1. Killer of Men
Arimnestos expects to become a bronzesmith until war between Plataea and Thebes places him in the battle line beside his father and brother. Victory brings no security: betrayed after the fighting, he wakes from unconsciousness to discover that his inheritance and freedom have been taken and…
2. Marathon
After slavery and exile, Arimnestos returns to a Greece threatened by the expedition sent by Darius I to punish Athens and its allies. The skills that won his freedom now place him among the Plataeans who march to support the smaller Athenian army assembled on the…
3. Poseidon’s Spear
Arimnestos returns from Marathon with fame but finds his household destroyed by the death of his wife in childbirth. Grief strips victory of its meaning, and an attempt to end his life instead leaves him rescued, captured and chained to an oar in a Phoenician warship.…
4. The Great King
Years after Marathon, Xerxes succeeds Darius and prepares the invasion his father failed to complete. Arimnestos is selected to escort a Greek embassy intended to delay or prevent the attack, taking him back into the Persian world where royal policy, local rivalries and memories of slavery…
5. Salamis
In 480 BCE, Xerxes advances into Greece with an army and fleet assembled from across the Persian Empire. Arimnestos, now an experienced sea captain, joins the coalition struggling to defend communities whose rivalries have not disappeared simply because invasion threatens them all. The confrontation at Salamis…
6. Rage of Ares
After the Persian fleet is defeated at Salamis, Mardonius remains in Greece with a powerful land army and attempts to divide the alliance that opposes him. Arimnestos returns to Plataea as Greek contingents gather on familiar ground under commanders who distrust one another almost as much…
7. Treason of Sparta
In the spring of 478 BCE, the destruction left by the Persian invasion remains visible even after the victory at Plataea. Athens and Sparta quarrel over command and the division of spoils, while communities in Ionia remain exposed to Persian retaliation and the alliance that saved…