Agrippa by Robert Harris review – persuasive portrait of rivalry in ancient Rome

<p>This fictional memoir by Octavius’s right-hand man shows us bloodshed, betrayal and hectic jockeying for power</p><p>If you’re one of those people who thinks about the Roman empire several times a week, Robert Harris has you covered. He follows his&nbsp;trilogy of novels about the life of Cicero and his one-off about the unpleasantness in Pompeii with a narrative that takes&nbsp;us from civil war through the assassination of Julius Caesar, with all&nbsp;the bickering and bloodshed that follows, on to the decisive battle of Actium and Octavius’s apotheosis as Caesar Augustus. We meet Cicero, Fulvia, Lepidus, two Caesars and a burly Antony (“Imagine, if you will, a&nbsp;statue of Hercules with a club in one hand, a wineskin in the other”).</p><p>Here’s the clever bit: he narrates it all from the point of view of Octavius’s right-hand man, Agrippa, a much less well-remembered figure. Harris tells us he “left behind no speeches, few letters and only a couple of sentences of direct quotation”. Yet Agrippa was “effective co-ruler of the Roman world for many years” and “the&nbsp;greatest general of the period”. Octavius couldn’t have risen without him, but&nbsp;he&nbsp;seems to have done his best to write&nbsp;him out of the story afterwards, according him only two passing mentions in the Res Gestae Divi Augusti.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/aug/17/agrippa-by-robert-harris-review-persuasive-portrait-of-rivalry-in-ancient-rome">Continue reading...</a>