This is one of Terry Deary’s Greek Tales. It is like the story of the Town Mouse and Country Mouse which is one
of Aesop’s fables. The moral of the story is that it is better to eat beans and bacon in peace then eating cakes and ale in fear. What that means is that it is better to be poor and happy than rich and sad. Athens, the finest city in the world, is at war with fierce, fighting Sparta but then the plague spreads round this trapped city and many people are dying. Darius is forced to leave his home and join his uncle, a Spartan general. To the cruellest people on earth, the Spartans, Darius is zilch and is as useful as a mouse. Can he prove that he is really good at something?