Conspirata by Robert Harris (published in the UK as Lustrum) is the sequel to Imperium(review) and the middle book of Harris’ Cicero trilogy. Where Imperium covered the rise of Cicero, Conspirata shows his downfall. And as Cicero’s influence starts to wane, another’s starts to rise, Julius Caesar. Cicero finds himself on the wrong side of history not long after he is celebrated for saving the city.

The first half of Conspirata covers the Catiline conspiracy.  Cicero as consul is forced to deal with the conspiracy and it’s ramifications. Cataline attempts to bribe his way into the consulship and is stymied by Cicero. As retaliation, Cataline attempts to have Cicero killed. Cicero manages to find out about it and denounces the plot in the Senate, which postpones the elections and gives Cicero more power. When the elections are finally held, Cataline loses and gathers an army to try to take Rome by force. Cicero has spies in Cataline’s camp and is able to stop the conspiracy by oration. The four Cataline Orations not only bring the conspiracy out into the open, but also help stop it.

Cicero’s actions earn him the label of the Savior of the Republic. But it came at a high cost to Cicero in the future. There were rumors of Julius Caesar being involved, but Cicero refuses to do anything without proof (a stance that Cicero probably regretted later on). And to help punish the conspirators, Cicero ends up refusing a governorship after his year as consul. This causes financial problems later on as the governorship is usually a road to wealth. Tiro also believes that Cicero staying in Rome after his victory might have hurt his reputation in the long run (familiarity breeds contempt).

Being labeled the Savior of the Republic is arguably the high point of Cicero’s life and it goes down quickly after that. Cicero goes back to being a lawyer, but it often pulled back into politics. And he finds himself being outwitted by Caesar time after time. Cicero often believed his oration could change the world, but his hubris in his oration led him to believe that he could outwit and out-talk anyone. This caused Cicero to let Caesar off the hook twice and led to the ending of the book, with Cicero being forced out of Rome. Caesar and Pompeii offered Cicero power (to make the first Triumverate into a Quartate), but Cicero refused and ended up without enough power to keep himself in the city when his opponents attacked. We know what’s coming up (Caesar, Marc Antony and Augustus), but we’ll have to wait for the third book for the conclusion.