Pompey merely wants to rule the world. Caesar longs to smash it to pieces and remake it in his own image.

As good as the first one, if not slightly better. Once again I enjoyed part one more, dealing with the Catilinarian conspiracy, rather than part two which is the fallout from Cicero's choices and the First Triumvirate.

I was glad to see Tiro get more voice here. Sometimes I would forget we were in his point of view, so many pages had passed reporting only what happened to Cicero without adding a thought of his own. Speaking of Cicero, I hated him and loved him here. He's brave and nervous and arrogant and boring and loyal at the same time, what a fascinating human being to follow.
The portrayal of Caesar was amazing, especially as he is usually depicted as a hero of the people, and the final confrontation between him and Cicero was a masterful example of conveying character through dialogue. Cato also finally gets some of the glory, though he's still such an oddball.

Ironically, Harris's characters are so vivid and flawed that it's easier for me to believe them fictional than to remember they were real people dealing with real problems and experiencing real pain. Several of the episodes described here (Clodius having a younger pleb adopting him as his son so he can get elected as tribune, renouncing his noble status, for example) would sound too far-fetched if they appeared in a fantasy novel, and I'd be the first to shriek "that's just not possible". Except of course it is, because it did happen, if we believe the sources. Just great stuff.

There were so many errors: they stretched back like islands behind us, an archipelago of folly. Or perhaps ‘errors’ was the wrong word. Perhaps it was more accurate to call them consequences: the ineluctable consequences of a deed done by a great man for honourable motives – is that not, after all, how the Greeks define tragedy?