New novel about ancient Rome
Pride and fall
Lustrum. By Robert Harris. Hutchinson; 464 pages; £18.99. To be published in America as “Conspirata” by Simon and Schuster in February. Buy from Amazon.co.uk
THE British title of Robert Harris's new novel about ancient Rome is a word with many meanings. “Lustrum” is the expiatory sacrifice that was offered every five years by the censors. From this it came to denote a period of five years. In the plural it can also mean debauchery—and there is plenty of that in Mr Harris's account of the five turbulent years from 63BC.
The author's previous novels about Rome, “Pompeii” and “Imperium”, were entertaining and popular and “Lustrum” is another excellent read. It is a sequel to “Imperium” but it is not necessary to have read the one to enjoy the other. The narrator is again Tiro, Cicero's confidential secretary. The earlier volume described Cicero's rise to power, notably his election as consul, the senior magistrate of the Roman republic. This book covers his year in office and the four after he left.
Cicero's time as consul was the pinnacle of his career, marked by his exposure and defeat of the Catiline conspiracy. This was both his greatest triumph and the source of his undoing. By presiding over the hasty execution of the arrested conspirators, he gave his foes an excuse to attack him later. His boasting that he had saved the republic, his adoption of the title PaterPatriae, his purchase (with the help of a bribe) of an ostentatious mansion and his ill-considered attacks on rivals all ensured that he was not short of enemies.
The final years of the republic before Octavian emerged as the Emperor Augustus are fascinating, and Mr Harris provides a vivid and convincing picture of Cicero and his many formidable contemporaries. Cicero was as able and ambitious as any of them, but he was over-scrupulous and naive and lacked the people or troops to stand up to them when things turned against him. Crassus had wealth, the playboy Clodius marshalled the power of the mob and Pompey and Julius Caesar were two of the greatest generals of any age.
Another Roman novel by Mr Harris might, perhaps, describe the civil war between Pompey and Caesar. Fresh from his triumphs in the east, Pompey plays his part in “Lustrum” but it is the cool, divinely reckless Caesar who casts the longer shadow. Discussing them as potential tyrants, Cicero declares: “Pompey merely wants to rule the world. Caesar longs to smash it to pieces and remake it in his own image.”