Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome

ISBN: 074326603X

Title: Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome

Author: Robert Harris

KDL Description:

A tale inspired by the writings of Tiro, Cicero’s confidential secretary, traces the life of the ancient Roman orator from his beginnings as a young lawyer through his competitions with Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus in the political arena.

Amazon Description:

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF FATHERLAND AND POMPEII COMES THE MOST PROVOCATIVE AND BRILLIANT NOVEL OF ANTIQUITY SINCE I, CLAUDIUS —

IMPERIUM

A CAUTIONARY TALE OF CICERO, THE GREATEST ORATOR OF ALL TIME, AND HIS EXTRAORDINARY STRUGGLE FOR POWER IN ROME.

When Tiro, the confidential secretary (and slave) of a Roman senator, opens the door to a terrified stranger on a cold November morning, he sets in motion a chain of events that will eventually propel his master into one of the most suspenseful courtroom dramas in history. The stranger is a Sicilian, a victim of the island’s corrupt Roman governor, Verres. The senator is Marcus Cicero — an ambitious young lawyer and spellbinding orator, who at the age of twenty-seven is determined to attain imperium — supreme power in the state.

Of all the great figures of the Roman world, none was more fascinating or charismatic than Cicero. And Tiro — the inventor of shorthand and author of numerous books, including a celebrated biography of his master (which was lost in the Dark Ages) — was always by his side.

Compellingly written in Tiro’s voice, Imperium is the re-creation of his vanished masterpiece, recounting in vivid detail the story of Cicero’s quest for glory, competing with some of the most powerful and intimidating figures of his — or any other — age: Pompey, Caesar, Crassus, and the many other powerful Romans who changed history.

Robert Harris, the world’s master of innovative historical fiction, lures us into a violent, treacherous world of Roman politics at once exotically different from and yet startlingly similar to our own — a world of Senate intrigue and electoral corruption, special prosecutors and political adventurism — to describe how one clever, compassionate, devious, vulnerable man fought to reach the top.