The story of Cicero’s turbulent life and dramatic death is told to us by Tiro, a former slave who remained in Cicero’s service as scribe and factotum after Cicero had freed him. To all these torments they deemed it necessary to add one further refinement: that he should be forced to hear his enemy’s army striking camp on the Field of Mars. It was not enough for the immortal gods that Cicero should be spat at and reviled by his fellow citizens not enough that in the middle of the night he be driven from the hearths and altars of his family and ancestors not enough even that as we fled from Rome on foot he should look back and see his house in flames. I remember the cries of Caesar’s war-horns chasing us over the darkened fields of Latium- their yearning, keening howls, like animals in heat- and how when they stopped there was only the slither of our shoes on the icy road and the urgent panting of our breath. Words fail me, but luckily they did not fail Robert Harris. Here are the three novels in the trilogy: Jat 10:33 pm ( Book review, books, Historical fiction, Italy, Music) It’s ancient history: Robert Harris brings his Cicero trilogy to a stunning conclusion
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