Table of Contents

IMAGES     3

MACEDON     19

TROY     69

PERSIA     125

INDIA     189

THE MARCH TO BABYLON     203

POSTSCRIPT     268

ANCIENT SOURCES     269

INDEX     271

About the Author

MARY RENAULThas written over a dozen novels, has had her work adapted for radio, stage, and screeen, and has been the subject of documentaries and biographies. She is as widely known for her forthright treatment of gay relationships as she isher historical restructions of ancient Greece. She was born in London and educated at Oxford. She then trained as a nurse, where she met her lifelong partner Julie Mullard.After during World War II, she and Mullard settled in South Africa and traveled considerably in Africa and Greece. It was at this time that she began writing her historical novels, includingThe King Must Die, The Last of the Wine,andThe Persian Boy. The biographyThe Nature of Alexanderis one of her only non-fiction books. She died in Cape Town in 1983.

Reviews

"Mary Renault is a magician . . . This is more than a biography, it is a psychological rendering of a man." 
—The Chicago Daily News

"The many Mary Renault fans should find this as absorbing and worthwhile as her novels." 
—The Houston Post

"Intriguing and valuable." 
—The New York Times

"The perfect companion to he Alexander novels."
—The Wall Street Journal

"A splendid achievement in nonfiction . . . altogether a grand performance." 
—The Cleveland Plain Dealer