This is the second book in Harris's Cicero trilogy, following him through his consulship, when he earned the title 'Pater Patriae' for his central role in exposing and defeating Catalina's conspiracy to take over Rome by force, then through his attempts to navigate the period known now as the First Triumvirate (Caesar, Pompey, & Crassus), and finally to the beginning of his exile, when the tribune Clodius uses the power of the mob to make his place in Rome untenable. 

I enjoyed this even more than the first book: I think one reason is that I'd gotten used to the narrative device Harris uses, framing the books as the memoir of Cicero's slave/secretary Tiro.