Imperium by Robert Harris (2006)

I picked this up because I really like Harris' Pompeii. This was about the historical figure Cicero (106-43 BC), an orator, statesman, political theorist, lawyer and philosopher of Ancient Rome, as nicely summarized by Wikipedia. This historical novel actually gave me more than I ever wanted to know about Cicero, but since it was an audio book, I sat through it and actually was glad I did. The novel is narrated by Cicero's slave, who acts as his secretary and scribe, a man who invented shorthand, to capture almost every word Cicero said. I asked our rare books librarian how did all this text from Cicero survive the ages, as I haven't really heard of vast Roman tablet collections. She explained that the important stuff was transcribed over the ages and these transcriptions have survived.

I enjoyed the detailed descriptions of Roman life, and was fascinated by the political process. Much of our democratic process was developed way back then. Though oratory is still very important in our political process - think campaign speeches and state of the ___ addresses, but I am glad we have gotten away from speeches that last hours. (I remember suffering through some very lengthy speeches on Latvian independence days. Wonder if anyone has collected and analyzed those speeches over the years.)