The phrase "all political careers end in failure" wasn't coined until the twentieth century (by
Enoch Powell of all people,) so Cicero wouldn't have been able to pay it any attention when, in the events at the close of
Conspirator, he found himself far from the political heights he'd once scaled. A shame for him, as he might have been able to accept that failure as the end of his career, rather than setting himself up for a much greater fall in the second part of Mike Poulton's
Imperium, based on a trilogy of historical novels by Robert Harris.
Dictator opens with Julius Caesar (Peter De Jersey) enjoying that formal title of dictator, the civil wars of the first play having left the Roman Republic in chaos, and willing to let one strong hand rule it while it tries to reestablish its democracy. Of course, now that he's sole ruler Caesar is unlikely to give up his power in a hurry, and Cicero (Richard McCabe) is brought out of retirement to advise his opponents.
