424 BC: Artabas is half-Persian, half-Greek, an outsider who lives on his wits. He serves as a Spartan spy, in Corinth, a nest of corruption. Sparta and Corinth seem close to defeat after eight years of war. Athens is in the ascendant. A truce has been declared for the Olympian Games and Corinth is crowded with travellers.Artabas learns of a banquet arranged for important Athenians by powerful men in the city with links to Syracuse. Syracuse is the...