A richly illustrated volume presenting the biographies of twenty-four eminent statesmen of Hellas, Thrace and Macedonia, whose rule extended from the time of the famous Trojan War in the 13th century BC to the Roman conquest of the Balkans in 106 AD. Heirs to the rich political and cultural tradition of the East, the rulers of the ancient European South-East became the founders of states that have survived through the centuries to the present time. Ambitious politicians, talented commanders, leaders with dramatic personal destinies, they exemplified their epoch but also transcended it to become emblematic figures in the development of the Western civilisation.