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Cicero leaves Rome to campaign amongst the people of Nearer Gaul for their vote in the consular election. 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? Prueba de ello es que voy a continuar con la saga, aunque desafortunadamente ya sepa que esto va a acabar como el rosario de la aurora.
Cato примерно запазва изговора на първата си буква, но пък незнайно защо и той придобива последна, ставайки Катон. Cicero decides to defend him and raises the matter in the Roman senate, but his motion is talked out by Catulus and finally Hortensius, an aristocrat, Cicero's arch rival and the leading lawyer in Rome.
His success is confirmed when the court hears of the case of a Roman citizen, named Herennius, beheaded by Verres because he knew of the Governor taking bribes from the pirates. Through the life of Cicero, Harris explores themes of power, integrity, and the fragile nature of democracy, themes that resonate just as strongly today as they did over two thousand years ago. But the path to becoming the famous orator we now know is strewn with dangerous men who would see a high-minded lawyer dead in a ditch to get what they want.
Even if there isn’t much room in this kind of narrative for atmosphere, Harris managed to make what can sound a bit dull (preparing a corruption trial and campaigning for the senate elections) pretty riveting – even if I already knew how the story unfolded.He effortlessly creates the Roman world for the reader so that you can really see and feel what it's like to live in this time, detailing the numerous social structures and customs that are completely alien to 21st century people.
Another surprise was the villainous portrayal of Catalina as a violent, brute of a man who had openly murdered people who stood in his way. The confrontations in the courtroom, the senate and the frenzied voting pens of the Campus Martius provide as much tension as a Roman battlefield and Harris does a masterful job of peopling these scenes with memorable characters. There’s this eerie sense that even if Cicero wins, he and the Republic are working on borrowed time. When Tiro, the confidential secretary of a Roman senator, opens the door to a terrified stranger on a cold November morning, he sets in motion a chain of events which will eventually propel his master into one of the most famous courtroom dramas in history. It is a fictional biography of Cicero, told through the first-person narrator of his secretary Tiro, beginning with the prosecution of Gaius Verres.As Cicero faces his stiffest opposition yet in his run for consul, we see the cracks in the facade of the Republic.
Set in the dying days of the Roman Republic, Marcus Cicero begins his ascent through the ranks of the senate to become one of the most powerful men in Rome. I’m not sure whether I would read any more of this trilogy, perhaps after I get my NetGalley percentage up! This novel reads like a breeze, and if you are at all interested in Roman history, the details of life in centre of Rome before the Empire you are in for a treat.
While those scrolls no longer exist they are referenced by Plutarch and others and so this is as close as we will get to actual historical detail.
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