Narrates the political career of Cicero, whose hopes of preserving the Senate’s hegemony ran asunder on the monarchical ambitions of Julius Caesar and other contemporaries. Rising to power by means of his lawyerly skill, especially as an orator, Cicero was a modestly successful consul but was subsequently banished from Rome. After ingratiating himself with two of the Triumvirate to gain his return, Cicero again fell to the wayside. During this time, he sought to evaluate and popularize the Greek philosophers, thereby gaining lasting relevance in the West. He was then judicially murdered. Everitt’s treatment is a biography not a study of political philosophy.