Charles Finch

It seems as if ancient Rome has had a resurgent presence in popular culture over the last decade: Steven Saylor's novels, the terrific and sadly erstwhile show Rome, Anthony Everitt's bestselling biographies of Cicero and Augustus. There was even this book.

Perhaps sensing a trend, Robert Harris wrote Imperium. I'm fond of Harris, though he never seems to deliver as much as he promises; both Enigma and Fatherland were more intriguing than successful, and the latter borrowed shamelessly from a premise of Philip K. Dick. This book is about in that line, but has the particular saving grace of featuring a realistic portrait of Marcus Tullius Cicero. Cicero is my favorite figure of Republican Rome, a middle class striver who survived on his wits and later died with his principles basically intact, and one of the few politicians of any age who's writings survive on their own merit. (Churchill may prove to be another, although perhaps not; a few generations ago they would have said the same of Disraeli.) Cicero makes Imperium worth reading, though you might be better off reading one of my favorite contemporary accounts of Rome, Tacitus aside.