Historie

 is a historical manga by Hitoshi Iwaaki that tells the life story of Eumenes, a secretary and general to Alexander the Great. It is serialized by Kodansha in "Monthly Afternoon".
Story.
The story begins with Hermias, one of Aristotle's disciples, being tortured and interrogated in Assus, a town on the western edge of the Persian Empire. He is confronted by a Persian commander, Memnon, who questions him if his teacher is really worth dying for. The story then skips ahead a few days to the ruins of Troy, where Aristotle, one of his disciples, and a slave find Eumenes in a boat attempting to make oars.
They spend the night there, talking about various subjects such as philosophy and slavery and leave the next morning. Eumenes is then visited by a Persian named Barsine, who questions him about his visitors the previous night. He claims that he hasn't seen the people she's asking him about and she goes back to her escort of horsemen and leaves. Soon after, Aristotle and his student come running towards Eumenes chased by the horsemen who visited shortly before this and they immediately take off, narrowly escaping capture.
Barsine is then met by Memnon and states "the next person to come over this channel probably isn't going to be a philosopher." Eumenes and his company are met by a horse-drawn cart on the other side that was waiting for Aristotle. Eumenes find that they are both heading towards Cardia, but the people in the cart refuse to take Eumenes there, stating that a slave can walk. When Eumenes reaches Cardia, he finds the town surrounded by a Macedonian army, consisting of two columns of phalangites circling the city. He notices the commander of the army right away, and ponders about the peculiarity of the situation, and then proceeds to greet an old lady waiting outside of the town. Eumenes develops a plan to carry the old lady across the column of phalangites on his shoulders, claiming that this would show the old lady's status. Afterward they find that town guards won't open the gate to let them in the city. Another group of people consisting of a man named Antigonus and two other men come running through the columns.
Eumenes eventually develops a plan to repeatedly shout out that, "his master's remains had to be returned into the city" in front of the Macedonian army. His plan works and the group is allowed in the city shortly afterward. Inside the city, Antigonus asks Eumenes to meet him in three days. He then goes to the ruins of his old house and the story goes into a flashback, showing his childhood, how he left Cardia, his early adventures, and his first war in Paphlagonia.
The story then backs up to when Eumenes was a boy in an aristocratic family in Cardia. Eumenes is tremendously talented and intelligent, hoped by his father to be a powerful asset to the family and his far less able older brother. Eumenes is beset by a recurring dream of a woman slaughtering many Greek soldiers with a sword in beautiful combat before being cutdown and brutally raped.
All of his time was spent if not studying in his father's library, he ventures out with his friends and attending philosopher's lessons. All is simple, until he met Thrax, a Scythian slave. Thrax later broke free by killing his master, flaying him. And he tried to escape, but failed. He killed several Cardian militia and civilians, save Eumenes until regular soldiers arrives and mortally wounds him. He never hurt Eumenes, for unknown reasons.
Eumenes arrived on his house, but found his adopted father dead and Thrax's body beside him. His father's friend used the opportunity to eliminate Eumenes by betraying him to the city council, citing his true heritage as a Scythian. The council decided to sell Eumenes as a slave, letting him stay on his former house until a buyer arrives. His condition got worse from master to being a slave, frowned upon by his former servants (one of the servants, his former servant was the one who used Eumenes to stop the woman's rampages). And as a buyer arrives, he was sold for a talent and sent to a Greek-dominated, Scythian border city.
But a mutiny came aboard the ship where he rode, killing his buyer and he joined the slaves, but no longer, when a storm broke and the ship sunk. Eumenes was later saved by the village people who lived on a lake near a Greek-dominated town, while killing the rest of the slaves. He lived with them, teaching them Greek customs and religions, in exchange of food and lodgings. All seems well, until some villagers were killed when the Tios' militia, under the leader's eldest son tries to usurp the villager's lands. They spied upon the town's activity. When his suspicion was confirmed, he concocts an idea where he acts as a wounded Greek citizen by letting him deliberately slashed by his friend and deliberately blows the weak point of the village to the enemy, unknown to them, a trap was set. The leader of the raid was killed and the village was set free. The leader apologized to the villagers for his son's foolishness and gave them freedom. But the condition was set and Eumenes forced to feign hostility to the villagers, hurting the lass who fell in love with him and left the village to go to Cardia.
