Alexias, a young Athenian of good family, grows up just as the
Peloponnesian War is drawing to a close. The adult world he enters is
one in which the power and influence of his class have been undermined
by the forces of war, and more and more Alexias finds himself drawn to
the controversial teachings of Sokrates.
Among the great thinker's followers, Alexias meets Lysis, and the two
youths become inseparable, wrestling together in the palaestra,
journeying to the Olympic Games, and fighting in the wars against
Sparta. On the great historical canvas of famine, siege, and civil
conflict, their relationship captures vividly the intricacies of
classical Greek culture.