"I, Archimedes the mathematician, son of Phidias the astronomer, prostrate myself before the goddess of wisdom. May Athena restore our people to her favour and see us through the descending storm..."

So begins The Beast in the Labyrinth, a story of sly and pitiless ambition.

Hieron, the tyrant of Syracuse, is struggling to chart a course between the warring empires of Rome and Carthage. His only close confidante is his eccentric cousin, Archimedes. But Hieron is ninety years old, and his nobles are scheming in the shadows. The two old men turn to Dion, the kingdom's most brutal warrior.

Surrounded by smiling enemies, and menaced by the rival empires, Dion's mental stability comes under increasing pressure. Will he prove the kingdom's salvation or its destruction?