The Last of the Wine

Alexias, a young Athenian of good family, reaches manhood during the last phases of the Peloponnesian War, a time not unlike our own, when people bora to a heritage of security and power f elt the structure of their lives being undermined by forces that they but dimly understood. He meets Lysis, another youth who has come under the influence of Socrates, and their relationship develops against a background of expeditions, athletic games, famine, siege and civil war. “Not sińce Robert Graves’ I, CLAUDIUS has there been such an exciting, living image of the ancient world on this grand scalę. It is a glowing work of art.” —The New York Times Book Review