It's told first-person by Tiro, Cicero's scribe, who's a real guy who wrote a real biography of Cicero (now lost). His success is confirmed when the court hears of the case of a Roman citizen, named Herennius, beheaded by Verres because he knew of the Governor taking bribes from the pirates. In fact, Cicero's wife was so hard-nosed and autocratic, I was surprised when half way through the book she has a thirtieth birthday. By the way, I could have just said ancient Rome but Triumvirate is such a tasty word that I thought it needed some air time.

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.The senator is Cicero, a brilliant young lawyer and spellbinding orator, determined to attain imperium - supreme power in the state.

Bueno, y porque la ambientación del senado y de Roma en general en tiempos de la República es muy buena. Narrated by Cicero's slave and scribe, Tiro, who invented an early elaborate version of shorthand so he could take down speeches and debates as they occurred, the novel joins Cicero as a young man, and then takes us through his landmark prosecution of Verres, a corrupt governor of Sicily (and you wondered how early the Mafia got its roots), his alliance with the general Pompey and his lifelong opposition to another wealthy general, Crassus, and his closely contested election as the first and only consul of Rome who was not an aristocrat, a general or someone who bribed his way into office. The important ones will show up repeatedly, and, while almost entirely crooked politicians, sufficiently distinguishable.Toward the end comes a walk-on by Publius Clodius Pulcher, the most beautiful man in Rome, who figures prominently in another splendid novel of antiquity, Thornton Wilder's The Ides of March. 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. No, Harris (and his like) fill the gaps with what they imagined was done and said by the real-life protagonists and weave this into a proper story. I believe it's safe to say that Hollywood has been successful in reducing this time period to sandals-and-swords-gladiator narratives. Y es que novelar la vida de un gran emperador, o de un general romano, siempre es más llamativo: siempre hay grandes batallas, planes de conquista, intrigas palaciegas… que consiguen hacer el texto ameno a poco hábil que sea el autor.