An action-packed tale of betrayal and revenge set amid the war between Alexander the Great's generals and climaxing in the most spectacular battle of the ancient world. Satyrus and Melitta, twin heirs to a rich kingdom on the Black Sea, become desperate fugitives when their mother, the Scythian warrior-princess Srayanka, is cut down in a savage act of betrayal. Accompanied by their tutor, the Spartan Philokles, they must make a perilous journey west, pursued by ruthless assassins, to find sanctuary with the army of their father's closest friend, Diodorus. But Diodorus is caught up in the tangled web of alliances, betrayals and intrigue that followed Alexander the Great's death, as his generals fought over the huge empire he had created - and soon the twins will have their first taste of real battle as two Macedonian warlords clash. In this violent and unstable world, they must choose sides carefully, as Antigonus One-Eye, and his brilliant son Demetrius, prepare to take on the might of Ptolemy's Egypt, and the forces gather for the biggest and most spectacular battle the world had ever seen - Gaza.

Satyrus and Melitta, twin heirs to a rich kingdom on the Black Sea, become desperate figitives when their mother, the Scythian warrior-princess Srayanka, is cut town in a savage act of betrayal.

'The Alexander Trilogy contains some of Renault's finest writing. Lyrical, wise, compelling: the novels are a wonderful imaginative feat' SARAH WATERS In the final novel of her stunning trilogy, Mary Renault vividly imagines the life of Alexander the Great, the charismatic leader whose drive and ambition created a legend. Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three, leaving behind an empire that stretched from Greece and Egypt to India. After Alexander's death in 323 B.C. his only direct heirs were two unborn sons and a simpleton half-brother. Every long-simmering faction exploded into the vacuum of power. Wives, distant relatives and generals all vied for the loyalty of the increasingly undisciplined Macedonian army. Most failed and were killed in the attempt. For no one possessed the leadership to keep the great empire from crumbling. But Alexander's legend endured to spread into worlds he had seen only in dreams. 'Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present, or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning, sure-footed, challenging our values, piquing our curiosity, she leads us through an alien landscape that moves and delights us' - HILARY MANTEL 'The Alexander Trilogy stands as one of the most important works of fiction in the 20th century . . . it represents the pinnacle of [Renault's] career . . . Renault's skill is in immersing us in their world, drawing us into its strangeness, its violence and beauty. It's a literary conjuring trick like all historical fiction - it can only ever be an approximation of the truth. But in Renault's hands, the trick is so convincing and passionately conjured' Antonia Senior, The Times

Ruler. Puppet Master. Killer. Glory. Death. Well-born Athenian cavalry officer, Kineas, fought shoulder to shoulder with Alexander in his epic battles against the Persian hordes. But on his return from the east to his native city, he finds not glory but shame - and exile. With nothing to his name but his military skills, Kineas agrees to lead a band of veterans to the city of Olbia, where the Tyrant is offering good money to train the city's elite cavalry. But soon Kineas and his men find they have stumbled into a deadly maze of intrigue and conspiracy as the Tyrant plots to use them as pawns in the increasingly complex power games between his own citizens, and the dread military might of Macedon. Caught between his duty to the Tyrant, his loyalty to his men and a forbidden love affair with a charismatic Scythian noblewoman, Kineas must call on all his Athenian guile, his flair on the battlefield, and even - he is convinced - the intervention of the gods, to survive.

This novel in the scintillating Tyrant series brings the epic siege of Rhodes in 306 BC to spectacular life. The death of Alexander the Great was the signal to begin the greatest war in human history - a war that swept like a firestorm from one end of the known world to the other, as his former generals fought like jackals to make his vast empire their own. By 305 BC, the most powerful players in this deadly game faced each other across the Mediterranean: Ptolemy, the master of Egypt, and Antigonus One-Eye, master of Asia. And between them, the island of Rhodes, a strategic fortress city that neither could afford to cede to the enemy. But trapped in the city was one man with the courage and determination to save it from destruction. A man who, surrounded by his closest friends and the woman he loved, simply could not afford to fail. A man called Satyrus.

In a world at war, a brother and sister seek revenge...Another drama-drenched story in a truly epic historical series. They were born in the middle of a battle, into a world at war. And from their first moments of life, twins Satyrus and Melitta were fighting for survival. Their father, a Greek mercenary, was cut down not long after they had taken their first breath; their Scythian mother was cruelly murdered when they were still children. But Satyrus and Melitta are children no more. They have learned how to fight, how to love, how to plot and how to kill. Now it is time to leave their adopted home, the city of Alexandria, and the protection of Alexander the Great's former general, Ptolemy - and seek revenge. Now it is time to go to war...

Satyrus and Melitta, twin heirs to a rich kingdom on the Black Sea, become desperate fugitives when their mother, the Scythian warrior-princess Srayanka, is cut down in a savage act of betrayal. Accompanied by their tutor, the Spartan Philokles, they must make a perilous journey west, pursued by ruthless assassins, to find sanctuary with the army of their father's closest friend, Diodorus. But Diodorus is caught up in the tangled web of alliances, betrayals and intrigue that followed Alexander the Great's death, as his generals fought over the huge empire he had created - and soon the twins will have their first taste of real battle as two Macedonian warlords clash. In this violent and unstable world, they must choose sides carefully, as Antigonus One-Eye, and his brilliant son Demetrius, prepare to take on the might of Ptolemy's Egypt, and the forces gather for the biggest and most spectacular battle the world had ever seen - Gaza.