Book review: Dictator

ONE of the most striking aspects of Robert Harris’s novel, Dictator — which is the final instalment in his trilogy about the life of Cicero, the Roman politician and philosopher — is the casual way in which violence was administered in the Rome of the first century BC. 

Baying mobs roam the streets of the city killing people. Torture is used to get information.

At one point in the novel — which is based on research over the last 12 years — Cicero’s wife, Terentia, goes to Clodia’s house, the sister of his bitter enemy, Clodius, who has been responsible for Cicero’s exile.