“The trouble with Lucious," he said, putting his feet up on the desk after this cousin has gone," is that he thinks politics is a fight for justice. Politics is a profession.”
Imperium presents the tale of Cicero’s rise to power, narrated through the notes of his loyal slave and scribe, Tiro. Through his oratorical prowess and political theatrics, we see Cicero climb the shaky ladder of power. Each passing rung accompanies with it an erosion of the moral values that propelled him into this grand venture, until acquisition of power becomes an end in itself.
“The work gave Cicero his first real taste of what it is like to have power – which is usually, when it comes down to it, a matter of choosing between equally unpalatable options – and fairly bitter he found it.”
Robert Harris has exquisitely narrated this historical tale with a fast paced plot interspersed with pithy observation about power and those who wield it. There have been so few books which have kept me turning the pages like this one. My reluctance to start this book was soon replaced by an insatiable need to breathe in every word that Cicero had to say. Imperium provides readers with plenty of fodder to introspect deeply about the currents of power that are at play behind every political motion.