The Cicero Trilogy: Robert Harris

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Beautifully written with phenomenal attention to historical detail, Harris lays out, in fascinating detail, Cicero's career and the events that led to the birth of Imperial Rome. Een driedelige turf over de romeinse geschiedenis, waarbij waarempel ook de redevoering van Cicero tegen Catalina aan bod komt (in het vijfde middelbaar onvergetelijk gedeclameerd door mijn leerkracht latijn).

Today, when liberal democracy is in retreat all over the world, and frightened citizens voluntarily cede their liberties to demagogues in the name of security, the drama of the last days of the Roman republic could not be more relevant.Harris has brought all of them intriguingly to life, and the books are throughout a compelling, page-turning read. A random example from halfway through the novel - “ Sulla, who had been immersed in the conspiracy right up to his noble neck”. Enter Tiro, first a slave, then a freedman of Cicero, his relentless secretary, who lived to be 99 years old and wrote numerous books after Cicero’s demise, including his 4 volume biography, all lost. Throw in dozens of Roman names which make it hard to keep track of the plot, and the complications of the Roman voting system, and the momentum built up in the first half of the book completely fizzles out in the second.

It is remarkably deadpan, and as I read I couldn’t help thinking it resembled an ancient-world version of Bridget Jones’s’ Diary - profoundly unfair as I have never read Bridget Jones’s’ Diary: but that’s what it felt like. Part one sees Cicero rise to power, part 2 shows what he does with it and part 3 describes the chaotic aftermath in which the man is mainly naive, obstinate and melancholy. Robert Harris is the author of fifteen bestselling novels: the Cicero Trilogy - Imperium, Lustrum and Dictator - Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel, Pompeii, The Ghost, The Fear Index, An Officer and a Spy, which won four prizes including the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, Conclave, Munich, The Second Sleep, V2 and Act of Oblivion. 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. And I was really hoping it’d be better than Lustrum and as good as Imperium but unfortunately it wasn’t.At the age of forty-two, the youngest age permitted to achieve the supreme imperium of the Roman consulship, the 'new man' has achieved his ultimate ambition. Our team is made up of book lovers who are dedicated to sourcing and providing the best books for kids. Intelligent and compelling to read (for the most part anyway), it is well worth a look for fans of Robert Harris but also those interested in Roman history who want to see some of history’s biggest names come to life on the page. I don't consider it a major problem, though, since his style lends itself more to dynamic plotting and dialogue rather than lush detail.