iris literary agency

This novel looks at the historical effort undertaken by the Greeks to free Egypt from Persian rule, based on Thucydides' account. In 460 BC, Greeks joined forces – with the exception of the Spartans – to begin a military campaign in Egypt. Although they initially defeated the Persians, in the end, they did not manage to free Egypt.

Meanwhile, the demagogues in Athens started a war with Sparta, resulting in the recall of the brunt of the fighting force to Greece. Five thousand men stayed behind, but were forced to withdraw from Egypt when Persian reinforcements began to arrive. Their only route to safety is was to cross the desert and reach the Greek city of Cyrene, located on the shores of Libya.

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.