Conspirata: A Novel of Ancient Rome

Conspirata: A Novel of Ancient Rome

<i>Conspirata</i> is €œa portrait of ancient politics as a blood sport,€ raves <i>The New York Times</i>. As he did with <i>Imperium</i>, Robert Harris again turns Roman history into a gripping thriller as Cicero faces a new power struggle in a world filled with treachery, violence, and vengeance.<br><br>On the eve of Cicero€s inauguration as consul of Rome, a grisly discovery sends fear rippling through a city already racked by unrest. A young slave boy has been felled by a hammer, his throat slit and his organs removed, apparently as a human sacrifice. For Cicero, the ill omens of this hideous murder only increase his dangerous situation: elected leader by the people but despised by the heads of the two rival political camps. Caught in a shell game that leaves him forever putting out fires only to have them ignite elsewhere, Cicero plays for the future of the republic€¦and his life. There is a plot to assassinate him, abetted by a rising young star of the Roman senate named Gaius Julius Caesar€"and it will take all the embattled consul€s wit, strength, and force of will to stop the plot and keep Rome from becoming a dictatorship.