ISBN: 9780330452793    Publisher: Pan Macmillan Year of publishing: 2009     Format:  Paperback No of Pages: 400        Language: English

The 4th century BC. A village in Syria. A woman, dressed in rags and covered in blisters and sores, is seen approaching on the road coming from the north. Suspicious of her, the villagers shout and throw rocks at her. She is struck and falls. She seems dead...Her story encompasses one of the great collective acts of heroism of the ancient world. She was the mistress of Xenophon, a general in the vast army of ten thousand Greek mercenaries from virtually every Greek city state that was employed by Cyrus the Younger, in his quest to seize the throne of Persia from his brother, Artaxerxes II. Manfredi, one of the world's experts, has created an rip-roaring adventure seen from the perspective of the women who accompanied the soldiers on their long journey. This is a new and intense account of the most celebrated march in man's history, by the acclaimed author of the "Alexander" trilogy.
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He was born in Piumazzo di Castelfranco Emilia, province of Modena and after getting a degree in Classical Arts at the University of Bologna, he immediately entered the world of Archaeology, achieving a specialisation in topography of the Ancient World at the Catholic University of Milan. At the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore itself, he taught from 1980 to 1986 to then move on to an academic career at the Universita of Venezia first (1987) and then at the Loyola University of Chicago, the Sorbonne University in Paris and the Bocconi University in Milan. However, due to his numerous commitments, both national and international, he can no longer lecture full time, but he holds a visiting professor role. Between the '70s and the '80s, he has undertaken the "Anabasi" expeditions for the reconstruction of the itenarary of the Ten Thousand's retreat. This expedition covered a total of 18,000 km and 2,000 photographs being taken. He undertook and led numerous other expeditions, such as: Lavinium, Forum Gallorum and Forte Urbano in Italy, Túcume (Peru), Har Karkom and others overseas.[1] He has also held a series of conferences and seminars at the University of Oxford, University of California, National University of Canberra, Universidad de Antiochia, Universidad de Bilbao, Universidad Internacional Menendez Pelayo in Tenerfide and many others. He has published many academic essays and articles and he has written several best-selling novels (amounting to a total of about 8 million copies sold worldwide). He also writes on many newspapers and magazines as a scientific journalist both in Italy (e.g., "Il Messaggero", "Panorama", "Archeo", "Focus") and in Spain (Spanish edition of "Focus" and "El Mundo").[1] His works have also been subject of awards, such as the "Man of the Year" in 1999 at the American Biographical Institute in North Carolina, "Corrado Alvaro Rhegium Julii" in 2003, "Hemingway" in 2004 and "Bancarella" in 2008. His The Last Legion novel has only been the basis for the movie, bearing the same title, released in 2007 and starring actors such as Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley and others, and his Alexander Trilogy has been bought by Universal Pictures for yet another cinematic rendition of the story of Alexander the Great.[1] He also written the screenplays for Marco d'Aviano and Gilgamesh and he has adapted Le Memorie di Adriano for cinema screening. Furthermore, he has hosted the television series Stargate - linea di confine for three seasons already on the Italian TV channel LA7 and he will also host Impero (Empire) on the very same channel.
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