The Conspiracy: A Novel,

It's inevitable for people to compare John Hersey's The Conspiracy to Thornton Wilder's Ides of March or Robert Graves' I, Claudius and Claudius the God. The comparisons are apt: all three authors used their extensive knowledge of Roman history to write glosses on their own times. But Hersey differs from the other two in presenting a far darker tale of the cynical and corrupt use of power and the paranoid behavior engendered in those who exercise it. Taking as his setting the creation and suppression of the Pisonian conspiracy against Nero in 64-65 BC, Hersey provides a devastating commentary of the Nixon presidency and its response to the Watergate crisis. Hersey's epislatory novel is told primarily through the exchange of memoranda between Tigellinus, co-Prefect of the Praetorian Guard, and various others, mainly Paenus, tribune of the secret police. These memoranda often include intercepted letters, especially those between the Stoic philosopher Seneca and his nephew, the poet Lucan. This technique allows Hersey to extend the number of voices in the first person and to provide insight into both sides of the conspiracy. Hersey is a first-rate historian as well as novelist. Many of the novel's letters are based on the writings of his characters and the events recorded are generally accurate. His primary sources are Tacitus' Annals and Suetonius' Life of Nero. Seneca's words often are quoted from his Moral Epistles, as are parts of Lucan's Pharsalia. Through the exchanges between Seneca and Lucan Hersey explores the demands of artistic expression and individual courage under tyranny, while those between Tigellinus and Paenus probe the nature of the corrupting influence of unbridled power. Reading this novel makes one wonder what dialogues between Robert Haldeman and Chuck Colson might have been like, as well as those between Sam Ervin and Ben Bradlee.

in fictional form. This book is a thinly-disguised description of the Nixon presidency **preceding, and anticipating!** Watergate's paranoia.