Full Title

The Ambassadors: From Ancient Greece to Renaissance Europe, the Men Who Introduced the World to Itself

Description

We think of ambassadors as simply diplomats-but once they were adventurers who dared an uncertain fate in unknown lands, bringing gifts of greyhounds and elephants to powerful and unpredictable leaders. In vivid detail, The Ambassadors traces the remarkable journeys of these emissaries, taking us from the linguistically challenged Greek Megasthenes to the first Japanese embassies to China and Korea; from Mohammed's ambassadors to Egypt to the envoys of Byzantium, who had the unenviable task of convincing Attila the Hun to stop attacking them. We also witness the dialogue between Europe and Moorish Spain, and meet the ill-fated envoys sent in search of the mythical king Prester John.

Authors

Jonathan Wright received his doctorate in history from Oxford University. He was a Thouron Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and a fellow of the Institute for European History in Mainz, Germany. His first book, God's Soldiers, is a history of the Jesuits. He lives in Hartlepool, England.