Despite it's problems, I'm fully invested in Cicero's plight and will definitely pick up the sequel. One of those periods I've always had a great interest in, yet simultaneously know almost nothing about. I really like how, in this way, Harris has the political and electoral machinery of ancient Rome resembling our own today—the exact rules and procedures differ, of course, but much of the strategizing, the backroom deals verging on conspiracy, remains the same.

In "Imperium" however, Harris makes a plausible case for the aristocrats' fear of absolute power that Caesar would gain through the patron-client relationships that would result from land redistribution. This series is a must-read for anyone interested in history, politics, or simply a masterfully crafted story that transcends the ages. What is to follow is an intriguing and wonderful reconstruction of Cicero as a clever and devious individual, lawyer and orator, and this all told through the voice of Tiro, but it will show us also that the Roman world in this period of history is full with men longing for power and they will do everything they can to obtain it, be it by force, treachery, revenge and/or ultimately death.

Imperium” is a Latin word (not that I remember it from my high school Latin) which can be roughly translated as “power to command,” that refers to the power of the state over the individual, but also implies the power gained from wealth and ownership of “stuff,” i. It is a fictional biography of Cicero, told through the first-person narrator of his secretary Tiro, beginning with the prosecution of Gaius Verres. The lex Manilia is proposed, granting command of the war against Mithradates to Pompey, along with the government of the provinces of Asia, Cilicia and Bithynia, the latter two held by Lucullus, which is opposed by Catulus and Hortensius. Cicero is forced to borrow money from Terentia to support his case and leaves Rome on the Ides of January to seek evidence against Verres in Sicily. Told by Cicero's former house slave and secretary, Tiro, it maintains a distance to the characters that I prefer in Historical Fiction.

The result is that although the Cicero story and setting are fascinating (to me the main interest of the book), one suspects that the real pursuit of the book is contemporary (UK’s? Publication of the sequels was delayed whilst Harris worked on other books, including his contemporary political novel, The Ghost, inspired by the resignation of Tony Blair. I was not expecting it and when Part One tied up and Part Two began I found myself feeling like I was starting a new book.Considering that Cicero was the greatest orator of his time, the narrator never gave Cicero's voice the immense power he wielded with his speeches which is an utter shame. This book covers the last fifteen years of Cicero's life, a period marked by personal and political turmoil.