Robert Harris has returned to Rome with his new novel, Agrippa. It’s a fictional autobiography of M. Vipsanius Agrippa, right-hand man of the Emperor Augustus, purportedly written in the days before Agrippa’s death at the age of 50 in 12BC.

In Harris’s Cicero trilogy (2021), narrator Tiro allowed readers to see an intimate side of the Roman statesman Cicero. In a similar way, Agrippa – and the device of his “real – but now-lost”– autobiography – gives Harris a perspective on the life of Octavian (also known as the young Caesar, and later Augustus).

Agrippa was Octavian’s close companion and trusted lieutenant from the moment Julius Caesar’s assassination pushed Octavian into the centre of Roman politics, until Agrippa’s death. By that time, Augustus had firmly established himself as Rome’s sole ruler.

Unlike Tiro, however, Agrippa was a major military and political figure in his own right. A highly competent soldier, he was integral to the young Caesar’s victories. Agrippa later pivoted into politics and who became part of the growing imperial dynasty through his marriage to Augustus’ daughter Julia. Agrippa’s life and Augustus’ sit side by side. Agrippa was, after all, the grandfather of Caligula and great-grandfather of Nero.

Harris is a superb storyteller, and Agrippa is a compelling read. The complexities of the civil wars of the triumviral period (43-31BC) are........

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