Peter Stothard

What is written down

Dictator - the last in Robert Harris trilogy on ancient Rome - focuses on Cicero and his secretary Tiro and 'the most tumultuous era in human history'

issue 03 October 2015

Marcus Tullius Cicero was the ancient master of the ‘save’ key. He composed more letters, speeches and philosophy books than most writers of any epoch; but more important than any particular work was that so much survived to define his time. He had a secretary, Tiro, who can reasonably be given the credit for researching, correcting, copying and casting out his master’s words.

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