Xenophon, ANABASIS (THE PERSIAN EXPEDITION), transl. Rex Warner,
Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1972 (1949).

Xenophon (c. 430-354 B.C.E.) wrote a thrilling account of the some ten
thousand Greek mercenaries who attempted to help place the brother of
the Persian emperor on the throne of Persia. Cyrus, the brother, was
defeated and killed in a battle at Cunaxa deep inside the Empire.

After the death of Cyrus, the mercenaries found themselves without any
purpose a long way from home. Their generals were invited to a meeting
with Imperial authorities, where they met with treachery. The assumption
that deprivation of leadership would plunge the mercenaries into
confusion failed to take into consideration Greek democratic experience.

   With their generals arrested and the captains and soldiers who had
   gone with them put to death, the Greeks were in an extremely awkward
   position. It occurred to them that they were near the King's capital
   and that around them on all sides were numbers of people and cities
   who were their enemies; no one was likely in the future to provide
   them with a chance of buying food. They were at least a thousand
   miles away from Greece; they had no guide to show them the way; they
   were shut in by impassable rivers which traversed their homeward
   journey; even the natives who had marched on the capital with Cyrus
   had turned against them, and they were left by themselves without a
   single cavalryman in their army... p. 139

   Afterwards the following were chosen as officers: Timasion, a
   Dardanian, to take the place of Clearchus, Xanthicles, an Achaean, to
   take Socrates' place, Cleanor, an Arcadian, to take Agias's place,
   Philesias, an Arcadian, to take that of Menon, and Xenophon, an
   Athenian, in place of Proxenus. p. 147

After electing new generals to replace those lost through dishonourable
Imperial dealing, the Greeks proceeded to march and fight their way
those hundreds of miles out of the Empire. That coming home from deep
inside the Empire is vividly described in the second half of this work
and forms one of the most exciting accounts enjoyed by students of
ancient Greek.

Among the surviving works of Xenophon is a continuation of Thucydides's
HISTORY down to 363 B.C.E.


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