Book description
The 4th century BC. A village in Syria. A woman, dressed in rags and
covered in blisters and sores, is seen approaching on the road coming
from the north. Suspicious of her, the villagers shout and throw rocks
at her. She is struck and falls. She seems dead... Her story encompasses
one of the great collective acts of heroism of the ancient world. She
was the mistress of Xenophon, a general in the vast army of ten thousand
Greek mercenaries from virtually every Greek city state that was
employed by Cyrus the Younger, in his quest to seize the throne of
Persia from his brother, Artaxerxes II. Manfredi, one of the world's
experts, has created an rip-roaring adventure seen from the perspective
of the women who accompanied the soldiers on their long journey. A new
and intense account of the most celebrated march in man's history, by
the acclaimed author of the Alexander trilogy.
Valerio Massimo Manfredi is professor of classical archaeology at
Luigi Bocconi University in Milan. He has published ten works of
fiction, including the 'Alexander' trilogy, which has been translated
into twenty-four languages in thirty-eight countries. His novel The
Last Legion was released as a major motion picture in 2007. He has
written and hosted documentaries on the ancient world and has written
screenplays for cinema and television.
