Tyrant - Paperback

by Valerio Massimo Manfredi (Author)

A thundering historical epic from a master of the genre

Sicily 412 BC: the infinite duel between a man and a superpower begins. The man is Dionysius, who has just made himself Tyrant of Syracuse. The superpower Carthage, mercantile megalopolis and mistress of the seas. Over the next eight years, Dionysius' brutal military conquests will strike down countless enemies and many friends to make Syracuse the most powerful Greek city west of mainland Greece. He builds the largest army of antiquity and invents horrific war machines to use against the Carthaginians, who he will fight in five wars. But who was Dionysius? Historians have condemned him as one of the most ruthless, egocentric despots. But he was also patron of the arts, a dramatist, poet, and tender lover.

Author Biography

Valerio Massimo Manfredi is an archaeologist and scholar of the ancient Greek and Roman world. He is the author of 16 novels, which have won him literary awards and have sold 12 million copies. His Alexander trilogy has been translated into 38 languages and published in 62 countries and the film rights have been acquired by Universal Pictures. His novel The Last Legion was made into a film starring Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley. He has also written screenplays for film and television, contributed to journalistic articles, and conducted cultural programs and television documentaries.