‘Et tu Brute’ – these are the immortal words of Shakespeare, recounting the treacherous death of one of Rome’s greatest Emperors, Julius Caesar. This book, by Peter Stothard, is a historical novel, recounting the last days of Caesar and the Empire of Rome immediately after his death and how, to a man, the assassins were hunted down and killed. The central character of the book is Cassius Parmensis, an obscure poet, who evades the hunters tracking him down for fourteen years after the brutal act of assassination. After Caesar, we see a Rome in turmoil. There is the rise of Caesar’s nephew and adopted son, Octavian (later Augustus). His main competitor for the Caesar title was Mark Anthony. Along with Lepidus, these three formed a triumvirate that ruled in place of Caesar’s dictatorship. We trail through the assassins’ deaths, one by one, often in the midst of the Civil War that thrived during this unsettled political period. We see the signs of the ultimate disintegration of the Roman Empire and the Fall of Rome. The geography of the setting takes us across the Roman Empire… The main assassins, Cassius and Brutus die and the cycle of justice continues until we finally reach the seafaring Parmensis who has sought a relatively anonymous last stance and safehaven in Athens. His death brings the conclusion of the story and the end of the political unease of the aftermath of the Emperor Julius Caesar’s murder.