The Mask of Apollo

'Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present, or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning, sure-footed, challenging our values, piquing our curiosity, she leads us through an alien landscape that moves and delights us' Hilary MantelNikeratos is a celebrated tragic actor, a devotee of Plato, and a friend of Dion of Syracuse. Throughout all his travels, he always takes with him a mask of Apollo, a relic of the Greek theatre's golden age. At first it is his amulet, but the mask gradually becomes his conscience, and he refers to it in all his gravest decisions. His relationship with Dion and Plato gives Nikeratos rare proximity to the Greek political stage at a moment when ambitions are about to collide. In Syracuse, the young tyrant Dionysios the Younger rules, but Dion is determined to bring democracy and strength to the city. In an effort to curb Dionysios's excesses, Dion has Plato pose as a tutor-only to learn that the corrupt youth won't be so easily contained.