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

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Anyway, the story is a fictional biography centering on the legendary orator, Cicero, as told by his private secretary, Tiro. They are suspicious of the veracity of the meeting's notes but Tiro convinces them by recording their own conversation using his shorthand script and in the early hours of the morning a deal is struck between the 'new man' and the aristocrats. Even if you aren’t much interested in ancient Rome, if you like political novels, this might give you your fill. 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. Verres goes into exile and Hortenius makes a written offer of one and a half million which Cicero and his team reject.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. At the first round of the elections, Cicero learns that Verres is bribing the voters with his immense wealth; Marcus Metellus also draws the election court as praetor. Of course their personalities and dialogue is all fiction or at least embellished/inferences on the author's part.It’s more political intrigue, and beyond that, it’s more about electoral intrigue with a side of legal drama. As a 'new man' (novus hominus) he was desperate to be part of the traditional elite and was against the men who did want to change society legitimately such as Caesar. This series is a must-read for anyone interested in history, politics, or simply a masterfully crafted story that transcends the ages. He’d invented a version of shorthand and thus was able to document, verbatim, words spoken by his master and others he came into contact with. On a visit to the stone quarries, they encounter crews of merchant ships imprisoned there that should have been captured pirates whom Verres had ransomed.

He is sort out by a merchant from Sicily who has been robbed and made bankrupt by the Roman governor of Sicily by the name of Verres.

I had also always assumed that the aristocrats opposition to Caesar's proposed land reforms was based on greed.

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. There was no way I would not want to read some historical fiction about him, especially when I saw that Harris wrote his trilogy on Cicero from the point of view of Tiro.

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. But, Cicero had to request a loan from her through her business manager as if she was just another moneylender in the forum. Cicero has to fight it out at the Temple of Castor and eventually wins against a biased jury, surprisingly supported by Catulus, the hard and snobbish old senator who is, nevertheless, "a patriot to his marrow. Told in hindsight by his former slave and secretary, Tiro, Imperium is about Cicero’s rise to political power: first aedile, then praetor, and finally consul of Rome. The best parts of this book were when Cicero was outmaneuvering his rivals either with clever planning, or clever speeches.