This is an ambitious and, I should make clear at the outset, a very enjoyable book. As its subtitle implies, it aims to analyse both the career of Cicero and the key reasons for the collapse of the Roman Republic. The latter is done via the former: that is to say, the book recounts key trials in which Cicero spoke, and it uses these to uncover some of the problems confronting Rome and its government at this time.
The first important point to note is that the book is aimed at a general readership and thus assumes no knowledge of ancient Rome. That is not to say that it is not an academic work. There are, for example, around sixty footnotes in each of the twelve chapters, many of which suggest further reading. (It may be useful here to sketch out the contents: Chapters 1–2 cover For Sextus Roscius, 3–4 Against Verres, 5 For Fonteius, 6 For Cluentius, 7 Against Catiline, 8 covers the trial of Clodius for profaning the Bona Dea rites, 9 discusses Cicero's exile and return, 10 For Caelius, 11 For Milo, and 12 deals with Cicero's final years, including a brief discussion of the Philippics.)
O. does not attempt to simplify the material. The chapter covering For Cluentius, for example, offers a full account of the charges in all their complexity. Anyone who has tried to read, let alone teach, this work will appreciate O.'s skill in giving a lucid and engaging account of this hugely complicated trial. Similarly impressive is his ability to set out the legal and political context, as well as other relevant information, such as the role and rights of the pater familias in ancient Rome. Nonetheless, there is inevitably an opportunity cost in including all this background detail, since it leaves relatively little room for making any particular case about either Cicero or the collapse of the Republic. The introduction, for example, where one might have hoped for more detail on the exact shape of the argument to follow, is understandably taken up with the business of explaining how the Roman courts operated, the role of Sulla and various other pieces of crucial information. Readers are told in general terms that the book will set out Cicero's rise to prominence, but will also deal with ‘the larger struggle between law and violence’ (p. 13). This leads on to a discussion of the fact that these are issues ‘which any democratic society may find itself struggling with’ (pp. 14–15), but the book does not explicitly engage in any comparisons. Instead, O. settles for some pointed phrasing to give readers food for thought – ‘When Catiline and his followers took up arms to overturn an election, they were striking at a key principle of the Republic: the peaceful transfer of power’ (p. 176).
The lack of knowledge of the implied reader seems to impact on the style as well as the content. The tone is conversational (Chapter 3, for example, begins ‘Gaius Verres couldn't keep his hands off art’, p. 57), and borders on didactic at times (‘That's one point to keep in mind’, p. 38), but is enlivened by O.'s penchant for mythological similes: Cicero offers a line of argument ‘like the thread that led the Greek hero Theseus out of the Labyrinth’ (p. 40), while a clause in a law ‘hung over the senators’ heads like a sword of Damocles’ (p. 204). There are also (suitably) rhetorical flourishes, which mean that at times the work reads like the transcript of a lecture. When describing the attack on Cicero's house by Clodius’ supporters, for example, O. offers the following account: ‘They battered the heavy wooden doors in front. Boom. Boom. Boom.’ (p. 200). One gets the impression that O. is an engaging teacher, although the style may not always be to everyone's taste.
The decision to focus on the trials inevitably brings advantages and disadvantages. It is undoubtedly an engaging and interesting way for readers to be introduced to the issues that blighted the late Republic. O. explores the exploitative and corrupt nature of government in the provinces through Against Verres, for example, and discusses the problem of political violence in the chapter on For Milo. There is the added advantage that a work on ‘true crime in Rome’ is very much in keeping with the broader cultural zeitgeist. Indeed, O admits that this was how the work started out in the acknowledgments (p. 315). In covering such a vast amount of ground, however, and in largely restricting himself to materials around the trials (a handful of letters are discussed, as are a few of the works Cicero wrote on oratory), the analysis of Roman history is inevitably a little superficial by the standards of an academic book, and there is relatively little for those already interested in the period to get their teeth into. Julius Caesar and Pompey are discussed, but there is not really space to do their roles justice. Without this context some of the book's ultimate conclusions feel rather stark and lacking in nuance. Cicero's decisions are subject to criticism, but O. does not always make due allowance for the fact that Cicero's desperate actions towards the end of his life may represent symptoms rather than causes of the problems of the late Republic. This issue is compounded by the narrative arc focused on criminal trials, which creates a neat but perhaps oversimplified sense that Cicero began as an idealistic young man (taking on Sulla, Chrysogonus, Verres et al.) before becoming a more cynical and power-hungry figure (‘Cicero came to embrace violence over the course of his political career’, p. 310).
These criticisms risk misrepresenting what is largely a very balanced, well-informed and engaging portrait of Cicero, and it would be unfair to focus on what this book does not include. In just over 300 pages O. manages to walk readers through various fascinating trials and in so doing gives a strong sense of the nature of legal and political life in the late Republic. Those more familiar with the subject will enjoy the occasional forays into less well-known material and admire the lucidity with which O. introduces Cicero's classic cases.
