Cineas of Athens is a well-educated, hero-worshipping young man. He lives in a world where Alexander the Great's surviving generals battle for kingdoms of their own within Alexander's conquests. Cineas leaves his stodgy family behind and joins the mercenary army of glamorous Demetrius the Besieger at his fortress of Acrocorinth. "e;Three months later,"e; Cineas recalls, "e;I was in Asia...."e;Following the armies there, he fights as a pikeman at the enormous Battle of Ipsus. From there Cineas travels through Syria to Egypt, where he beds a royal princess and joins up with the exiled King Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus is the monarch of the petty kingdom of Epirus on the Adriatic Sea. Pyrrhus aspires to rule the world, too. But, for a generation, it is Cineas who does his best to make that happen. Through battles and intrigues, cavalry charges, assassinations and liaisons, peaceful philosophy and murderous combat across the Ancient World, Cineas follows Pyrrhus' cause loyally. In the end, King Pyrrhus is overwhelmed in defeat. It is left to his last friend Cineas to conduct his funeral rites. Cineas has now, he says, "e;been everywhere and done everything-except talk over our conquests with the King of the World. But then,"e; he concludes, "e;I was always the talker, and Pyrrhus might not really have had that much to say after all
