HAHA MY PLAN TO READ LESS BOOKS THIS YEAR IS STILL ON TRACK HAHAHAHA GOODREADS THINKS I'M SOME SORT OF BOOK-READING ROBOT

Young Sophos, temporary heir to the throne until another one is born, gets kidnapped, is disguised with a bit of effective brutalirt, and hidden amongst slaves. Some fast thinking gets him away from his captors, but he is still a slave, and though he eventually escapes from that, his troubles really are just beginning, with his country at war, riven by civil war, and threatened by the manipulations of a hungry empire. 

Rousing, exciting, even swashbuckling stuff in a well-realised Mediterannean-flavoured fantasy setting.