Taking Control

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Sample

Julian is on a class trip to a museum when he meets Mr. Callisthenes, a strange figure who offers to take Julian to the past to teach him about Alexander the Great, a legendary hero who is nothing more than a name to most modern children. Julian, bored with history as dusty artifacts locked in display cases, agrees, and so begins a series of adventures during which Julian travels back in time to find himself present for each of the significant events in Alexander’s life—not just as a witness but as an active participant.

On his first trip, Julian witnesses the now-famous scene of young Alexander gentling the great horse Bucephalus. During his next trip, Julian is present as Alexander’s father, King Philip, is assassinated and Alexander becomes ruler. Later Julian goes with Alexander to Troy to honor Achilles and make his claim as Achilles’s successor. Julian is at the Battle of Issus when Alexander defeats Darius, King of the Persians, and begins to subdue the Persian Empire. He watches the taking of Tyre and the slaughter of the townspeople.

He sees Alexander going to consult the Oracle of Ammon in Siwa, and he and his sister Melanie are in attendance when Darius is killed, when Alexander decides to return to Macedonia, and finally when the great leader dies. Each visit to the ancient world provides Julian with a more complete understanding of the brilliant, ambitious, complex man who was Alexander the Great.