The advice given to Cicero by his astute, campaign-conscious brother to prepare him for the consular elections of 64 B.C., has a curiously modern ring: "Avoid taking a definite stand on great public issues either in the Senate or before the people. Bend your energies towards making friends of key-men in all classes of voters". On this text Professor Taylor's book is a shrewd commentary, designed to clarify the true meaning in Roman political life of such terms as "party" and "faction", so like our own to the eye but actually so different. Political parties with programs in our sense were unknown at Rome, the nearest approach being aggregations of "friends" for personal advancement in politics or finance. The mechanics of Roman politics are explained in detail - the relations of nobles and their clients, the manipulation of the state religion (always regarded in the best Roman theory as a political agency), and the practical issue of delivering the vote as and when wanted.