Artemisium . . .

Its name is all but lost, now, dwarfed by the juggernaut of glory that is Thermopylae—that narrow pass in northern Greece where King Leonidas and his three hundred Spartans faced the invading hordes of Persia. The Spartans and their allies fought the Persians to a stand-still; in the end, they gave their lives so that other Greeks might know the true meaning of courage. Their sacrifice has gone down as the greatest stand in the annals of military history. And yet, the defenders of Thermopylae, for all their unparalleled heroism, could not have survived an hour—much less three days—had the sons of Athens and her allies not held the Persian fleet at bay in the straits forty miles to the east . . .

In SERPENT OF HELLAS, historical author Scott Oden explores the Battle of Artemisium through the eyes of Nikomachos son of Agamedes, a young kinsman of Themistokles’. He is witness to both the savage sea-borne fighting and the no less brutal political machinations of the Greek commanders: the Spartan Eurybiades, who shares nothing of the valor displayed by the defenders of Thermopylae; Adeimantus of Corinth, who would sell his city as a pander sells flesh . . . to the highest bidder, and the most cunning politician of them all, Themistokles himself, whose arsenal includes bluff, bribery, and outright intimidation. Still, Nikomachos doesn't quail. Young and full of rage, he has come to Artemisium to dine at the table of Vengeance, to settle the score for the deaths of his father and brother ten years earlier, on the plain of Marathon.