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Lawless Republic: The Rise of Cicero and the Decline of Rome
Josiah Osgood
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'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 orator's ascent and fall, and his pivotal role in the republic's lurch toward autocracy.
Cicero's 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 history's 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.
Read MorePraise for Lawless Republic: The Rise of Cicero and the Decline of Rome
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A wonderful and insightful account of Cicero's career in the courts, which at the same time is highly revealing about the breakdown of Rome's Republican system. Highly recommendedThe last bloody decades of the Roman Republic offer a veritable catalogue of crime. Josiah Osgood examines this rich material with the insight of a skilled historian and the keen scrutiny of a true crime detective. Even Cicero does not emerge unscathed. The result is a fresh look at one of history's most compelling eras, more relevant to Americans today than ever beforeJosiah Osgood draws us deep into Cicero's methods and psyche as he rose to some of the greatest challenges a lawyer has ever faced. A razor-sharp analysis of the most fraught yet fascinating time in Rome's historyLawless Republic reads like a novel, but it is written with the learning and skill of a scholar. Rarely have the life and times of Cicero been told with greater verve. Classicist and historian Josiah Osgood is at the height of his powersThis is a book that matters about a man who matters. A vivid, visceral and crucial read for our timesOsgood writes with such a sure hand, and has such a deft command of historical facts, as to make each stage of Rome's growing disorder seem plausible, lamentable and disturbingly familiarOne of those rare instances: a glimpse into ancient history whose relevance to the present is as sobering as it is striking . . . he navigates the period's complexities with assurance, scholarship and a good eye for dramaTimely and essential reading . . . Osgood writes with precision and a light touch
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