Un ordine antichissimo quello dei Cavalieri di Malta, un pugno di uomini che seppe tener testa a situazioni quasi impossibili, affrontando pericoli mortali senza vacillare, nel pieno rispetto dell'impegno assunto: quello di scudo e di spada della civiltą occidentale, un principio alla cui fedeltą non vennero mai meno. Completa il volume un estratto inedito dal Diario del cavaliere Girolamo di Colloredo che fa luce sullo svolgersi del lavoro di pattuglia delle galere dei Cavalieri in un Mediterraneo sempre pił dominato dai musulmani e dai corsari barbareschi.

This is the history of one of the great battles of the world, written by a private soldier who was an eye-witness. The siege of Malta was a crucial moment in the long struggle between Islam and Christendom for domination of the Mediterranean, fought out by unequal forces on the small island which commands the sea-routes at the centre of that sea. The Knights of St John were a survival from the medieval world, the largest of the surviving crusading orders, and they had been driven out of their base on Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean after a great onslaught by the Turks in 1522. Now, forty-three years later, the Turkish ruler, Suleyman the Magnificent, who had been the victor at Rhodes, was determined to finish them off. He sent out a huge armada, carrying the pick of his army, under two commanders. Against this powerful force, the Knights could only raise a handful of men and mercenaries, and had to depend on the fortifications they had raised in the thirty-five years since they first came to Malta, which bore no comparison to the massive walls and ditches on Rhodes. Francisco Balbi di Correggio was a humble soldier of fortune who enlisted under the charismatic command of the Grand Master of the Order, Jean de la Valette. The extraordinary drama that unfolded after the first appearance of the Turkish fleet in the summer of 1565 is told in his own words, giving equal credit to the courage and leadership of the Knights and the grim determination of the ordinary people of Malta.

The three-day battle for the pass at the 'Hot Gates' of Thermopylae was a critical contest in the Persian king Xerxes's massive invasion of Greece. The bloody stand made there by Leonidas and his small Spartan army in 480 B.C. has since become the very emblem of patriotism, courage, and sacrifice.
The ambitions of Xerxes were vast. Having amassed the largest force of men and ships ever assembled, he set out to conquer Greece, at the same time sending an army of Carthaginians to overrun Sicily. The two forces planned to open the gates to the wealth of the western Mediterranean.
Ernle Bradford's narrative spans the entire era of the invasion, from the building of an incredible wooden bridge across the Hellespont to the final crushing defeat of the Persian rear guard at the battle of Plataea. There, as before, the Spartans were the decisive force. It was at Thermopylae, however, that the fate of Xerxes's forces was determined by a small band of Spartans. In Thermopylae, Ernle Bradford brings to life the personalities and battles of this epic period with unmatched skill and verve.

A comprehensive survey of one of the most fanatical religious wars in world history, the Crusades.

Ernle Bradford traccia un profilo inedito della celebre regina d'Egitto. Scompare la figura di una Cleopatra seduttrice e traditrice ed emerge l'immagine di una sovrana dotata di fine intelligenza politica e di grande coraggio. Notevole rilievo č dato alla figura di Antonio che elegge Alessandria a sua sede e di lą lancia la sfida a Ottaviano. La sconfitta di Antonio e Cleopatra non fu dunque la fine romantica di due amanti sfortunati, ma un momento nodale nella storia del Mediterraneo.