Mr. Harris Firstly, thank you for the hours of enjoyment I got from reading Lustrum. I'm working through the other two as we speak. I have a couple of questions: 1) Why Cicero? Of all the men and women of Rome what was it that attracted you to his story rather than others? 2) As someone who is recently getting into Roman history, what fact/fiction would you recommend as a springboard for deeper exploration?

Robert Harris Thank you for reading the books. I chose Cicero because of all the ancient Romans we know the most about him from day to day; because I find him intensely sympathetic, for all his faults and foibles; and because he was as influential, in his way, as Caesar, in the development of the modern world, and yet he has either been ignored in popular fiction, or treated with contempt.

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