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Instead, what does circulate through Robert Harris’s veins is Politics. For indeed the plot is a political plotting in which Harris has intricately mixed the moral beliefs with the political personal ambitions of his main character. The result is that although the Cicero story and setting are fascinating (to me the main interest of the book), one suspects that the real pursuit of the book is contemporary (UK’s?) politics and fight for power.
The Roma Sub Rosa series by Steven Saylor is set in the later years of the Republic and the beginning of the Augustan period. It’s really difficult to overstate Cicero’s influence on Renaissance and later writing in Europe, so Harris is taking on a big task here. I’m not going to talk about historical veracity—that’s not my forte—but I want to comment a bit on idiom. Harris makes use of a lot of contemporary British slang here, almost as if this book has been translated into vernacular—which, in a sense, I suppose it must be, given that if Tiro had really written these words, they would be in Latin, not English! So while this choice threw me at first, it kind of grew on me after a while. Harris does a good job differentiating between the different classes by means of things like dialogue, and that can be tough to do in historical fiction so far removed from our time and language. I, Claudius (1934) and its sequel, Claudius the God (1935), by Robert Graves. The classic and influential dramatised account of the life of the emperor Claudius, made into a popular TV series (see below). The Caius Trilogy by German author Henry Winterfeld: Caius ist ein Dummkopf (Caius is an Idiot); Caius geht ein Licht auf (Caius has an Inspiration), and Caius in der Klemme (Caius in a Fix). The first part was published in English with the alternate title Detectives in Togas. The second was published in English with the alternate title Mystery of the Roman Ransom.Emperor (2006), by Stephen Baxter. After a Celtic chieftain obeys an ancient prophecy, and sides with the invaders, the history of Roman Britain takes a different path. First in a series. A theatrical adaptation of the trilogy by Mike Poulton was performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon in 2017, and transferred to the Gielgud Theatre in London in 2018. The two plays were directed by RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran, with Richard McCabe as Cicero. This is not a book for those who like flesh-slashing, cut-them-up action stories. Rather, it’s an intricate legal novel of startling historical veracity (as far as I can research) that really held my interest. There are some wonderful turns of phrase. While making a comment about hagiography, Tiro says simply it is the “distorting light of the future on the shadows of the past.”
The Adventures of Alix (1948–now) series by Jacques Martin of which some titles are set in Rome and the Ancient World. This series has a spin-off, called The travels of Alix, that gives illustrated information on famous places and empires of the Ancient World during the Roman Era. Set in the dying days of the Roman Republic, Marcus Cicero begins his ascent through the ranks of the senate to become one of the most powerful men in Rome. But the path to becoming the famous orator we now know is strewn with dangerous men who would see a high-minded lawyer dead in a ditch to get what they want. Men like Pompey and Julius Caesar who are looking to destroy democracy for a military dictatorship and absolute power.
Beyond the Book
Forgive me, I do not understand," said Cicero, playing the innocent. "Why would Verres want to execute an innocent passenger on a cargo ship as a pirate?" But I will say the first half of the book is the better half. The first sees Cicero take on a corrupt governor of Sicily as he builds a case against the man and the reader is introduced to the brutality of Roman law and punishment ("miles and miles of crucifixions") and the showdown in the courtroom. Despite being set in antiquity it reads like a contemporary legal thriller such as you might expect from John Grisham, and the book really takes off. Robert Harris, the world's master of innovative historical fiction, lures us into a violent, treacherous world of Roman politics at once exotically different from and yet startlingly similar to our own -- a world of Senate intrigue and electoral corruption, special prosecutors and political adventurism -- to describe how one clever, compassionate, devious, vulnerable man fought to reach the top. In Imperium, Robert Harris recreates Tiro's vanished masterpiece, recounting in vivid detail the story of Cicero's rise to power, from radical young lawyer to first citizen of Rome, competing with men such as Pompey, Caesar, Crassus and Cato.
