.

As You KNOW, I Am NEITHER ROMAN CATHOLIC, Protestant Episcopalian, Nor Presbyterian, Nor Am I An Irishman.

The Gigantic Gaul Derided The ROMAN SOLDIERS As A BAND Of Pigmies.

I Decided I Was GOING To PLAY Cleopatra As SOMEONE With A BRAIN. She's Kept Egypt, This Tiny Country, In A Balance Of Power With The Almighty ROMAN Empire, And She's Done It Through Force Of Personality.