Rome, 63 Bc. in a City on the Brink of Acquiring a Vast Empire, Seven Men Are Struggling for Power. Cicero is Consul, Caesar His Ruthless Young Rival, Pompey the Republic's Greatest General, Crassus Its Richest Man, Cato a Political Fanatic, Catilina a Psychopath, Clodius an Ambitious Playboy. the Stories of These Real Historical Figures - Their Alliances and Betrayals, Their Cruelties and Seductions, Their Brilliance and Their Crimes - Are All Interleaved to Form This Epic Novel. Its Narrator is Tiro, a Slave Who Serves As Confidential Secretary to the Wily, Humane, Complex Cicero. He Knows All His Master's Secrets - a Dangerous Position to Be In. From the Discovery of a Child's Mutilated Body, Through Judicial Execution and a Scandalous Trial, to the Brutal Unleashing of the Roman Mob, Lustrum is a Study in the Timeless Enticements and Horrors of Power.