Imperium

On a chilly November morning, Tiro, the Roman senator's slave and secretive secretary, unlocks the door for a frightened stranger. This initiates a series of events that would ultimately thrust his owner into one of the most thrilling courtroom dramas in history. The stranger is a native of Sicily who fell prey to Verres, the dishonest Roman ruler of the island. Marcus Cicero, a persuasive orator and aspirant young lawyer, is the state's senator. At twenty-seven, he is focused on achieving imperium, or supreme authority.

Cicero was the most interesting and captivating of all the great Roman characters. And at his side at all times was Tiro, the creator of shorthand and the author of several volumes, among them a well-known biography of his master that was lost in the Dark Ages.

Imperium, a compelling work written in Tiro's voice, is a reconstruction of his lost masterpiece that tells the vivid tale of Cicero's quest for glory in which he faced off against some of the most formidable and intimidating characters of his era—Pompey, Caesar, Crassus, and the many other influential Romans who altered the course of history.

The world's foremost author of inventive historical fiction, Robert Harris draws us into the violent, perilous world of Roman politics, which is both strikingly similar to and exotically different from our own—a world of political adventurism, special prosecutors, and Senate intrigue—in order to explain how one cunning, vulnerable, devious, and clever man battled his way to the top.