Dictator

Dictator is my fourth foray into the ancient world, a series of journeys that began with Pompeii (2003). One of the great pleasures of these years has been meeting scholars of Roman history who have been without exception encouraging, even to the extent of electing me a proud if notably undistinguished President of the Classical Association in 2008. For various offers of encouragement and advice over the years I would like to thank in particular Mary Beard, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, Jasper Griffin, Tom Holland, Bob Fowler, Peter Wiseman and Andrea Carandini. I apologise to those I have forgotten, and naturally absolve all those listed above of any responsibility for what I have written.

The two publishers who first commissioned me to write about Cicero were Sue Freestone in London and David Rosenthal in New York. Like the Roman Empire, they have both moved on, but I would like to thank them for their original enthusiasm and continued friendship. Their successors, Jocasta Hamilton and Sonny Mehta, have stepped into the breach and skilfully steered the project to its conclusion. Thanks also to Gail Rebuck and to Susan Sandon, for gallantly staying the course. My agent, Pat Kavanagh, to my great sadness and that of all her authors, did not live to see the work which she represented completed; I hope she would have enjoyed it. My thanks go to my other agents, Michael Carlisle of Inkwell Management in New York, and to Nicki Kennedy and Sam Edenborough of ILA in London. The estimable Wolfgang Müller, my German translator, once again acted as an unofficial copy-editor. Joy Terekiev and Cristiana Moroni of Mondadori in Italy have shared the journey literally to Tusculum and Formiae.

Finally – finally – I would like to thank, as always, my wife, Gill, and also our children, Holly, Charlie, Matilda and Sam, half of whose lives have been lived in the shadow of Cicero. Despite this, or perhaps even because of it, Holly took a degree in classics and now knows far more about the ancient world than her old dad, so it is to her that this book is dedicated.

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Epub ISBN: 9781446409107

Version 1.0

Published by Hutchinson 2015

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Copyright © Robert Harris, 2015

Robert Harris has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Hutchinson

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ISBN 9780091752101