Cicero Trilogy

About the Cicero Trilogy series

Narrated throughout by Tiro, Cicero's real-life slave and secretary (and the historical inventor of an early Latin shorthand system), the Cicero Trilogy dramatizes the Roman statesman's entire public career: his rise from provincial outsider to Consul of Rome in Imperium, his consulship and the Catiline conspiracy in Lustrum, and his slow fall from power under Julius Caesar and the triumvirs that follow in Dictator. Harris treats Cicero's political maneuvering -- alliances, bribery, courtroom rhetoric, backroom deals -- with the same tension and pacing he brings to his contemporary thrillers, turning the collapse of the Roman Republic into a character study of ambition, principle, and compromise.

Published between 2006 and 2015, the trilogy draws heavily on Cicero's surviving letters and speeches, and on Plutarch's biography, giving it a grounding in primary sources unusually deep even for Harris's typically well-researched fiction. Lustrum was published in the US under the alternate title Conspirata. Distinct from Harris's many standalone novels (tracked separately on this site), this is his only continuous multi-book series, following one man's career from beginning to end across three books rather than resetting with each new premise -- making it the natural pick for readers who want more Harris after finishing one of his standalones, especially those drawn to Pompeii's ancient-Rome setting.