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.

Author Biography

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.