One of my top book recommendations in recent years has been Imperium, Robert Harris’ thriller-like novel on the early career of Marcus Tullius Cicero. Now the second part of the trilogy, Lustrum, has appeared, and like most second parts of trilogies, is darker and more depressing than the first one.
It’s 63 BC and Cicero is on the eve of his consulship, when a particularly gruesome murder is brought to his attention that turns out to foreshadow even worse things to come. His term as a consul is troubled by the Catiline conspiracy, which he manages to uncover and put down at the last moment, but at a terrible personal and political cost. The execution of the conspirators will haunt him for years to come, while at the same time the vulture-like Caesar, together with powerful Pompey and rich Crassus, is preparing to disembowel the republic…
As expected, Harris turns the well-known story into a ripping yarn, and the historical protagonists such as grim and grimy Cato, lascivious Clodia and the truly blood-curdling Caesar are very memorable. I also really liked how Harris constructs a plausible motivation for Cicero’s descent into corruption and self-aggrandizement. However, this book wasn’t quite as much a page-turner as the first one, but I don’t think the blame can really be laid at Harris’ feet: at this point in history, I found it very hard to care for the fate of the Roman republic, which comes across as a thoroughly corrupt system designed merely to make a ruling elite rich and stripped of all that had initially been sensible about it. I mean, I am all in favour of republics and so on, but this one just seemed to have run its course.
As everyone knows, much worse is yet to come and Cicero is going to meet a sticky end. Which is why I am very much looking forward to book three!
