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Conspirata: A Novel of Ancient Rome |  | Author: Robert Harris
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
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Rating:  21 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0743266102
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780743266109
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Product Description
On the eve of Marcus Cicero's inauguration as consul of Rome, the grisly death of a boy sends ripples of fear through a city already wracked by civil unrest, crime, and debauchery of every kind. Felled by a hammer, his throat slit and his organs removed, the young slave appears to have been offered as a human sacrifice, forbidden as an abomination in the Roman Republic. For Cicero, the ill forebodings of this hideous murder only increase his frustrations and the dangers he already faces as Rome's leader: elected by the people but despised by the heads of the two rival camps, the patricians and populists.Caught in a political shell game that leaves him forever putting out fires only to have them ignite elsewhere, Cicero plays both for the future of the republic and his very life. There is a plot to assassinate Cicero, abetted by a rising young star of the Roman senate named Gaius Julius Caesar -- and it will take all the embattled consul's wit, strength, and force of will to stop it and keep Rome from becoming a dictatorship. In this second novel of his Roman trilogy, following the bestselling Imperium, Robert Harris once again weaves a compelling and historically accurate tale of intrigue told in the wise and compassionate voice of Cicero's slave and private secretary, Tiro. In the manner of I, Claudius, Harris vividly evokes ancient Rome and its politics for today's readers, documenting a world not unlike our own -- where the impulse toward dominance competes with the risk of overreach, where high-minded ideals can be a liability, and where someone is always waiting in the wings for a chance to set the world on fire.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 21
 Where Real History is more thrilling than Hollywood October 14, 2009
Suzanne Cross (Santa Fe, New Mexico United States)
33 out of 34 found this review helpful
I was so anxious to read Robert Harris' continuation of his trilogy on Marcus Tullius Cicero (the first book was IMPERIUM) that I ordered it from Amazon in England. This novel does not disappoint, but then, how could it? Romanophiles know that the year 63 BC was one when the stars shook in their courses; not only perhaps the most famous conspiracy in Roman history, that of Cataline, but the characters of Caesar, Cicero, Pompey, Catalina, Crassus, and Clodius, among others - all men who, in their various ways, watched the breakup of the 600-year-long Roman Republic in their own lifetimes. In fact, in a few lustra ("Lustrum" can, among many other meanings, cover a five-year stretch), they would all die violently.
The first half of Lustrum covers this extraordinarily difficult, dangerous year with all its implications for the future: I know the story well and I was still chewing my nails. For newcomers, this is a great way to get your history, neat, with a dose of political danger and certain scary parallels for democracies in our own day. For the rest, you see what the events of 63 BC do to our hero, and where Rome is going. The end, in particular, is very poignant as Cicero goes one direction, literally, and Caesar goes another. All Will Be Explained in the final volume of the trilogy, due in 2011.
For millennia these two titans have been written about, and my sympathies always tended to be with Caesar over the oligarchy which Cicero supported. Yet Harris has the ability to paint Cicero as a flawed, irritating, fascinating protagonist, and by the end, my affections left Rome with Cicero, not Caesar. This, like all his Roman novels, is excellent history and fiction at the same time and almost all true; therefore, skip the next Hollywood pastiche and see how thrilling "what really happened" can be.
Cicero Plays Political Chess with Caesar February 2, 2010
Dennis Mabrey (Whitehouse Station, NJ USA)
18 out of 22 found this review helpful
Like its predecessor "Imperium", Conspirata is a very gripping book. If this book could be summed up in one line it would be "Cicero Plays Political Chess with Caesar".
This book begins just prior to the Cataline conspiracies and ends on the day Cicero is exiled by his 'one time friend' Clodius. The 5 year period the book covers focuses on Cicero's Consulship, the Cataline conspiracies (there were to some degree two conspiracies) and the First Triumvirate. While Cicero isn't completely unscrupulous he does manage to uphold some moral standard to protect the Republic (he wasn't called the 'righteous pagan' by the Catholic Church for nothing).
Two things I warn the reader about:
1. If you are a Caesarphile and believe that Julius Caesar was a nice guy killed by an evil Senate then you may not like this book. Shakespeare impressed upon me that Caesar was rather innocent and did not deserve his fate. This book shows Caesar in another light and makes one literally yell out loud for Cicero to execute Caesar while he had the chance.
2. The book starts a little slow at the beginning of his consulship. Don't worry it doesn't take long to pick up speed.
While you don't need to read the first Robert Harris book about Cicero 'Imperium' I recommend that you do. Imperium is a quick read and it really sets the stage for Conspirata; explaining more about Cicero the 'human' than the 'oratory machine'.
If you like historical fiction you cannot go wrong with this book. I am looking forward to the next book Harris writes about Cicero.
Utterly compelling continuation of Cicero's struggle for recognition February 3, 2010
S. McGee (New York, NY)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
Power politics is an ugly business, whether it's played in the halls of the Senate in 21st century Washington, or the Senate of Republican Rome in the first century BC. Harris could have chosen to set his thriller in the former; happily for readers he has opted instead to tell a story of high-stakes political games-playing featuring the celebrated orator Cicero and the ruthlessly ambitious military leader, Julius Caesar. When the novel opens, Cicero is on top of the world -- literally and rhetorically. He's on the roof of his house, studying the skies for omens as he begins his year as Consul, the ultimate authority in Rome. Even his carping wife seems happy.
