Books by Valerio Massimo Manfredi

Il mondo è in continua evoluzione. Insieme a esso cambiano le nazioni, i popoli, e gli animi. Si può ancora parlare di Spirito di una nazione senza cadere in beceri anacronismi? Valerio Massimo Manfredi, questa volta in veste di osservatore contemporaneo, dice la sua su quel che vuol dire essere italiani. Illustrerà la simbiosi con il territorio, la storia millenaria, i pregi e i difetti delle genti che hanno abitato queste terre. Parlerà di bellezze mozzafiato, di paure invisibili, di nuovi orizzonti da accogliere e su cui aprirsi — cosa ha significato la storia, e soprattutto, cosa bisogna aspettarsi dal futuro? Cosa fare per evitare di perdere la rotta?©2022 Società Editrice Milanese (P)2022 Saga EgmontValerio Massimo Manfredi è un archeologo specialista in Topografia Antica. Ha insegnato in prestigiosi atenei e condotto scavi e spedizioni in Italia e all’estero. Come autore di narrativa ha avuto un grande successo internazionale, vendendo oltre dodici milioni di copie.

The extraordinary story of a legendary hero continues . . .After ten years of uninterrupted war, blood and agony, the Trojans have finally been defeated. Odysseus and his men begin the epic journey of returning to Ithaca. Along the way, terrifying enemies await them: the cyclops Polyphemus, the lotus eaters who feast on narcotic flowers that give only oblivion, the sorceress who turns men into swine, and the deadly, enthralling sirens. Odysseus is determined to make his way home to Ithaca, where his beloved family have awaited him for many long years. But his journey will present him with new, terrible perils - ones that he could not have dreamed of even in his wildest nightmares. In Odysseus: The Return, the second in his Odysseus epic, Valerio Massimo Manfredi gives a new voice to one of the most adventurous and fascinating heroes of all time.

Alexander: Child of a Dream is Valerio Massimo Manfredi's magnificent story of one of history's greatest characters and his quest to conquer the civilized world.Who could have been born to conquer the world other than a god?Mesmeric beauty, consuming desires, an insatiable hunger. Then premature death. This is the story of a boy, born to a great king - Philip of Macedon - and his sensuous queen, Olympias. It tells of the stern discipline of Philip and the wild passions of Olympias, and how, together, they formed Alexander, a young man of immense, unfathomable potential, capable of subjugating the known world to his power, and thought of by his contemporaries as a god.Alexander's swift ascent to manhood, as a protege of Aristotle and close friend of Ptolemy and Hephiaeston, and the start of his great adventure to conquer the civilized world is recounted in this awe-inspiring novel.This is a wonderful evocation of the far-off and fascinating civilization of ancient Greece, revealed in vibrant tones and scholarly detail.

Valerio Massimo Manfredi's Pharaoh is a thrilling archaeological mystery.Jerusalem, 586 BC. The kingdom of Judah is on the verge of annihilation by the Babylonians. In the chaos, the prophet Jeremiah saves the sacred Ark of the Covenant and hides it in a cave. He returns terrified, having made a discovery that appears to have sent him mad.The Middle East, early in the second millennium. Professor William Blake, renowned Egyptologist, has a surprising visit from representatives of an American mining corporation. They have discovered a strange Egyptian tomb, which risks exploding the powder keg of Middle Eastern geopolitics.Blake finds himself facing the most mysterious case of his life. The tomb of the Pharaoh lies in the middle of the desert, miles from the Nile and the Valley of the Kings. As he starts to unravel the Pharaoh's story, a disturbing theory forms in Blake's mind as to the identity of this mysterious ruler - a theory that could destroy the balance of the modern world.

Anatolia, AD 260. The Roman outpost of Edessa is on its last legs after the Persian siege, and Roman Emperor Publius Licinius Valerianus agrees to meet his adversary to negotiate peace. But the meeting is a trap and the Emperor ends up in enemy hands, along with the commander of his personal guard, Marcus Metellus Aquila, and ten of his most valiant and trusted men. Their destiny is sealed: they will rot away in a mine, forced into slavery. But Metellus - legate of the Second Augusta Legion, hero of the empire - and his men break free and find shelter at an oasis, where they meet a mysterious, exiled prince. The Romans become the prince's private militia, agreeing to safeguard the prince's journey back to his homeland, Sera Maior, the mythical Kingdom of Silk - China. And so they begin an extraordinary and epic journey through the forests of India, the Himalayan mountains, the deserts of central Asia, all the way to the heart of China - as the very survival of the world's greatest two empires is at stake.