On a cold November morning, Tiro opens the door to find a terrified, bedraggled stranger begging for help. Once a Sicilian aristocrat, the man was robbed by the corrupt Roman governor, Verres, who is now trying to convict him under false pretenses and sentence him to a violent death. The man claims that only the great senator Marcus Cicero, one of Rome’s most ambitious lawyers and spellbinding orators, can bring him justice in a crooked society manipulated by the villainous governor. But for Cicero, it is a chance to prove himself worthy of absolute power. What follows is one of the most gripping courtroom dramas in history, and the beginning of a quest for political glory by a man who fought his way to the top using only his voice—defeating the most daunting figures in Roman history. Cicero takes calculated risks to obtain his objectives but he is also a pragmatist and, like most politicians, must form and break alliances as opportunities present themselves. Although he prosecutes a corrupt governor early in his career to gain stature as Rome's preeminent advocate, Cicero later defends a corrupt governor to regain the favor of the moneyed classes as his year to run for consul approaches. Julian (1964) by Gore Vidal, fictionalized biography of the emperor Julian the Apostate, who tried to revive Paganism
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No doubt because of all this Imperium was a fun read, a surprising paean to the skill of shorthand, and if the Roman pirate crisis was intended as a deliberate parallel to the ongoing terrorist crisis - a novel with a couple of barbed themes. As Sure as the Dawn (1995) by Francine Rivers; the continuing story of Atretes. Mark of the Lion Trilogy book 3 It's told first-person by Tiro, Cicero's scribe, who's a real guy who wrote a real biography of Cicero (now lost). 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. 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." That sentence is exactly true.
The flat words of my transcript cannot hope to convey the effect of Cicero's performance upon those who saw it. The hush around the court amplified his words. It was as if all of us now were witnesses to this monstrous miscarriage of justice. Some men and women - friends of Gavius, I believe - began to scream, and there was a growing swell of outrage from the masses in the Forum. Yet again, Verres shook off Hortensius's restraining hand and stood up. "He was a filthy spy!" he bellowed. "A spy! He only said it to delay his proper punishment!" I did prefer the author’s An Officer and a Spy, about the Dreyfus affair, a lot more. That book I gave five stars. Me hice con este libro a raíz de la excelente reseña que Labijose le otorgo y la aún más sorprendente pésima opinión que les merece al resto de reseñistas habituales. La disensión, el alimento de las almas inquietas y los masoquistas como este que os habla. Así que me dije, estando como está la política que menos que ver cómo nació y cómo la practicaron los senadores romanos. Ahora me queda claro que los políticos no han perdido ni un ápice de su hijoputismo, solo su astucia e inteligencia. In this first book, we meet a young Cicero at the beginning of his career. Cicero is a junior Senator in the Roman Senate who has already garnered somewhat of a reputation as a brilliant speaker. As a result, he is sought out by a Sicilian merchant who has been robbed, libeled and threatened with death by the corrupt Roman governor of Sicily named Verres. What I love. It's not overly translated or interpreted for modern ears. It's context is NOT defined in language of 21st century emotive, declarative, or relative culture or morality. It's what the law states and how that law's transgression is judged. And by whom it is judged and equivocated to "fair".The Shield of Rome", published 2011 by William Kelso. 216 BC. The novel is set during "Rome's finest hour" after the battle of Cannae when Hannibal threatens the very existence of the Republic. Esta es la historia de Cicerón, el gran orador romano y una de las figuras públicas más importantes de la historia de la República Romana y, por que no ir más allá, de la historia de occidente. Un homine novo, que venía a significar un recién llegado del pueblo llano, un hidalgo de provincias que ascendió a lo más alto gracias a su retórica, su conocimiento del derecho romano y las intrincadas y complejas relaciones humanas y la caprichosa naturaleza del poder. Una figura fascinante, sin duda, pero ante todo política, es decir, un maquiavélico hijo de perra que sabia muy bien a que ascua acercar su sardina y bajo que sombra cobijarse; un hombre de principios f
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