MONTEREY, Calif., Aug. 29, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- With the success of the movie "300", a graphic film about the Spartan King Leonidas and the Battle of Thermopylae during the Persian wars, interest has now been focused on this dramatic historical period. Another notable character movie moguls might be interested to have his life story made into a movie is the Athenian general Themistokles, a remarkable person who took part in the great battles of Marathon and Salamis.
In The Man Who Saved Athens, Dr. Lyndall Landauer weaves a fictionalized account of the life of Themistokles, a scion of a family with an ancient --but fading -- name, his humble beginnings in the Athenian army, to his eventual ascension as general. Starting as a hoplite in the Battle of Marathon (now immortalized in the word marathon), he was already a general by the time the Battle of Thermopylae took place. With the Athenian army not being ready, the Spartans under King Leonidas came to protect all Greeks, but was wiped out to the last man by the Persians. Later, Themistokles would redeem Greek honor with his crucial role in defeating the Persians in the naval Battle of Salamis.
Full of drama, political intrigue, violent warfare, and tempestuous love affairs with several women, Themistokles' life is indeed the stuff stories are made of. But he was flesh and blood. Landauer's The Man Who Saved Athens breathes life in dramatic detail to this real historical figure -- so don't be surprise if the movie is coming soon.
About the Author
Lyndall Landauer is a historian, writer, wife and mother and college professor who has earned several degrees in History. She taught World and California History for years in California colleges. Her biography of an early Californian was published in 1985 and The Mountain Sea, a comprehensive history of the Lake Tahoe area in California in 1995. In collaboration with her husband, she wrote Pearl, A History of the U.S. Navy in Hawaii. Two novels have been published as well as numerous articles for newspapers, newsletters and encyclopedias. She lives in Lake Tahoe and Kauai, Hawaii with her husband, also a college professor and writer.
The Man Who Saved Athens* by Dr. Lyndall Landauer
Publication Date: June 10, 2002
Trade Paperback; $19.54; 317 pages; 978-1-4010-3585-3
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