AGRIPPA

A dying Roman recalls his lifelong friendship with the man who became Emperor Augustus.

A few short years before the Common Era, Agrippa writes his memoir. In his waning days at age 50, the old Roman general remembers his eventful life, which has been so tightly tied to his friend Octavius’. He began life as Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, a plebeian, a nobody who was taunted as a “mother-killer” because his mother died in childbirth. Octavius, on the other hand, is a great-nephew of Julius Caesar, whom they both admire. As they enter manhood, they fight bravely in Rome’s savage wars, both civil and foreign. Agrippa promises Caesar that he will always protect Octavius, who can be sickly, and he lives up to that commitment. That loyalty becomes his destiny. And when Caesar puts him in command of an army, he knows that is what he was born to do. Put briefly, Agrippa develops into the Roman Republic’s most renowned general and oversees great feats of engineering such as the aqueducts, while Octavius eventually becomes Emperor Augustus. The former ascends by merit, the latter by blood. This is no ordinary friendship, nor is it an equal one. When the emperor wants to adopt one of Agrippa’s sons, for example, Agrippa has no choice but to agree. When he is asked to divorce his wife and marry someone else, what’s a good soldier to do? “You are part of my family,” Augustus tells him. “I want you by my side for eternity. Besides, I shall need you to guard my back in the Underworld." Agrippa comments: “He punched my arm. A joke.” Much is impossible to know after two millennia, and author Harris weaves a strong story that honors history and imagines vivid details. There are great naval battles, disastrous storms at sea, and the threat posed by Antony and Cleopatra. Women are often interchangeable—who can produce a son? And through it all, Rome descends into dictatorship.

A compelling mix of history and imagination.