When he met Aristotle and his assistant, being chased by Persians. He returned to Cardia and met an old woman and Antigonus. He used Antigonus's vase and the old woman to trick Cardia's guards to open the gate. Then he continued to his former house, where he met his friend, now Cardia's guard (where he knew that his former fiancée was married to a wheelmaker's son) and met his step-brother, who apologized to him for being a coward. He also knew that Eumenes was set up by his father's friend. And let him see his mother's grave, revealing that until death, she tried to apologize to her estranged stepson. He later met his father's friend's slave and tried to kill him, but he killed him in self-defense. He met the friend of his father, and met Antigonus alongside him. Antigonus orders his assistant to kill (faking fighting) to let him escape and meet him in the city gates. It was later revealed Antigonus (a pseudonym) is Philip of Macedon when the Macedonian general bowed to him. And Cardia was captured after 3 days. He was sent to the Imperial Palace to act as his Royal Secretary. Despite his Scythian background, he was trained by the Macedonians. He also met young Alexander the Great, young Arrhidaeus, and other Macedonian and Greek characters. It was later revealed that Arrhidaeus was mentally and intellectually delayed, and Alexander has split personality, one's a timid one and another a mature, but cold one named Hephaestion, and her mother Olympias has other lovers and murdered a man rumored to be Alexander's real father in cold blood. Philip tried to send him to the school in Mieza where Aristotle is, but he refused, preferring to stay in Pella.
While in Pella, he created things that were useful to others, like chess and plays it with the King alongside Parmenion and Antipater, the latter invited Eumenes, but declined just to do somethings, to come to his place.
His first taste of warfare was when he assisted Philip on besieging both Byzantium and Perinthus, which failed when Athens attacked their fleet and lifting their siege. Then they battles Scythians after the Scythian King Ateas reneged on their deal. They defeated the Scythians. Then they were ambushed by Triballians , wounding Philip and scattering their slaves. Quick thinking of Eumenes was used to prevent more losses and secure the victory.
After the Macedonians returned, he was sent by Antipater to Athens to "assassinate" Phocion. They disguised themselves as foreign. They were rebuffed, until the old man let Eumenes in. But their cover was blown, but no incident happened. But mobs tried to capture them, and the group dispersed. Eumenes decided to meet Phocion's friend Melanthios in Piraeus, revealed to be Eumenes's family's former slave, Charon. He fled to Pella, but midway, he met Philip busy against Athenians and Thebans. They battled on Mount Thurion. The campaign was victorious, with Alexander easily passing through the Theban and Athenian lines, casually killing then taking weapons from his enemies, then fell back.
Eumedes got a bit of promotion, but at the cost of his girlfriend Eurydice , who was engaged to Philip. He also wanted to quit, but he uncovered an assassination plot. Pausanias, who was put into the royal guard, to guard Olympias after she was exiled to Molossia after an attempt at Eurydice, was tasked to eliminate her. But Pausanias was able to eliminate the assassins and swore his loyalty to Olympias.
During the wedding of Philip and Eurydice, an incident between Attalus and Alexander happened when the former greeted the couple, which enraged Alexander. Philip took the side of Attalus. But it was settled off-screen. And for the first time, Philip married a Macedonian. Alexander was exiled to the west, but unlike his mother, who stayed on her brother, the King of Epirus, Alexander and Philip attained reconciliation, but not after leaving Illyria. Then also at a flashback, Philip was hit by a snake by Olympias.
Eumenes was called by Philip with Aristotle in the room. He plans to insert the duo in Parmenion and Attalus's forces, then tasked Eumenes to take care of Eurydice for him, as she gave birth to her twin children. Eumenes asked if Alexander still be the heir, Philip affirmed. Then he reluctantly accepted the task. Eumenes and Aristotle talks about the spheric earth mode he gave to Philip. Then, Aristotle left for an inn when he met a seemingly un-aged man who knew him before the man left.
Philip then appears at Aegea, to celebrate the marriage between the King of Epirus and one of the Royal daughters, there he was assassinated by Pausanias.
Main characters.
"Historie" portrays many historical characters who actually existed in ancient Greece and Persia.
Publication.
"Historie" is written and illustrated by Hitoshi Iwaaki. It has been serialized by Kodansha in the monthly "seinen" (aimed at younger adult men) manga magazine "Monthly Afternoon" since the 25 January 2003 issue. , 11 "tankōbon" volumes have been published.
Reception.
The Mainichi newspaper calls Iwaaki's vision of Eumenes' past (which, historically, is largely a mystery) "Bold and unique." Jason Thompson, one of the best-known manga critics in the United States, says that in terms of scale, ambition, and plotting, "Historie" is the author's masterpiece. The manga was a finalist for the 10th Osamu Tezuka Culture Award and won the grand prize in 2012. It was also awarded the grand prize for the manga division in the 2010 Japan Media Arts Festival.