'Masterful' Sunday Times_________________Ancient Rome. 70 B.C.A city rippling with power - and with no shortage of men who would wield it... When Tiro, the confidential secretary of a Roman senator, opens the door to a terrified stranger on a cold November morning, he sets in motion a chain of events which will eventually propel his master into one of the most famous courtroom dramas in history.The stranger is a Sicilian, a victim of the island's corrupt Roman governor, Verres. The senator is Cicero, a brilliant young lawyer and spellbinding orator, determined to attain imperium - supreme power in the state.Compellingly written in Tiro's voice, Imperium takes us into the violent, treacherous world of Roman politics, and the quest of one man - clever, compassionate, devious, vulnerable, and above all Roman - to reach the top._________________A stunning novel of power and ambition from Robert Harris, the number one bestselling author of Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel and Pompeii. When Tiro, the confidential secretary of a Roman senator, opens the door to a terrified stranger on a cold November morning, he sets in motion a chain of events which will eventually propel his master into one of the most famous courtroom dramas in history. The stranger is a Sicilian, a victim of the island's corrupt Roman governor, Verres.