14 h 3 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 14 h 3 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What holds a divided people together when a vast army and fleet threaten everything they know?
In A Victor of Salamis, William Stearns Davis brings the Persian Wars close through a young Greek whose private hopes collide with public danger. King Xerxes advances against a scatter of proud, independent cities. Each has its own laws, gods and army. Standing together means overcoming rivalries that run deep.
The young hero moves from ordinary city life toward camps, councils and ships, where loyalty becomes harder to judge. Themistocles urges Athens to trust its fleet and works to unite the Greeks at sea. Leonidas leads a small force at a narrow pass. Against Persia’s strength, fear and pride threaten the unity Greece needs.
What you’ll discover
- A life caught in war Follow a young Greek as a vast conflict tests his private loyalties and hopes.
- Cities with clashing loyalties Enter a Greece where fierce independence makes common purpose both urgent and difficult.
- Themistocles and the fleet Meet the restless Athenian statesman who sees his city’s future in its ships.
- Honour under pressure Explore the pull of glory and the wish to stand firm when others yield.
- History with human stakes Experience real wars and leaders through a story shaped by loyalty, doubt and betrayal.
Who will love it
Readers who love ancient Greece, historical adventure and stories of loyalty put to the test will find a home here. It suits anyone who enjoys vivid battle scenes and clever statesmen.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Glaucon wins the pentathlon at the Isthmus
- Democrates sells himself to a Persian stranger
- Themistocles turns a dark oracle into a plan
- A forged letter destroys Glaucon in one evening
- Shipwreck throws Glaucon into the arms of Persia
- Glaucon stands before Xerxes and then before Leonidas
- Glaucon helps Themistocles force the battle at Salamis
- Friendship, fortune and betrayal drive the story
- Free citizens stand against a king who is called a god
- The storyteller draws Greece with songs, omens and landscape
Who’s who
- GlauconAn Athenian champion, trusting and beautiful, who loses his name and his home and must prove his loyalty to Greece.
- HermioneGlaucon's wife, daughter of Hermippus of Eleusis, who refuses to believe him guilty and helps him escape.
- DemocratesAn eloquent Athenian orator and Glaucon's closest friend, burdened by debt and desire, who is drawn into Persian schemes.
- ThemistoclesThe shrewd Athenian statesman and admiral who wants to build a fleet and make the Greeks fight at Salamis.
- MardoniusA Persian prince, brother-in-law of Xerxes, who plans the conquest of Hellas and owes Glaucon his life.
- LyconA scarred Spartan giant and rival, who plots with the Persians and wants a throne in Lacedaemon.
- RoxanaMardonius's half-sister, a dark and graceful Persian princess who tries to draw Glaucon into her world.
- PhormioAn Athenian fishmonger with a sharp tongue and a shrewish wife, who gives shelter to the fugitive.
Formats and delivery
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- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
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- Hardcover
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Un vainqueur de Salamine
by William Stearns Davis · 1907
A beloved champion is branded a traitor and vanishes at sea, then returns to fight at Salamis.
Medium level10–20 hours to readfrançais
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In short
What would you do if you were the most admired man in Greece, and then in a single evening every friend believed you a traitor? That is the fate of Glaucon of Athens in A Victor of Salamis, a historical novel by William Stearns Davis.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Glaucon wins the pentathlon at the Isthmus
The book opens at the Isthmian Games near Corinth, where a crier takes bets on the pentathlon. All Greece talks about Glaucon, son of Conon, called the most beautiful man in Hellas. His father cut him off for marrying Hermione, and will forgive him only if he wins the parsley crown.
Glaucon proves his nature in a street brawl. A Spartan mob seizes a foreign boy as a thief and a spy. Glaucon throws the ringleader down and faces six Laconians with a smile, until Themistocles and King Leonidas stop the riot.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 9 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1907
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 9 h 5 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Davis, William Stearns. A Victor of Salamis. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-victor-of-salamis.
Davis, W. S. (2026). A victor of Salamis. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-victor-of-salamis (Original work published 1907)
Davis, William Stearns. A Victor of Salamis. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-victor-of-salamis.
@book{davis2026victor,
author = {Davis, William Stearns},
title = {A Victor of Salamis},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-victor-of-salamis},
note = {First published 1907}
}
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What is A Victor of Salamis about?
It follows Glaucon, an Athenian athlete who is falsely branded a traitor, flees to the Persian court, and then returns to help Themistocles and the Greeks in the great battles against Xerxes, including Thermopylae and Salamis.
Is A Victor of Salamis a true story?
It is historical fiction. The Persian invasion, Themistocles, Leonidas, Mardonius and the battles are real, while Glaucon, Hermione and Democrates are invented characters whom the author places inside real events.
Who is Democrates in the book?
Democrates is a gifted Athenian orator and Glaucon's best friend, a rising leader beside Themistocles. Debt, ambition and desire for Hermione make him a central figure in the plot against Glaucon.
The author
William Stearns Davis
1877–1930 · American historian and novelist
American writer and historian.
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