You know three things, Pacorus:
Your βarmyβ totals only one hundred men and one hundred women.
No help is coming.
The gods are unreliable allies.
Peace has been restored to the Parthian Empire.
The king of kings graces Dura with a visit, the son of Spartacus sits on Mediaβs throne, a great army has been assembled to deal with the eastern threat, and Rome is no longer an implacable enemy of Parthia.
Pacorus looks forward to enjoying a permanent cessation of hostilities. But the gods abhor peace and so to amuse themselves they lure the King and Queen of Dura to Media to face daunting odds against a mighty foe. Can Pacorus save the new King of Media, prevent Spartacus from unleashing death and destruction on Armenia, and preserve the peace between Parthia and Rome?
βThe Slave Kingβ is the tenth volume in the Parthian Chronicles and follows on from βAmazonβ. A map of the Parthian Empire in the 1st Century BC can be found on the maps page of my website: www.peterdarman.com.
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About the Author
I was raised in Grantham, Lincolnshire and attended the King's Grammar School after passing the Eleven Plus exam. In the latter I clearly remember writing an essay on Oliver Cromwell β my first piece of military writing. Then came a BA in history and international relations at Nottingham followed by a Master of Philosophy course at the University of York. The subject was the generalship and cavalry of Prince Rupert of the Rhine, my boyhood hero, during the English Civil War. The year I spent researching and writing at York, Oxford and at the British Library in London was a truly wonderful time. However, like all great times it eventually came to an end and I was forced to find employment. By this time I was living in London and started work at the London Borough of Haringey. It was hell, but it did allow me to finish my thesis. Then fate took a hand and I landed a job as a research officer with the Defence Intelligence Staff in Whitehall. Writing top-secret intelligence reports was highly exciting, until I realised that their security clearance was so high that only a handful of people were cleared to read them. In 1990, therefore, I decided to apply for a job in the publishing industry as an editor. I joined a small company in said position in the summer of that year and the rest, as they say, is history. I am the author of 40 books, including the best-selling Parthian Chronicles series.