Valerio Massimo Manfredi is an archaeologist and scholar of the ancient Greek and Roman world. He is the author of numerous novels, which have won him literary awards and have sold twelve million copies. His Alexander trilogy has been translated into thirty-eight languages and published in sixty-two countries and the film rights have been acquired by Universal Pictures. His novel The Last Legion was made into a film starring Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley and directed by Doug Lefler.