Then there's a murder on the day of his accession to power -- and while the mystery never really occupies center stage in this drama, it's an ominous sign of the plots that are being brewed by Cicero's political foes behind the scene, including some of Rome's most noble families. As in the first volume of this projected trilogy, Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome, the tale of Cicero's year as consul and the conspiracy he must combat and resolve, even if it means going against his own principles, is told through the eyes of his slave and scribe, Tiro. Above all, however, this is the story of Cicero's realization that the most dangerous threat to the Roman Republic he cherishes may remain and be embodied in one of its increasingly popular military leaders: Caesar. Seeing Caesar through Tiro's eyes gave me an entirely fresh sense of how he might have been perceived not only by his aristocratic peers or a 'new man' like Cicero but by the broader population of Rome on whose support he would craft the beginnings of what would become an empire. It's an absolutely chilling portrait of someone who to the outward world appears intelligent, committed and effective, and yet who is utterly cold and manipulative.
I enjoyed the first volume of this saga so much that I didn't want to wait for the second to be published in the U.S., but ordered it from the U.K. when it appeared last year. I wasn't disappointed, and was even happy to fork over the extra $10 shipping fee to get it as soon as I could after a yearlong publishing delay. Now I'm condemned to wait another year or two for the third and final volume to appear, it feels like torture.
This is a book that anyone who has read Colleen McCullough's immense seven-volume series starting with The First Man in Rome will relish. Even better, it's a fast-paced version of some of the events covered in those books that will appeal to anyone who shied away from McCullough's books as being either too ponderous, excessively detailed or simply way too long. This is the story of the decline and fall of the Roman republic, the collapse of a political ideal, through the eyes of Cicero, who still cherishes that ideal and that system. The timing of his rise to the top at a time when being ruler of Rome means he must grapple with the harsh truth that his idea of Rome and the reality are no longer the same is as heartbreaking as in any classical tragedy. The suspense doesn't falter, the historical accuracy is remarkable and Harris's crisp style is admirable.
Highly recommended; I can't wait for the next installment.
On Lustrum November 3, 2009
Bader N. O. Alsaleh (Dhahran 31311, East Province Saudi Arabia)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Historical fiction is a favorite genre of mine. A good HF could become a vehicle for time travel in which you are transported to a different place and period where it is sometimes exotic other times erotic it could be frightening and it could be exhilarating but it is a Joyce experience. In Lustrum I have experienced all this and it was exceptionally great. I have not read a captivating and intriguing HF for some time. The characters are in full dimension you can nearly see them and interact with them. the setting is grand that being Rome of the ancient world while I am immersed in this novel I have felt myself experiencing the ruff and tangle in standing among the multitude of masses in the forum finding myself cheering and sometimes booing at the spectacles displayed with the repulsive stink of the mob overwhelming and the chanting haunting. The period is volatile and the consequences of the actions taken have become a watershed that influenced the course of history. The level of intrigue and political maneuvering in Lustrum is so intense how not with such larger than life characters Cicero, Caesar, Pompey, Cato the lot. It reflects the on goings in state and government affairs in any period and in particular our time. Imperium was great but Lustrum was superlative. Robert Harris's plot lines and themes are uncanny, at times I felt myself being swept in the vortex of political alliances and senatorial debates. This is a historical political thriller of the first order and from my experience you don't find them in abundance. It is in a class with Archer's First Among Equalsand Ejii Yoshikawa's Taiko.I would advice reading Tom Holland Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic before getting in to Lustrum it will provide the perspective that will make Lustrum a fascinating and informative read.
Robert don't make us wait long for the third installment of this trilogy.
Cicero Plays Political Chess with Caesar February 2, 2010
Dennis Mabrey (Whitehouse Station, NJ USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Like its predecessor "Imperium", Conspirata/Lustrum (same book) is a very gripping book. If this book could be summed up in one line it would be "Cicero Plays Political Chess with Caesar".
This book begins just prior to the Cataline conspiracies and ends on the day Cicero is exiled by his 'one time friend' Clodius. The 5 year period the book covers focuses on Cicero's Consulship, the Cataline conspiracies (there were to some degree two conspiracies) and the First Triumvirate. While Cicero isn't completely unscrupulous he does manage to uphold some moral standard to protect the Republic (he wasn't called the 'righteous pagan' by the Catholic Church for nothing).
Two things I warn the reader about:
1. If you are a Caesarphile and believe that Julius Caesar was a nice guy killed by an evil Senate then you may not like this book. Shakespeare impressed upon me that Caesar was rather innocent and did not deserve his fate. This book shows Caesar in another light and makes one literally yell out loud for Cicero to execute Caesar while he had the chance.
2. The book starts a little slow at the beginning of his consulship. Don't worry it doesn't take long to pick up speed.
While you don't need to read the first Robert Harris book about Cicero 'Imperium' I recommend that you do. Imperium is a quick read and it really sets the stage for Lustrum; explaining more about Cicero the 'human' than the 'oratory machine'.
If you like historical fiction you cannot go wrong with this book. I am looking forward to the next book Harris writes about Cicero.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 21
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