'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