Mago Scrolls I, II, and III: An epic saga of the Punic Wars - Softcover

Hart, Mr. Morgan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0989747107 ISBN 13: 9780989747103

Publisher: MagoGuide, 2013

Synopsis

Set in the third century BC against the spectacular backdrop of the largest war in classical antiquity, the Mago Scrolls bring history to life with vivid accounts of deadly intrigue, battlefield slaughter, lusty debauchery, and extreme cuisine. The Mago Scrolls tell the story of a cook slave caught up in the death struggle between Rome and Carthage that modern historians call the Punic Wars. The offspring of a Greek philosopher and a Carthaginian pleasure slave, Mago spends his youth toiling in the kitchens of Hieron II, ruler of the Greek city-state of Syracuse. Handsome, pampered, and cocky, Mago has little interest in the momentous events surrounding the outbreak of the greatest conflict in the ancient world as he ascends to the position of archimageiros, the chef de cuisine for Hieron's glittering court, achieving fame as a culinary genius throughout Greek Sicily. Thanks to Hieron's benevolent monarchy, Syracuse has become the apotheosis of Hellenistic culture, a center for the arts, knowledge, and sybaritic excess of all kinds. Yet the king now finds himself in a no-win situation. Trapped between Syracuse's age-old enemy, the fundamentalist mercantile empire of Carthage in the south, and Rome, the emergent top predator in the north, the opulent city-state and Hieron's dynasty appear doomed. Unbeknownst to Mago, Hieron and his council of advisors have plans for the young chef that will change his life forever. Faced with overwhelming odds, Hieron wages an asymmetric struggle against both Rome and Carthage based on what modern political scientists call soft power. At the heart of this audacious strategy lies a network of slaves and philosophers that will be run by Mago and his father Philandros. Using this unique alliance of the socially powerless and the politically irrelevant, Hieron secures an alliance with Rome based on unprecedented leniency, thwarts Carthaginian attempts at revenge, and influences the course of history by manipulating both sides for over half a century. Mago soon finds himself at the epicenter of the Punic Wars. From the debauched revelry of a Greek symposium to vicious electioneering in the Roman forum and onto the pitching deck of a war galley during the greatest sea battle in history, Mago combines gastronomic expertise with the trade craft of a master spy to carry out Hieron's plans. Get all of the latest information about the Mago Scrolls from www.magoguide.com.

About this title

About the Author:

Morgan Hart grew up as a university brat moving from one ivory tower to the next as his father, a distinguished theologian, pursued the twin grails of untainted academe and native west-slope cutthroat trout. Two events during his time as a collegiate camp follower warped Morgan for the rest of his life. His father's sabbatical in Rome triggered an enduring addiction to food and antiquity, while the purchase of family property in Northwest Montana and the resultant indentured servitude thinly disguised as raising cattle made him a proto-convert to the knowledge-based economy. Morgan's interests in military and narrative history served him well during a three-decade career toiling for various appendages of the military industrial complex. Morgan began work on the Mago Scrolls the day he fired his last client, the United States Army. The scrolls combine Morgan's passion for food, wine, and antiquity with his not-too-unhealthy obsessions with gratuitous sex and violence.

About this edition

• Publisher: MagoGuide
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0989747107
• ISBN 13: 9780989747103
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 438
• Illustrator: Craig-Hart Ms. Patti