I've been a lazy Classicist, because instead of reading frightfully esoteric texts or working on Pindar translations, I have been devouring Robert Harris's novel Imperium. Although as of late I've considered myself more of a Hellenist than a Latinist, my first love in this discipline was Republican (and early Imperial) Rome, and this delightful book has been feeding that flame.
It is a fictional biography of Cicero, told from the perspective of his slave and secretary Tiro, and follows Cicero through the first 20 or so years of his career. I highly recommend it as a fast-paced, enthralling, and fun read for anyone who loves or is even vaguely interested in Roman history. I was particularly pleased by Harris's treatment of Cicero's prosecution of Verres (which dominates the first half of the novel), as I quite recently read the Verrine orations myself for the first time, and thoroughly enjoyed seeing them appear and be explored here in this kind of context. Harris does a wonderful job in marrying textual evidence to an engaging fictional-historical background.
It's a quick read and worth picking up.
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