date: 2015-11-29 19:21:32
Title: Dictator - A Review

Given how long  I have been waiting for this  book, one might say
that I  was predisposed to  like it. As  it happened, once  I was
able to purchase it, I consumed  it rather than reading it, every
spare moment was spent in the company of Tiro , Cicero and SPQR.

Unfortunately, while I  clearly enjoyed this book, I  feel that I
wasn't  the  only person  in  whose  hands  the final  volume  of
Cicero's public life  was a tad rushed. Harris set a  bar so high
in Imperium and Lustrum that he was always going to struggle with
the conclusion. While  he has written a  compelling and enjoyable
book,  he hasn't  managed to  make it  as fully  realised as  the
earlier volumes.

Put simply, there  is too damn much going  on here. From Caesar's
crossing the Rubicon to the Ides of March is a period longer than
that dealt with  in Lustrum, yet here it is  but a small fragment
of the  book. There is the argument  that Cicero was less  in the
public life  in the  period dealt with,  but the  period features
some of the most important parts  of that life, many of which are
dealt with cursorily.

Finally, the weight of history means  that the final parts of the
book, as Octavian rises with Cicero's clear support, are drenched
in  melancholy. The end,  when it  comes,  is quick  but no  less
brutal than you might imagine. I just wish that Harris could have
found it within him to make  this two volumes, and taken his time
with this otherwise superbly crafted work.

"Dictator" by Robert Harris  was published by Hutchinson Books in
October 2015, and should be available from all decent bookstores,
in  addition to  being piled  high in  some supermarkets  for the
festive season.