The life of Themistocles, the man behind the rise of the Athenian Empire In the summer of 490 B.C., the young Athenian democracy faces its greatest challenge. Darius, king of the vast Persian Empire, has launched a campaign to conquer Greece and destroy Athens. At that crucial moment a man will emerge. A genius. A visionary. Themistocles. He is the driving force of this novel, written with historic rigor and the vibrant rhythm of epic. Throughout this saga, from the Athenians' suicide charge at Marathon and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to the sacrifice of Leonidas and his 300 in Thermopylae, all the threads of the plot lead to Themistocles' master move: Salamis, the greatest naval battle of the ancient world, the fight that decided the fate of western civilization. Bestselling author Javier Negrete recreates this landmark moment and shows the ancient Greeks at their finest hour. From a cast of unforgetable characters, one woman stands out: Artemisia, warrior queen of Halicarnassus, Greek by birth but an ally of the Persians. Artemisia's heart will become an unexpected battlefield between power and love...