Lawless Republic

A vivid, visceral and crucial read for our times BETTANY HUGHES

Wonderful and insightful ADRIAN GOLDSWORTHY

The collapse of law and order in the last years of the Roman Republic told through the rise and fall of its most famous lawyer, Cicero.

In its final decades, the Roman Republic was engulfed by crime. Cases of extortion, murder and insurrection gave an ambitious young lawyer named Cicero high-profile opportunities to litigate and forge a reputation as a master debater with a bright political future. In Lawless Republic, leading Roman historian Josiah Osgood recounts the legendary orators ascent and fall, and his pivotal role in the republics lurch toward autocracy.

Ciceros first appearance in the courts came shortly after the end of a brutal civil war. After leveraging his fame as a lawyer to become a consul, he ruthlessly crushed a coup by suppressing the liberties of Roman citizens. The premiere legal mind of Rome came to argue that the pursuit of a higher justice could sometimes justify sweeping the law aside, laying the groundwork for Roman historys most famous act of political violence - the assassination of Julius Caesar.

Lawless Republic vividly resurrects the spectacle of the courts in the time of Cicero and Caesar, showing how politics trumped the rule of law and sealed the fate of Rome.