Valerio Massimo Manfredi's The Oracle is a modern thriller inspired by an ancient prophecy.1973. Professor Periklis Harvatis, working alone and late into the night on an important archaeological dig, unearths a magnificent golden vase upon which the enigmatic images of a long-lost second Odyssey are engraved, showing the mystery of Ulysses' final voyage. But in the very same chamber, the Professor sees something so frightening that less than seven hours later he dies . . . but not before he has ensured the safety of the vase. Ten years later, a series of gruesome deaths connected to the rape and murder during the student protests in Athens of a Greek woman, on the same night as Professor Harvatis's discovery, is perplexing the authorities. Each atrocity is accompanied by a dire quotation from the ancient sources, exposing an ingeniously cruel mind.Who is behind these murders? How are these two events connected? And what is the significance of the age-old prophecy of the Odyssey?

Valerio Massimo Manfredi's The Tower is a modern thriller solving an ancient mystery. AD 70. A ferocious, mysterious force hidden in a solitary tower annihilated a squad of Roman soldiers advancing through the Sahara desert. There was a single survivor: the Etruscan diviner Avile Vipinas, who later described the horror of the creature in the tower and suggested how it could be destroyed.Nearly 2,000 years later, to find the tower and solve its unutterable mystery, three men venture into the heart of the Sahara: an archaeologist following the traces of his father, a colonel from the Foreign Legion thirsting for revenge, and a priest who puts his faith to the ultimate test. Just what is the dark being that slumbers in the tower?

Valerio Massimo Manfredi's The Last Legion opens on the day that the Western Roman Empire collapses finally in 470AD, as the Last Emperor of Rome is encamped and protected by the Nova Invicta Legion. All is lost in the space of a few minutes as a horde of Barbarians sweep through the camp in the fog, kill the Imperial family and take the young Emperor captive. The Roman Empire is in ruins . . . But all is not lost. From the dust of battlefields emerges a small team of invincible warriors - The Last Legion. Their task is to rescue the Emperor and his enigmatic tutor and to try and resurrect the glory of Rome. All their strength of character and bravery come into play as they guide the last Caesar in a dramatic journey of escape through a devastated Italy and Northern Europe to their ultimate destinies in the land of the Britons . . . and the beginning of a new legend.Filled with myth, legend and gladiators, The Last Legion was made into a film starring Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley and directed by Doug Lefler.

Herodotus tells us that not all of the three hundred Spartan warriors died at the hands of Xerxes, King of the Persians, in the battle of the Thermopylae: two were saved bringing a life-saving message back to the city . . .Valerio Massimo Manfredi's Spartan is the saga of a Spartan family, torn apart by a cruel law that forces them to abandon one of their two sons - born lame - to the elements. The elder son, Brithos, is raised in the caste of the warriors, while the other, Talos, is spared a cruel death and is raised by a Helot shepherd, among the peasants. They live out their story in a world dominated by the clash between the Persian empire and the city-states of Greece - a ferocious, relentless conflict - until the voice of their blood and of human solidarity unites them in a thrilling, singular enterprise.

In Valerio Massimo Manfredi's The Ends of the Earth Alexander's epic quest continues through the heart of Asia and on towards the mystery of India. The Macedonian Army march in search of limitless glory, crushing resistance at every turn. The beauty of Babylon is ravaged, the Palace of Persepolis burnt to ashes. An empire is destroyed and a new and bloody era begins. But there are other things on the great conqueror's mind. An ambitious project to unite the peoples of the empire in one homeland begins to obsess him, until the curious beauty of Queen Roxanna gives Alexander the strength to fulfil his destiny . . . A truly compelling and romantic book and a breathtaking conclusion to the bestselling Alexander trilogy.

The second volume in Valerio Manfredi's huge, bestselling series of thrilling historical adventure in the ancient world

March, 44 BC. Rome, in all her glory, has expanded her territories beyond the wildest dreams of her citizens, led by Caius Julius Caesar - Pontifex Maximus, dictator perpetuo, invincible military leader and only fifty-six years old. He is a man in command of his destiny, who wields enormous power throughout the vast empire. However his god-given mission - to end the blood-splattered fratricidal wars, reconcile implacably hostile factions and preserve Roman civilization and world order - is teetering dangerously close to collapse . . . His power is draining away. None of his supporters can stop the inexorably evolving plot against him and prophecy will explode into truth on the Ides of March and the world will change forever.Valerio Massimo Manfredi's The Ides of March is a political thriller laced through with all the intrigue and action surrounding one of the most crucial turning points in the history of western civilization.

Valerio Massimo Manfredi's Tyrant starts in 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.

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.In The Lost Army Valerio Massimo Manfredi, one of the world's historical experts, has created a rip-roaring adventure seen from the perspective of the women who accompanied the soldiers on their long journey. An intense account of the most celebrated march in man's history, by the acclaimed author of the Alexander trilogy.