The decision to write this book has its origin in a recent law in France, where I live, allowing gay marriage. Legally, I was suddenly worth any other guy in this wonderful land. I came down to earth pretty fast, though, due to the riots the law occasioned in Paris. There were also the rednecks on the quay where I have my boat (and where I'm writing this) who thought they and their sons were in dire danger the moment I ceased concealing my sexual orientation. I've never cared anything at all for American Marvel-Comics style superheroes for the simple reason that the world has been chockfull of real live heroes since recorded history. The Battles of Thermopylae and Marathon (all the heroes of which, as we'll soon see, preferred man-to-man/boy friendships), the exploits of Richard Coeur de Lion and Alexander the Great (both wonderfully valiant men who chanced to prefer men too), as well as innumerable other men of courage, daring and genius-are all infinitely more stirring than invented dudes who wear idiotic costumes and dodge bullets than never ever attain them. Of course, men don't have to be gay to be genial. Nothing stirs me more than the music of Mahler and guys who BASE jump off cliffs, and when Travas Pastrano did a double back flip on his motorcycle I bawled like a baby. But physically there is little resemblance between today's film heroes to the sleek, physically perfect Greeks who spent the best part of their time (when not talking philosophy and governing the city-state) keeping their bodies toned, or Renaissance lads in skintight leotards, their flies erotically molded in the form of what lies beneath, or drop fronts-cloth attached by ribbons that, when pulled, would free a man's loins when he wished to ... well, do what men just naturally do. In other words, nothing has been invented that can excel reality. And it's in the heart of that reality that I wish to begin. The original title of this work was HOMOSEXUALITY - the True Lives of Men who preferred Men - A Proud Heritage - A Heritage to be Proud of - Vol. One - Ancient Greece. Perhaps a bit long, but the idea was-and is-to retrace the lives of Greece's most valiant gay men. Gay in the sense that their sexual preference was men, that it was with men that they fulfilled themselves intellectually and physically, men with whom they socialized, with whom they trained, did athletics, sweated in bathhouses, philosophized with in the agora or the Academy or the Lyceum. These were truly valiant men who fought and often lost their lives at Marathon, Aegospotami, Salamis, the Thermopylae and literally hundreds of other sites. As I've said, it was the passage of the new law in France permitting gay marriages that was the catalyst for this book. But the book itself has been in preparation for years. At the end you'll find the SOURCES I've consulted, scores of ancient poets, historians, logographers, chroniclers, playwrights, orators and philosophers; scores of other books as background concerning Greek history in general, wars, politics, economics, government, clothing and other nonsexual material; and, naturally, books dedicated to the explanation of the workings of homoeroticism in Greece, but thanks to the ancient sources I've consulted-the writers alive at that time or around that time-these books served only as checks-and-balances to ensure that I've made the fewest possible errors. Nature chose my own personal camp for me, sexually, as it did for the early Greeks, and I'm going to do my best, in this volume and those to come, to prove that I've received a truly proud heritage--a heritage to be truly proud of--thanks to the fabulous men who preferred other men.