Story of Damon and Pythias

Damon, a Syracusan senator, is to be beheaded for treason, but the new king permits a general, Pythias, to pledge his own life for his friend to allow him to visit his wife and child before his execution. His motives are mixed, considering that Pythias's popularity with the masses could pose a threat to the king’s power, and he does expect the friendship to survive this test. This book is a novelization of a silent film, a fairly common practice in the ’10s and ’20s, and the film was based on Jo