Los últimos años de la vida de Cicerón (58ac-43ac) están magníficamente narrados por Tiro, que le sobrevivió y legó para la posteridad una invención ampliamente utilizada: La taquigrafía. Tiro nos cuenta con fluidez ese periodo turbulento, en el que Roma vio el colapso de la República y la transición hacia el Imperio. Gracias, en parte, a los numerosos escritos de Cicerón que pudieron llegar a la posteridad, Harris teje un perfil muy bien documentado y creíble de lo que, a través de numerosos diálogos, este gran personaje vivió en aquellos tiempos. Defensor de la República a ultranza, tuvo que lidiar con dictadores a los que negó su apoyo. Y aunque parece que nunca llegó a formar parte de la conspiración para asesinar a César, finalmente su hijo adoptivo, Octaviano (más tarde Augusto), ordenó su fatal desenlace, cuando Cicerón comenzó a ver en lo que se convertiría.

Pompey is ambushed and killed rather brutally on a beach in Egypt. All of Rome weeps, even Caesar, for Pompey had been a great warrior for Rome and he deserved a better death. There is no one to stop Caesar now...well, there is always someone. This book is the second volume of the Cicero trilogy. The first is Imperium and the third has not been published yet. The title of Lustrum used for the UK market refers to the five years in Cicero’s life from the moment Cicero became Consul (63-58BC). In the US it has been published as Conspirata. The choice of titles for either side of the Atlantic invites speculation. Whenever I think of it, gorgeous domus come to my mind — fresh fountains in gardens, luminous atriums, fresco wall paintings, marble busts, bronze statues... In politics there are "no lasting victories" as there are in fiction, Tiro remarks, "only the remorseless grinding forward of events", piling problem upon problem for the harassed, beleaguered Cicero. The only way to cope is by putting on a public face: a man pursuing a political career must have "the most extraordinary reserves of self-discipline, a quality that the naive often mistake for hypocrisy".

Various circumstances, like the child's mutilated body or and a scandalous trial, and not to forget the unleash the Roman mob, will set Rome in fire and death.

The Cicero Trilogy collects Robert Harris’ Cicero novels: Imperium, Lustrum (published as Conspirata in the States), and Dictator. I gave Imperium four stars out of five, and Lustrum and Dictator both get two out of five, so I’ll give the trilogy an overall score of three stars out of five. I reviewed each book individually below - enjoy! This is a carefully researched and extremely detailed story about Cicero. This is a wonderfully written novel with some superbly depicted characters and suggests that Machiavelli’s got nothing on this master of politics. Harris delivers an excellent read for anybody that is interested in the machinations of ancient Rome and the art of politics.The brilliance of this book is how Robert Harris brings the characters and the scenes to life. The opening paragraph elevates my pulse and sends tingles down my spine. ”I remember the cries of Caesar’s war-horns chasing us over the darkening fields of Latium---their yearning, keening howls, like animals in heat---and how when they stopped there was only the slither of our shoes on the icy road and the urgent panting of our breath.”Cicero uses the last years of his life to write as much as he can. He thinks that his way to immortality is with what will be written down. He may not have won his fight for the Republic of Rome, but he certainly wins the battle for his place in history. No list of the greatest orators in history fails to mention his name. This book is highly recommended for those who enjoy accurate historical fiction told with verve and exhilarating pace. Caesar ends up becoming to powerful and gets killed by this group led by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, and Decimus Junius Brutus. The Senate fails in its efforts to take control and Mark Antony is able to take over control. Cicero puts all his hopes in the young Octavian, however, once Octavian strikes his deal with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Antony, Cicero is doomed and the Republic’s days are over. Tiro relates some personal and family matters during the last years of Cicero’s life. Listening to Lustrum, I was once again reminded that in 2000 years we have learned nothing. But these are my own observations and interpretations, and they should not deter anyone from reading this wonderful piece of Historical Fiction.

The book starts in the year 63 BC, and Rome buzzing with seven men hungry for power, Consul Cicero, his ruthless rival Caesar, Rome greatest General at the moment Pompey, Crassus the richest man, the political fanatic Cato, Catalina a psychopath and an ambitious playboy Clodius. An Officer and a Spy is the story of French officer Georges Picquart, a historical character, who is promoted in 1895 to run France's Statistical Section, its secret intelligence division. He gradually realises that Alfred Dreyfus has been unjustly imprisoned for acts of espionage committed by another man who is still free and still spying for the Germans. He risks his career and his life to expose the truth. Harris was inspired to write the novel by his friend Roman Polanski, who adapted it as a film in 2019. [ citation needed] Dictator (2015) [ edit ] I still love that Tiro is the narrator: it's less biased that if Cicero were the narrator. We get to see his qualities but also his flaws, the mistakes he makes, how and why he makes them. Tiro is really moving: he is writing years after the events, from accounts he made during Cicero's lifetime. He is alone now, and knows that the end of his life is coming. I almost cried when he mentions the smell of the papers that reminds him of the time past, and he almost cries: typical "madeleine de Proust" and it always gets me!It's cabals and choirs. It's an absurd sacrilege against the Women's Blessed Goddess. It's too much glut of payoff from Macedonia. It's dozens of other eggs in the air that need to be constantly juggled. Which will fall? Getting rid of some of our players for a year? Defeating them for some time in exile sentencing or to govern a province? The further the better- but what if he comes home with not only that one but two other countries beyond that conquered! Will that comprise a defeat or just a delay? More than ten years in the writing, and now published in a single volume for the first time, The Cicero Trilogy brings the world of the Roman republic vividly to life. Here is its grandeur, ambition and corruption; and here is its tumultuous collapse into dictatorship and anarchy - a story of the fragility of democratic institutions that holds a warning for our own time. Read more Look Inside Details