Author’s Note

We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.

Ernest Hemingway, The Wild Years

When I was twelve years old I was flipping through our family’s Golden Encyclopedia when I found an entry for the Trojan War. Beneath it was a captivating illustration of two warriors doing battle with shield and spear. The caption read, “The heroes Achilles and Hector dueling before the walls of Troy.” Sadly, the accompanying article said nothing about the outcome of their fight. So I took that volume to school, showed the picture to our librarian and asked, “Who won?”

She took me to the 880 section of the library and pulled an old book down from the shelves. She handed me a copy of Homer’s The Iliad and as librarians must be trained to do, she said, “You’ll have to read the book to find out.” I did, and when the anger of Achilles slew the family man Hector, I cried. Never before had a book had such a profound effect on me. I daresay it changed my life. The Iliad led to The Odyssey, then Virgil’s Aeneid and eventually in college to Herodotus’ The History, which provides the framework for The Wandering King.

Euryanax pokes fun at Herodotus in the prologue, because of some of the gross inaccuracies in The History noted by modern historians. Still, without Herodotus, we wouldn’t know about the existence of Dorieus, Leonidas and Euryanax or the events in my story, so my debt to the ‘father of history’ is great. The majority of the names in the Character List are mentioned by Herodotus. The fictional characters on the list are Ariatozah, Battus, Zoe, Theokles, Achaemenes, Phile, Alaha, Mnason, Bagibania, Chafik, Clitius and Ithobaal. The rest are based on real people.

The idea for this story grew out of reading Herodotus and a book by the now deceased author Richard Powell, who wrote a wonderful novel about the Trojan War epic entitled, Whom the Gods Would Destroy. As a 17-year old it was my favorite book of all time and is still at the top of my list. If I manage to give a reader the experience Powell gave to me, I will have succeeded in my task. If the opening line of The Wandering King sounds familiar, it is my homage to Powell’s brilliant novel.

For the record, the word ‘Greek’ is never used in the story as it is the European word for the Hellenic people. Originally the name ‘Graeki’ was given by the ancient Italians to the first Hellene colonists in Italy as they came from a village called Graia. Afterwards the Italians called all Hellenes, Graeki or Greeks, which worked its way into Western tradition. While most of the world considers them Greeks, the people of Hellas to this day call themselves Hellenes. For purposes of the book, the characters consider themselves Dorians, Ionians, Achaeans, etc., as that is the way they thought of themselves. When I refer to them as a collective group, I use the word Hellene, as it is in keeping with their national identity.

As a lover of Hellenic history, my apologies for my own inaccuracies. Herodotus has given me a timeline to work with, while I’ve tried to fill in the details with my own fictional story. In this book I wanted to introduce the reader to ancient Spartan culture, describe Euryanax’s adventures in Libya (514 B.C. – 510 B.C.), Corinth and Delphi, (509 B.C.). In the second book in the series, Euryanax will describe his adventures in Italy and Sicily (508 B.C.) and take part in Athens’ democratic revolution (507 B.C.). The third book will take the reader through the Ionian Revolt (499 B.C. – 493 B.C.) and if interest in the series persists, the fourth book will cover the Persian Wars (490 B.C. – 479 B.C.).

Heartfelt thanks to those who encouraged me during my journey, particularly my beloved family, cousin Monsignor Richard LaVerghetta and friend Dr. James Morris. My philia for you knows no bounds.