Sparta at the start of the fifth century BC is in crisis.
This second book focuses on his years as an ordinary citizen, and the third will describe his reign and death..
The first book, A Boy of the Agoge , described Leonidas\'s childhood in Sparta\'s infamous public school.
This is the second book in a trilogy of biographical novels about Leonidas and Gorgo.
This is the story of both Leonidas and Gorgo in the years before Leonidas becomes king of Sparta and before the first Persian invasion of Greece sets Leonidas on the road to Thermopylae.
Not particularly pretty, she is, nevertheless, precocious and courageous -- qualities that get her into trouble more than once.
Meanwhile, his niece Gorgo is growing up.
He needs to find reliable tenants to restore his ruined estate, and, most important, to find the right woman to be his bride.
At twenty-one, Leonidas is just an ordinary ranker in the Spartan army, less interested in high politics than putting his private life in order.
He has no reason to expect that this revolt will shape his destiny.
King Cleomenes\' youngest half-brother Leonidas has only just attained citizenship.
Exploiting this internal conflict, Corinth launches a challenge to Spartan control of the Peloponnesian League, while across the Aegean Sea, the Greek cities of Ionia are in rebellion against Persia -- and pleading for Spartan aid.
His co-monarch, King Demaratus, opposes Cleomenes\' ambitions, and soon the kings are at each other\'s throats.
The Argives are attacking Sparta\'s vulnerable island of Kythera, but King Cleomenes is more interested in meddling in Athenian affairs.
Sparta at the start of the fifth century BC is in crisis
