This historical novel is based on the true story of Aristodemus the Spartan, as narrated by Herodotus in the books Polymnia and Calliope of his Histories.

The Battle of the Thermopylae has just ended, with the well-known outcome; the royally-descended Aristodemus is the sole survivor out of Leonidas’s 300 warriors. Temporarily blinded, he returns to Sparta, seeking to get back into fighting the Persians once he recovers his eyesight.

Yet his fellow-citizens, in the belief that he displayed cowardice during the battle, receive him with flagrant hostility: depriving him of food and water, they do not even grant him a fire to keep himself warm. His vision restored, the shamed Aristodemus goes to live on the mount Kithairon, near Delphes and one of the Persians’ camps, wherefrom he organizes attacks against the enemy.

These are difficult times; times of war. Human values undergo a grave crisis. Fear and death dictate thoughts and actions.

At that time, Pausianias is named Commander-in-Chief of the Greek troops; his ambition is to become Tyrant of Sparta and eventually of all Greece. This displeases Apollo’s priests, who ask Aristodemus to keep him away from power at all costs, whilst the priests of Gaia encourage him to act as a free man.

With a price put on his head by the Persians, weighed down by the missions he has undertaken, Aristodemus will have to face a number of small and big battles, personal as well as general.

During this crucial period of his life, he will appreciate friendship, experience love and, despite being one of the protagonists of the Battle at Plataeae and the honors bestowed upon him he will eventually choose a different way of life.

The author is deeply knowledgeable of the era he evokes and is capable of utilizing his historical sources with a cinematic narrative. Bringing out the historical and social backgrounds of the period he gives the reader the pleasure of delving at once into history and fiction.

Oxy, 2021, 368 pages