Imperium

By Robert Harris.

As usual with Harris, I finished this book too fast and was left with a feeling of hunger. I hate when that happens and I might have to placate myself by reading one of his other books again. The news that this is the first book in a trilogy only makes me feel worse. Harris is not a prolific writer and it may be a year or two before I get to read the next one (I refuse to buy them in hard back).

The novel is about Cicero, the famous Roman orator, and related by his secretary slave, Tiro. Its in two parts, describing two seperate periods in Cicero's rise to power and is, as said, the first book in a planned trilogy.
The novel is interesting both as a work of historical fiction (Harris maintains he has kept as close to history as posssible) and as a commentary on modern politics. Robert Harris is a journalist and said to be close to some of the members of Tony Blairs circle. His book reflects many aspects of the current 'War on Terror', not least with the rise to power of Pompey the Great who uses Cicero's talents and a dubious 'Pirate menace' to get supreme power, there after going off to fight an obscure war.

If, as Harris has claimed, the book is true to history then it draws an ironic parrallel between then and now. The Roman republic was brought down by various factors, but cheif amongst them seems to have been the amassed power of conflicting individuals overriding the founding principles of the republic. Harris drops us right into the heart of this, describing the run up to Cicero's election to consul.