Book Review: Imperium

Gaius Verres was not, by the accounts we have left, a decent human being. Governorship of a Roman province came with certain prerogatives, including the expectation that the governor would enrich himself at the expense of his charges. When Gaius Verres was given the helm of Sicily, however, he took things rather to the extreme. Verres looted the province, collaborated with pirates, and threatened anyone who resisted with either execution or imprisonment. A few well off Sicilians, having lost nearly everything, escaped and fled to Rome. There they found that, predictably, the machinery of the state was heavily stacked against them. Efforts at getting the most famous and capable advocate in Rome to prosecute their case foundered on the fact that he was close friends with Gaius Verres. The Sicilians settled for the second best lawyer in Rome; Marcus Tullius Cicero.

This is the set up for Robert Harris’ Imperium, the first of what’s supposed to be a three novel series on the life of Cicero. Cicero’s life is told from the point of view of his slave secretary, Tiro, who accompanied Cicero for most of the latter’s professional career. The first half of the novel details the construction of the case against Gaius Verres, including a trip to Sicily and the various legal and political machinations that the friends of Verres performed in order to prevent the prosecution. In spite of these machinations, Cicero managed to win the case in no small part by putting the system on trial:

I, O judges, have undertaken this cause as prosecutor with the greatest good wishes and expectation on the part of the Roman people, not in order to increase the unpopularity of the senate, but to relieve it from the discredit which I share with it. For I have brought before you a man, by acting justly in whose case you have an opportunity of retrieving the lost credit of your judicial proceedings, of regaining your credit with the Roman people, and of giving satisfaction to foreign nations; a man, the embezzler of the public funds, the petty tyrant of Asia and Pamphylia, the robber who deprived the city of its rights, the disgrace and ruin of the province of Sicily. And if you come to a decision about this man with severity and a due regard to your oaths, that authority which ought to remain in you will cling to you still; but if that man’s vast riches shall break down the sanctity and honesty of the courts of justice, at least I shall achieve this, that it shall be plain that it was rather honest judgment that was wanting to the republic, than a criminal to the judges or an accuser to the criminal.

This is, I believe, roughly the equivalent of shouting “No, you’re out of order!” repeatedly in the courtroom. Perhaps Al Pacino will play Cicero in the movie. In any case, Gaius Verres was sent into exile, where he lived until proscribed by Mark Antony in 43 BCE. Apparently, Verres refused to give up some art treasures that Antony wanted. Cicero, also proscribed by Antony, would die shortly after.

The first half of Imperium concentrates on the Verres case, and the second on Cicero’s ascension to consul, against the backdrop of social conflict in Rome. It’s fair to say that Cicero had ambition but lacked vision; he wanted to stand atop the Roman system of government and to protect it, but was incapable of seeing its flaws, or understanding the crisis that would shortly overtake the Republic. Harris does solid work; the courtroom scenes flow like courtroom scenes should, yet he spends sufficient time explaining the Roman system of law such that the dramatic points are dramatic. I wouldn’t be utterly surprised to see a film down the road, although I can imagine it would be difficult to sell a Roman epic without any actual fighting.