The Falcon of Sparta

Conn Iggulden, the bestselling author of the Emperor, Conqueror and The Wars of the Roses series' returns to the Ancient World with a ferociously bloody epic of the Spartan Ten thousand. …entire nations and a stretch of open sea lay between Persepolis and the valley of Eurotas – three months and a world away. In the Ancient World, one army was feared above all others. 401 BC. The Persian king Artaxerxes rules an empire stretching from the Aegean to northern India. As many as fifty million people are his subjects. His rule is absolute. Though the sons of Sparta are eager to play the game of thrones and his younger brother Cyrus is ever-watchful for his opportunity… Yet battles can be won - or lost - with a single blow. Princes fall. And when the dust of civil war settles, the Spartans are left stranded in the heart of an enemy's empire, without support, without food and without water. Deep in Mesopotamia, far from home and surrounded by foes, it falls to the young soldier Xenophon to lead the survivors against Artaxerxes' legendary Persian warriors. Based on one of history's most epic stories of adventure, originally recounted in Xenophon’s legendary account, Anabasis, The Falcon of Sparta masterfully depicts the ferocity, heroism, and savage bloodshed that was the Ancient World. It is a tale of warring ambition, betrayal and bravery and an extraordinary journey out of exile against the odds.