An epic story of passion, courage and adventure in ancient Sparta, by the author of the Alexander trilogy.

A Spartan family are torn apart by a brutal law that forces them to abandon their youngest son - born lame - to the elements. But young Kleidemos is spared a lonely death by a shepherd, who raises him among the Helot peasants. Renamed Talos, the child becomes a man, and witnesses the cruel oppression of the Helots by the Spartan society he was born in to. Meanwhile, Brithos - Talos's brother by birth - is trained as a warrior and joins the ranks of the legendary 300, bound for Thermopylae. In a world dominated by the ferocious, relentless conflict between the Persian Empire and the city-states of Greece, the brothers live out their separate fates. But when the savagery of war reunites them, Talos and Brithos will find their loyalties tested as never before. As each brother reshapes his destiny, one will have the chance to lead his people to triumph.

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.