1900. Benton's historical novel begins: The traveler of today who visits the dirty, straggling, little town of Tersous on the Cydnus, finds little to remind his imagination that this is the Tarsus of the apostle Paul, one of the famous marts of the world, an ancient center of learning and culture only rivaled by Alexandria or later by Baghdad; a city considered worthy of a visit by the luxury-loving Cleopatra and the enchained Marc Antony, in a gilded galley with sails of purple silk and oars of silver. He will scarcely now find the footprint of winged Pegasus on the first slopes of bold Taurus, and no one will tell him that only here could Apollo's sacred sword be cleansed in the cold, swift waters of the Cydnus.