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Agrippa

The thrilling new novel set in Ancient Rome from the bestselling author of Conclave

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Agrippa

By: Robert Harris
Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale, Robert Harris
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The Sunday Times number one bestselling author returns to Ancient Rome in his latest thriller.

Narrated by Simon Russell Beale.

Julius Caesar is dead, and the lives of two teenaged boys are about to be changed forever. One is Caesar’s 17-year-old nephew, Octavius, whom he has made his heir.

The other is Octavius’s closest friend, Agrippa.

To claim Octavius’s inheritance, they must fight the giant figures of the Roman Empire – and, against all odds, they win. Octavius becomes the Emperor Augustus. For twenty years, they rule the world together.

Now Agrippa is fifty. Ailing and alone, betrayed by his wife’s infidelity, he takes refuge in his house on the Bay of Naples and begins to write his memoirs. Yet to stir up the past can be dangerous. From his earliest meetings with Julius Caesar, through the epic conflict with Mark Antony and Cleopatra, the great naval battle of Actium and the endless wars to expand the empire, he describes how one man has dominated his life: the cunning, ruthless, unknowable Octavius.

When it comes to power, does friendship exist at all?

This audiobook ends with an exclusive Q&A between Robert Harris and narrator Simon Russell Beale.

'A master storyteller' - OBSERVER
'The king of the page-turning thriller' - i PAPER
'Harris's cleverness, judgment and eye for detail are second to none' - SUNDAY TIMES
'Harris writes with a skill and ingenuity that few other novelists can match' - FINANCIAL TIMES
'A master of historical fiction' - TLS

© Robert Harris 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 Ancient Historical Historical Fiction Political Spies & Politics Suspense Thriller & Suspense Ancient Rome War Ancient History
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Critic reviews

A persuasive portrait of rivalry in ancient Rome. This fictional memoir by Octavius’s right-hand man shows us bloodshed, betrayal and hectic jockeying for power. (Sam Leith)
A fascinating study of how power corrupts.
I gobbled up its nearly 400 pages in no time. Robert Harris has produced another immensely readable historical novel: deeply researched, intelligently written and hugely entertaining.
Gripping fiction slipped into the gaps between the building blocks of history.
Thrilling . . . Agrippa is a swift-paced romp. . . Politics may be ‘a filthy business,’ as Agrippa observes, but in the hands of Mr. Harris, it is a drama of endless interest.
In his new novel, Harris employs that same propulsive prose and whip-smart dialogue to imagine what Agrippa’s lost memoir might have revealed about his career as Rome’s great survivor. . . . Agrippa offers a forensically accurate account of Roman politics in the Late Republic spliced with an imaginative portrait of one of the period’s great, if flawed, heroes. The result is more than just a thrilling read; it is also a call to moral arms. Agrippa has multiple chances to resist Rome’s slide toward political absolutism yet, for the sake of convenience, fails to act. Harris, who started his career as a political journalist, clearly wants us to consider whether, in our own dark times, we might be in danger of doing the same.
It's a neat trick for a historical novelist to portray a well-known era through lesser-known eyes ... the matter-of-fact style propels you through a pacy tale of bloodshed and backbiting.
Harris fills in the gaps with propulsive flair in this speculative memoir as an ailing 50 -year- old Agrippa looks back on a life shaped by the realpolitik of the Roman empire territorial expansion, ruthless brutality, endless war games plus his combative friendship with Augustus. A slow burn portrait of psychological embitterment - but a story too of complicit silence as Rome slides into dictatorship.
As in many of Mr Harris's novels, his narrator's outsider perspective helps the reader navigate what may be an unfamiliar historical milieu ... The author's many fans will welcome this return to the Harris Ciceronic Universe. And for everyone else, Mr Harris' novels provide an enjoyable primer on the grandeur that was Rome.
Although Agrippa was responsible for all kinds of slaughter and skulduggery, I found myself rooting for him. That is due in no small part to a delicious fictional twist Harris introduces at the centre of Agrippa’s life. . . . The novel comes alive. You’re transported into the period, the room and the intrigue. I gobbled up its nearly 400 pages in no time.
All stars
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Great Book, well Narrated, I loved the book, I enjoyed the historical characters and the story had a nice pace to it.

Great Book, well Narrated,

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Propelled me back in time. I want to believe that Harris’s Agrippa was the man who lived.

Authentic

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If you think this will be just like all the other Robert Harris books you’ve listened to, it won’t be. HOWEVER do persevere. . You hear a very listenable story told in the first person and narrated so well you feel you must continue to the end. Do listen to the end because the fascinating conversation between author and narrator completes the story by the description of the whole background. Having heard that conversation, you now want to start again and hear Agrippa’s story again.

A worthy story of Ancient Rome

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Very well written and read story about one of the most important and undervalued generals in Roman history. I learnt a lot about Agrippa, but also about the history of the era and Augustus.

Fantastic listen

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I am an 81 year old in hospital with cancer. My daughter suggested Agrippa and I thought I'd try a sample. I looked down at my watch and saw I was 6 hours into the easiest to read book I've ever ever seen and thought it a truly fantastic experience. Thank you very much. I'm off to start on Cicero

One of the best books I have ever read

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