Dictator

Title: Dictator (Cicero Trilogy No. 3)

Author: Robert Harris

Publisher: Hutchinson, 2015 (First)

ISBN: 9780091799502

Pages: 449

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, orator, politician, lawyer and political theorist, who stayed on the side of the republic when it was threatened by the powerful ambitions of Julius and Augustus Caesars and Mark Antony. Being a shrewd politician himself, with a powerful oratory at his command, Cicero’s fiery speeches energized the people and the senate, but at the cost of deeply antagonizing would-be dictators and their cohorts. This book tells the story of Cicero from his first exile in 58 BCE to his assassination at the hands of Mark Antony’s soldiers in 43 BCE. This is the third and final volume in the Cicero trilogy. Robert Dennis Harris is an English novelist, a former journalist and BBC television reporter. He began his career in non-fiction, but obtained fame upon his works of historical fiction. His most recent works centre on contemporary history.

We get a glimpse of what life in Rome was about, with its specter of violence overshadowing the lives of the people at every turn of the road. When the curtain goes up in the story, the republic had outlived its utility. The law had silently taken the backstage, and those who had the power of arms at their disposal could enforce their will on the people. Rome’s republic or perceived democracy is not to be confused with their modern counterparts. The patricians controlled the state and decided the fate of the republic while the ordinary citizens made up the ranks of the legionaries that served the officials. Beneath these stood the multitude of slaves, both male and female, who didn’t possess any rights at all. Tiro, Cicero’s secretary who is supposed to be telling the story, was himself a slave. In view of the outstanding service done to him Cicero manumitted him. Such freed slaves could gain citizenship and own property. Rome’s brutal military victories over the barbarian tribes meant a constant inflow of slaves.

Cicero is thought to be one of the greatest orators of all time, and the book contains some nice samples of his powerful speeches that made his listeners dance to his tune. Ironically, this spelled his doom. Incensed at his earlier attacks on him, Mark Antony had Cicero’s head cut off from his body and severed the hands that once compiled polemics against him, which were displayed on the Roman forum. One of his defence speeches as a lawyer of an indefensible case prove how good presentation of forceful arguments can sway a jury away from truth and make them acquit a guilty person. This practice has definitely survived the ages and continues to this day in our law courts. Julius Caesar’s meteoric rise to dictatorship exhibits the vulnerability of any democracy – particularly, one in which republican institutions have never taken root among the masses – to the whims of an adventurer. The Roman republic was steeped in corruption to make matters worse. Fortune seekers aligned with Caesar in his far reaching campaigns to the outer reaches of the empire – Gaul, Germany and even Britain. Vast hordes of wealth collected from these provinces were for their keeping. Sadists among them could vent all their perversions on the captured prisoners of war. Caesar once cut off the arms of twenty thousand enemy soldiers for their alleged temerity to take up arms against him. People on the republican side were also venal. They could be bought and sold on the lure of plum postings and sinecure titles. Pompey once tries his luck in getting himself appointed as the commissioner of grain with deputies in every province. They had the liberty to indulge freely in corruption.

Another notable factor is the amount of political calculations that went into matchmaking in Roman aristocratic circles. Passion was totally subservient to position in society, with scant regard paid to physical suitability. Aged statesmen married girls who had barely put their teenage years behind. Daughters and nieces of the who’s who were destined to end up as wives of other prominent people of the empire. Dowry was dominant, and we read of many people, including the protagonist, marrying for the money involved. The Romans cremated their dead, collected their ashes and interred it later. Some of the customs seem to have had a close parallel to similar Indian customs, but of course, the resemblance must have to be purely coincidental.

Historical fiction of this genre will be generally devoid of scenes provoking intense emotion or passion. The author has a long story to tell in so few pages, that finer details like these have to be pruned away. The language is simple yet elegant and the book is quite a page turner. We are not sure of the historical authenticity of the author’s arguments, even though he has indicated some books as acknowledgement. A fine glossary and notes on dramatis personae are given at the end of the book, which should be noted by the readers beforehand. I stumbled on to it after completing the book, though by that time it had become irrelevant. The book, however, was thoroughly enjoyable even with this handicap. This volume is the concluding part of the Cicero trilogy, but the book contains no reference to the existence of such a series or about its predecessors. The subject matter is self-contained as not to warrant reading any other book in the series.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star