Product Description
Imperium When Tiro; the confidential secretary of a Roman senator; opens the door to a terrified stranger on a cold November morning; he sets in motion a chain of events which will eventually propel his master into one of the most famous courtroom dramas in history.
The stranger is a Sicilian; a victim of the island's corrupt Roman governor; Verres.
The senator is Cicero; a brilliant young lawyer and spellbinding orator; determined to attain imperium - supreme power in the state.
This is the starting-point of Robert Harris's most accomplished novel to date.
Compellingly written in Tiro's voice; it takes us inside the violent; treacherous world of Roman politics; to describe how one man - clever; compassionate; devious; vulnerable - fought to reach the top Lustrum Rome; 63 BC.
In a city on the brink of acquiring a vast empire; seven men are struggling for power.
Cicero is consul; Caesar his ruthless young rival; Pompey the republic's greatest general; Crassus its richest man; Cato a political fanatic; Catilina a psychopath; Clodius an ambitious playboy.
The stories of these real historical figures - their alliances and betrayals; their cruelties and seductions; their brilliance and their crimes - are all interleaved to form this epic novel.
Its narrator is Tiro; a slave who serves as confidential secretary to the wily; humane; complex Cicero.
He knows all his master's secrets - a dangerous position to be in.
From the discovery of a child's mutilated body; through judicial execution and a scandalous trial; to the brutal unleashing of the Roman mob; Lustrum is a study in the timeless enticements and horrors of power Dictator here was a time when Cicero held Caesar's life in the palm of his hand.
But now Caesar is the dominant figure and Cicero's life is in ruins.
Cicero's comeback requires wit; skill and courage.
And for a brief and glorious period; the legendary orator is once more the supreme senator in Rome.
But politics is never static.
And no statesman; however cunning; can safeguard against the ambition and corruption of others
