John Prevas

New York Times bestselling author John Prevas was born in Baltimore, Maryland and educated at the University of Maryland, where he was awarded a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in political science. He went on to earn a second master’s degree in educational psychology at Johns Hopkins University and a law degree from Antioch School of Law, Washington, D.C.

 

He studied Latin on the graduate level at Yale University and the University of Maryland, and taught Latin, Greek, Government, Law and History at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and Towson University outside of Baltimore. From 2001 until 2011, he was scholar in residence and assistant professor of classics at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida and since 2015 visiting assistant professor of classics at the University of South Florida, Sarasota. John is fluent in French and Greek.

 

Prevas' first book, Hannibal Crosses the Alps, (1998) is based on his extensive research in Paris studying Greek and Latin manuscripts pertaining to Hannibal. John followed his text research with several summers spent climbing all the major passes in the southern French Alps that historians over the centuries have speculated might have been the famed route by which Hannibal invaded Italy. John continues to lead groups of students and interested political and business leaders into the Alps each summer to retrace the famous Carthaginian’s footsteps and is considered to be a leading academic expert on Hannibal.

 

During the last several years John has made presentations on Hannibal at the Smithsonian, Princeton, Rutgers, Vassar, Stanford and Meridian House International in Washington D.C. He has given a number of presentations in France, and was officially invited twice to Tunisia, first by the government of President Ben Ali and most recently by the new revolutionary interim government  He participated in a documentary on Hannibal that was filmed in the Alps by the BBC and the National Geographic Society. John has appeared on the History Channel and has spoken on Hannibal as a leadership figure at a meeting of United Nations ambassadors in New York. 

 

John’s second book, Xenophon’s March (2002), like his first, is based on his manuscript research and his retracing of the actual route Greek mercenaries took through the Persian Empire in the 4th century, B.C. John's travels in connection with his research took him to some of the most remote mountain areas of eastern Turkey, along the Russian, Iranian, and Syrian borders then along the Black Sea. John has lectured on Xenophon at the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C. and has spoken to both Greek and Turkish audiences on the Voice of America.

 

Envy of the Gods , John's third book, is the story of the unraveling and demise of Alexander the Great in the east. The book was published in 2004 to favorable reviews in Kirkus and the New York Times. In researching this book, John went alone to Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan, utilizing his dual-citizenship and travelling on his Greek passport. He traced the route Alexander and his army took through what is today known as the "terrorist belt," travelling from the Zagros Mountains of Iran and the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis, over the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan, onto the steppes of Uzbekistan, through the Khyber Pass and into the Swat Valley of Pakistan. From the Swat Valley, John followed the Indus River south from Chitral to the fringes of the desolate no-man’s land known in ancient times as the Gedrosian Desert.

 

In conjunction with the release of Envy of the Gods, John appeared on CNN, CNN International, NPR, C-Span's Book Talk and on a number of radio stations. He appeared on the Fox network show Hannity and Colmes and lectured on Alexander at Stanford University, American University, the Tunisian Embassy, Meridian House International and in France at the Festival du Livre. He continues to speak on Hannibal, Xenophon and Alexander as leadership figures to business groups around the country and to various trade and civic groups such as Rotary International.

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Power Ambition Glory, (2009),co-authored with Steve Forbes, is a study of six ancient leaders, paralleling their strengths and weaknesses with contemporary business figures. The authors have lectured together on lessons to be drawn from these comparisons at a number of venues, including the Smithsonian and the Hoover Institution's annual retreat at Stanford University.

 

John’s most recent book (2017) is Hannibal's Oath, a definitive biography of one of history's most enigmatic military leaders. The book was very favorably reviewed in the Sunday New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. John recently lectured on Hannibal to a sell out crowd at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

 

John currently serves as a court appointed mediator for the Florida 6th Judicial Circuit while working on his next book on the ancient world.