Saturday,
September 23, 2006
"Imperium"
A Novel of Ancient Rome, and Cicero's Rise
Marcus
Tullius Cicero (circa 106-43 BC) the superstar orator, lawyer, politician
and philosopher of the late Roman republic achieved the highest position
attainable in the Roman republic the consulship at the age of 42, and he did so
against all conceivable odds.
Unlike
his chief rival in the Senate forum, the aristocratic lawyer Hortensius, Cicero
did not have the advantage of influential family connections, and unlike two
other figures in the drama, triumphant generals Pompey and Caesar, he had no
army to support his driving ambition. Though Cicero married well, his finances paled in
comparison with the legendary wealth of Crassus, who opposed him fiercely.
"All
he had was his voice, and by sheer effort of will he turned it into the most
famous voice in the world."
Cicero owned a brilliant slave
by the name of Marcus Tullius Tiro,
who was present at every eventful twist and turn. Tiro
was a formidable intellect who made verbatim transcriptions of his
master's speeches, and anything of importance anyone else said, for that
matter, in public or in private. Tiro became his
mentor's literary executor and an author in his own right, and wrote a
four-volume biography of Cicero.
Cicero's Rise, From Someone Who
Was There
"Imperium" A
Novel of Ancient Rome
Robert Harris Simon & Schuster: 310 pp., $26
Los
Angeles Times
By
Nicholas A. Basbanes
Special to The Times
September 23,
2006
The mark of a superior historical novel is not
always an erudite rendering of the recorded past but what the author imagines
could have happened within the framework of the known.
Put in other words, it is the "what if" factor that often makes for a
compelling story, a skill that has been mastered by British novelist Robert
Harris, a onetime correspondent for the BBC and a former political columnist
for the London Sunday Times and Daily Telegraph.
The most tantalizing premise the 49-year-old author puts forth in "Imperium," his fifth novel, springs from an alluring
detail that has survived the centuries as a delectable footnote to the
historical record. It is the knowledge that Marcus Tullius
Cicero (circa 106-43 BC) the
superstar orator, lawyer, politician and philosopher of the late Roman republic
owned a brilliant slave by the name
of Marcus Tullius Tiro, who
was present at every eventful twist and turn.
Tiro was a formidable intellect who was! celebrated
for having developed a system of note-taking known as Tironian
shorthand, a form of stenography he used to make verbatim transcriptions of his
master's speeches and dictation, and anything of importance anyone else said,
for that matter, in public or in private. In a culture that prided itself on
verbal gymnastics and legal precedent, this was a skill of no small
consequence.
That Tiro's countless contributions to his master's
welfare went well beyond domestic drudgery was affirmed by Cicero himself, most
persuasively in a letter preserved along with 900 or so others, again, thanks
to his amanuensis: "Your services to me are beyond count in my home and out of it, in Rome and
abroad, in private affairs and public, in my studies and literary work."
On Cicero's
death, Tiro was freed, whereupon he became his
mentor's literary executor and an author in his own right.
Among Tiro's writings was a four-volume biography of Cicero that was lost in
the Middle ! Ages after the collapse
of the Roman Empire but whose existence was
known to the biographer Plutarch and the historian Asconius.
It is an imagined reconstruction an
up-close-and-personal recollection written in the first person toward the end
of a life that spanned 100 years (circa 104-4 BC) that Harris uses to splendid effect in
"Imperium," Latin for the supreme political
power that each of the principals seeks and schemes to secure.
It gives nothing away to disclose that Cicero
achieved the highest position attainable in the Roman republic the consulship at the age of 42 and that he did so
against all conceivable odds. That is where Harris concludes this first in what
is projected to be a three-volume work on Cicero's
life and times.
Unlike his chief rival in the Senate forum, the aristocratic lawyer Hortensius, Cicero
did not have the advantage of influential family connections, and unlike two
other figures in the drama, triumphant generals Pompey an! d
Caesar, he had no army to support his driving ambition. Though Cicero married well, his finances paled in
comparison with the legendary wealth of Crassus, who opposed him fiercely.
"All he had was his voice," Tiro writes,
"and by sheer effort of will he turned it into the most famous voice in
the world."
It's a testament to Harris' narrative skill that Tiro
speaks with such assurance, but it is the novelist's seamless use of Cicero's own words that
is most impressive. In an author's note, Harris acknowledges his debt to the 29
volumes of Cicero's speeches, writings and letters issued by Harvard University
Press in its Loeb Classical Library series of works from antiquity; a trove of
documentation, it provides incisive commentary on a multitude of subjects, not
least of them this observation by Cicero on his favorite subject:
"Politics? Boring? Politics is history on the wing! You might as well say
that life itself is boring!"
In "Fatherland" (1992), "Enigma" !
(1995) and "Archangel" (1998), Harris
offered provocative 20th century speculations. Accounts of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius
inspired him to craft "Pompeii"
(2003), a 1st century thriller that served as a warmup
for "Imperium," which is quite possibly his
most accomplished work to date. And as Tiro the
raconteur continues to spin his timeless tale of human nature, we can cross our
fingers that the best is yet to come.
Nicholas
A. Basbanes is the author of, most recently,
"Every Book Its Reader: The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the
World."
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