One man, two armies, the fate of the ancient world in the balance.

As a battlefield commander, Alcibiades was never defeated, but his popularity and his aspirations fuelled the resentment of his political rivals in Athens who secured his death warrant on a trumped up charge of treason. Escaping to Sparta, he proved instrumental in guiding its legendary scarlet-cloaked ranks from one military triumph to the next. The the very end, however it was Athens that claimed his fiercest loyalty. Man and city mirrored each other in boldness, ambition and vulnerability. From bloody confrontations on land and sea to the vicious politicking and betrayals in the city of Athena herself, Steven Pressfield once more breathes brilliant life into the bones of ancient history. In this epic novel, filled with triumph and tragedy, and ringing to the sound of battle, he paints a dazzling portrait of a remarkable leader of men whose fortunes were to mirror the ebb and flow of the tides of war...