- The Arrows of Hercules
Infobox Book |
name = The Arrows of Hercules
title_orig =
translator =
image_caption = Dust-jacket illustration for "The Arrows of Hercules"
author =L. Sprague deCamp
illustrator =
cover_artist = Charles McCurry
country =United States
language = English
series =
genre =Historical novel
publisher = Doubleday
release_date =1965
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = 297 pp
isbn = NA
preceded_by =
followed_by ="The Arrows of Hercules" is an
historical novel byL. Sprague de Camp , first published in hardback by Doubleday in1965 and in paperback byCurtis Books in1970 . It is the fourth of his historical novels in order of writing, and second chronologically, set in the time of Dionysios I of Syracuse at the end of the fifth and beginning of the fourth centuries BC.The protagonist is the engineer Zopyros of Tarentum, a follower of the Pythagorean philosophical school. Having invented an improved type of
catapult , he is drafted into Syracuse's war effort againstCarthage by the tyrant Dionysios, creator of the first military ordinance department known to history. The historical Battle ofMotya of 399 BC is a major event in the novel. Also portrayed is the incident upon which the legend of the Sword of Damocles is supposedly based.References
*cite book | last=Laughlin | first=Charlotte | coauthors=Daniel J. H. Levack | title=De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography | location=San Francisco | publisher=Underwood/Miller | pages=27 | date=1983
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