book report: Imperium, by Robert Harris
“Imperium”
is the Latin word for the highest official power in Rome: the power to command
in the name of the republic. Those with Imperium were called Imperator,
literally “commander”, from which we eventually get the word emperor. In the ancient
Roman republic, the highest public office, the one with Imperium, was the
one-year elected post of consul. As with the American presidency, this was the
pinnacle of a political career.
In
this terrific historical novel, Harris traces the career of one real Roman who
sought and achieved Imperium: Cicero. Many people have heard of the name
Cicero, but don’t know who he was. He was a politician and attorney who lived
in a time when the aristocrats – the nobility – of Rome dominated the Senate
and the rest of the government. But Cicero wasn’t an aristocrat. He came from a
fairly prosperous family, and got a good education, but was not wealthy or
royal in any sense. Instead, he had to use his skills as a public speaker and
his cleverness in managing political situations in order to advance his career,
from attorney, to senator, to quaestor, to aedile, to praetor, and eventually
to consul.
You
can read about history and historical personages, but Harris makes them come
alive. His descriptions of the appearance and behavior of leading figures of
the day are vivid and memorable. There is the wealthy Crassus, who wants to buy
his way to fame and power; the victorious general Pompey, who expects the whole
world to follow his orders; and the crafty but reckless Gaius Julius Caesar, a young
senator with big ambitions. They all have their own goals, influences, and
resources, which Cicero balances in ever-changing combinations of positive and
negative influence.
Cicero
tackles some complex and controversial legal cases during the book. For
example, he prosecutes the corrupt governor of Sicily on behalf of the
oppressed and victimized Sicilians. And he uncovers a gigantic plot to buy an
entire election – both consuls, all ten tribunes, and many minor officials –
that he must somehow stop. His tireless energy and his inspired speaking skills
help bring him his success.
The
book is narrated by his secretary, a slave named Tiro, who is remarkable for
his invention of shorthand, which he had to devise to keep up with Cicero’s rapid
output of memorable speeches. Through Tiro’s eyes, we see the temples, homes,
and capitol buildings of ancient Rome. It’s a world of law, where even the
lowest citizen has rights, but also a world of shocking cruelty, where rebellious
slaves are crucified by the thousands along the roadside. I remember a phrase
used to describe a Fellini film – From the Planet Rome – and it is apt here.
This is a sometimes astonishingly foreign world, not the orderly land of
aqueducts and noble senators we think we know. It’s fascinating to read about,
but I wouldn’t want to live there.
There
are amazing parallels between Cicero’s Rome and our own times. It’s hard for me
to decide exactly how much is the actual history and how much is Harris’s own
desire to highlight those parallels for his own contemporary political reasons.
Let me mention just one. In Cicero’s time, there was a major crisis over
pirates, who were attacking Roman naval and merchant ships, capturing and
killing civilians and officials, and operating independent of any governments.
To meet this threat, the Romans – with Cicero’s stage management – created the
unprecedented post of supreme military commander, with the power to command
land armies and sea navies to hunt down and destroy the pirates. Eventually, the
power of this supreme military commander led to civil war with other powerful
men, the dictatorship of Caesar, the end of the Roman republic, and the
beginning of the dictatorial emperors. The parallel with our own time is clear:
we face a crisis with terrorists. We are apparently willing to go to all kinds
of lengths, including invading foreign countries and capturing and torturing
people, to deal with this situation. We should take a lesson from the Romans
and take special care not to go so far that we risk losing our freedom in
pursuit of our safety.
This
book is the first of a projected trilogy. I’m itching to get to the next volume
and see what Cicero and the rest of the Roman world is up to now.
Highly
recommended
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