“Themistoclean” humor: Themistocles, for his little son, whom his wife was very fond of, would say: “My son has the greatest power among all the Greeks, for the Greeks are ruled by the Athenians, the Athenians by me, me by my wife, and her by her son!”

When wine speaks...: Philip II seemed to be dissatisfied with his cohabitation with Olympias, the mother of Alexander, and married Cleopatra. At the banquet that followed, the bride's uncle Attalus, while drunken, wished Philip to have a legitimate heir from his marriage with Cleopatra. Then Alexander, who was present, furiously threw a cup at him, saying: “And do I, fool, seem to you to be illegitimate?” Philip then stood up and drawing his sword tried to attack Alexander. However, being drunk, he stumbled and fell down. And Alexander, contemptuously, said: “Behold a king who is about to pass from Europe to Asia, but cannot move from couch to couch!”

This book includes texts that mainly come from ancient sources and focus on figures, events, and situations that are not always found in modern books of Ancient History. Many of them have an anecdotal character and present the impressive, the strange, the unexpected, even the humorous, in a simple and understandable way.