the reported facts and interpretations of our understanding of history as reported by the winners of its battles. The story features a rather amusingly sarcastic treatment of the pretensions to glory of Classical Golden Age of Athens. In the parts of the book that comment on history, Vidal makes obvious use of the Histories of Herodotus. As noted in Vidal's own introduction, it can be considered a "crash course" in comparative religion, as during the story, the hero sits down with each of the religious/philosophical figures (apart from Socrates) and discusses their views. Reception Stan Persky, writing for Salon, referred to the book as a "very under-rated tale". References 1981 American novels English-language books American historical novels Novels by Gore Vidal Novels set in ancient Persia Novels set in ancient Greece Random House books Cultural depictions of Zoroaster Cultural depictions of Socrates Cultural depictions of Xerxes I Cultural depictions of Darius the Great Cultural depictions of Confucius Cultural depictions of Laozi Cultural depictions of Gautama Buddha