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This book is substantially a historical novel which refers to deeds and facts of a remote past in the land of the Messapians. The historic period in which the whole plot is developed is the V century B.C. The sack of Carbina, the foundation of the Messapic League, the great defeat of the Tarantins by the Japigian-Messapians are the facts that occupy the first half of the century; in the second half, instead, several up an downs occur and all they also took to bitter consequences for the Messapia's destiny. In the end, a very renown character who was several times cited by the sources of that epoch dominates the scenes: king Arthas, a new guiding light for a long period of the history of the Messapians. In the sphere of this historic reality, which is enough complex and widely diversified, fits the historical novel by Fernando Sammarco. This narration refers to the English literary tradition and is imbued with real events and deliberately and wittily invented deeds, as almost he wants to redefine a piece of history that has not been wholly investigated. A novel that the author, when he was going to write it, certainly ignored how much it would then be topical nowadays, considering in particular the events that today we are unfortunately compelled to face. After the witty introductory dissertation made by Prof. Cesare Marangio ( who teaches Roman Epigraphs at the University of Lecce ) and after the author's relative preamble, followed by opportune topographic notes and by a short profile of the characters to whom the narration is referred, this literary work presents fourteen chapters which convey us by suggestive descriptions and the fascinating developing of the events to a heroic epoch of the Messapic civilization.
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