Imperium: From the Sunday Times bestselling author (Cicero Trilogy, 4)

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This novel isn’t going to change your mind about fiction set in ancient Rome or anything, but for fans of this era/subgenre, you might like this if you want a look at the life of one of history’s greatest rhetoricians and orators. Robert Harris has Tiro, Cicero's scribe/clerk, writing the linear in time progressions of his younger "coming up" to power years. 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.

Luckily, Tiro also invented his own version of Latin shorthand, without which we may not have had such top quality records of Cicero’s speeches. Ranged against him are those who desire personal glory (Pompey), those who want to preserve the status quo (the aristocracy), those who desire to reshape Rome in their own image (Caesar, bankrolled by Crassus), and those who simply want to abuse the system for their own ends (Verres, Catilina). Y, al final, la ambición y el esfuerzo del protagonista, enfrentado a sus enemigos, en un camino plagado de conspiraciones por el poder, resulta ser casi tan interesante como si se nos presentara una gran batalla al frente de las legiones romanas. Sthenius, who has been ignored for some time, turns up at the house one morning, accompanied by Heraclius and Epicrates who have also been swindled out of their estates by Verres. At times it seemed so fraught with failure that I came to find it amusing and would chuckle and roll my eyes and think "of course!I was reading a biography of Julius Caesar after having watched some episodes of “Rome,” a rather bawdy but interesting version of the rise of Octavian in which Cicero plays a prominent, if cheesey role, so I knowing Harris through some other books, I grabbed this one. I enjoyed reading the lifestyles enjoyed by the rich, while understanding that this was only enjoyed by few of the Roman people.

Anyway, the story is a fictional biography centering on the legendary orator, Cicero, as told by his private secretary, Tiro. He just has Tiro say something like, "And I am certain that the above speech is exactly as he told it, because I wrote it down myself and the record still survives. There’s a good deal of skulduggery and a fair sprinkling of the violent acts that were ‘enjoyed’ by Romans at that time, but there’s also courtroom drama and political intrigue. Si ya digo que lo buenos de esto de GR sois los amigos a los que ya conozco los gustos… Si ponéis 4 o 5 estrellas a un libro es difícil que no me vaya a gustar. But of course in all those comparisons is the implicit statement that Rome itself fell, multiple times, first as a Republic and then even as an Empire.Marcus Caelius Rufus, the son of a wealthy banker, becomes Cicero's pupil and brings him political gossip. Crassus turns up at Cicero's house and suggests a joint supreme command, offering to support Cicero for consul if he conveys the offer to Pompey, but Cicero rejects the proposal, despite being threatened by Crassus with suffering the same fate as Tiberius Gracchus.

Rome and the Empire as it existed with Pompey, Crassus, Catalina and numerous other characters of more infamous names before the changes that ended a republican form and tumbled to a emperor instead. I found this to be a pretty effective plot device for showing the supposed "accuracy" of the narrative.Let me just say that since he was not born to an Aristocratic family, his climb through the ranks was not an easy one. Todo ello narrado por Tirón, su secretario personal, que fue esclavo y luego manumitido por su dueño. Having read some of Cicero’s writing, I was hoping his eloquence to shine a bit brighter on the page. A pretty decent novel about Roman politician and arguably greatest orator Marcus Tullius Cicero, that I understand is the start of a trilogy.

Tiro, we are told, invented the concept of shorthand which provides a credible basis for him to be able to transcribe everything that he sees and hears as he follows Cicero around. The audiobook is well narrated by Bill Wallis, except that he does not clearly articulate Roman names.

I was so disappointed by the two very different Parts that I longed to give the book 3 stars to punish it. It's a clever gambit by Harris; it allows him, among other things, to slyly inform you when the passage you've just read is the actual transcript of Cicero's speech, which happens often. En estas memorias, un Tiro muy anciano relata la trayectoria de Cicerón desde su labor como abogado hasta su ascenso como cónsul, en las que presenciamos como el retórico va escalando dentro del senado valiéndose únicamente de su elocuencia. 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. Figures such as Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar, familiar to many who would read fiction about this period, loom large in this story.