The Cicero Trilogy: Robert Harris

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The character of Tiro for instance remains completely flat throughout the book, which accounts for a lifespan of approx 60 of his 99 years.

Registered office address: Unit 34 Vulcan House Business Centre, Vulcan Road, Leicester, Leicestershire, LE5 3EF. Sometimes you feel that Robert Harris would have preferred to spend a bit more time with his characters, for instance when he talks briefly about Cicero's wife or his daughter. Pompey himself does not want to be caught in the middle of a civil war between the people and the senate. Cicero decides to defend him and raises the matter in the Roman senate, but his motion is talked out by Catulus and finally Hortensius, an aristocrat, Cicero's arch rival and the leading lawyer in Rome.

In many ways an impressive piece of work, a kind of House of Cards in tongas, which offers a pain-free way of studying the demise of the Roman Republic, with Robert Harris weaving his narrative around the actual events of that period.

A wonderful way to learn about Ancient Rome, Cicero, and all the people and events that impacted Cicero's life . 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. As I neared the end of the trilogy I realised that I had whisked through more than 900 pages of Roman history – no mean feat on its own on RH’s part. He was a “new man,” rising to power as a senator, aedile, and ultimately consul purely through his popularity and persuasion, rather than old money and a venerable name.These battles marked the last years of his life, as he fought to save the Roman republic first from mob rule and then from the tyranny of dictatorship. Its narrator is Tiro, a slave who serves as confidential secretary to the wily, humane, complex Cicero. Rufus, who dislikes Crassus intensely, agrees to hide Tiro in a secret alcove behind a tapestry so he can transcribe an important meeting. 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.