Anabasis by Xenophon

First transcribed:Kyrou anabasis, between 394 and 371 b.c.e. (English translation, 1623)

Type of work: History

Principal personages

• Xenophon, the narrator
• Cyrus, son of King Darius of Persia
• Artaxerxes, the older son of Darius
• Tissaphernes, a Persian general
• Clearchus, a Spartan exile, a general under Cyrus
• Chirisophus, a Spartan mercenary captain
• Agasias, a Stymphalian captain in the Greek army
• Proxenus, a Theban mercenary general under Cyrus

The Story:

After the death of King Darius of Persia, his son Artaxerxes takes possession of the throne. Cyrus, the younger son, with the support of his mother, Parysatis, begins to build up an army to wrest control of Persia from his brother. By pretending to need troops to fight the Persian general Tissaphernes and the Pisidians, Cyrus acquires armies from the Peloponnese, the Chersonese (under the Spartan exile Clearchus), the Thessalians (under Aristippus), the Boeotians (under Proxenus), the Stymphalians (under Sophaenetus), and the Achaeans (under Socrates, the mercenary).

Cyrus marches from Sardis to Tarsus, gathering the elements of his army. At Tarsus the troops under Clearchus refuse to move forward, arguing that they were not hired to fight against the king. Clearchus deals with the mutiny by first enlisting the loyalty of the men to himself (by pretending he will stay with them and not with Cyrus) and then by supporting Cyrus’s claim that the enemy is not the king but Abrocomas, one of the king’s commanders.

By marches averaging fifteen miles a day Cyrus brings his army from Tarsus to Issus, the last city in Cilicia, where he is joined by ships from the Peloponnese. The march continues through the gates of Cilicia and Syria without opposition.

When Cyrus arrives at the city of Myriandrus, Xenias the Arcadian and Pasion the Megarian desert the army. Cyrus refuses to pursue or punish them, declaring that they served him well in the past.

The army moves on to the Euphrates and the city of Thapsacus. Here the word is finally given to the Greek soldiers that the campaign is to be against King Artaxerxes. At first the soldiers refuse to go further without more pay, but when Menon leads his forces across the Euphrates in order to set a good example and to win Cyrus’s favor, and when Cyrus promises to give each soldier additional pay, the Greeks cross the river in force on foot. Since the Euphrates is usually too high for such a passage, the army is encouraged by this good sign.

When they reach the Arabian desert, Cyrus forces the troops on long marches in order to bring them to water and fodder. He keeps discipline by ordering important Persians to help with the wagons when the road is difficult. A quarrel between the soldiers of Menon and of Clearchus is halted by Cyrus’s warning that they will all be destroyed if they fight among themselves.

Orontas, a Persian under Cyrus, attempts to transfer his army to the king’s forces, but Cyrus learns of the plan by intercepting a letter from Orontas to the king. At a trial held in Cyrus’s tent Orontas is condemned to death. He is never seen again.

Cyrus moves through Babylonia and prepares for battle with King Artaxerxes, but when the king’s forces fail to take a stand at a defensive ditch, Cyrus proceeds with less caution.

The two armies meet at Cunaxa, and the Greeks put the opposing Persian forces to flight. Cyrus, with six hundred Persian cavalry, charges the center of the Persian line in order to reach the king, but after wounding King Artaxerxes, Cyrus is killed by a javelin blow. The cavalrymen with Cyrus are killed, except for the forces under Ariaeus, who hastily retreats.

While the main Greek armies under Clearchus and Proxenus are pursuing the Persians, the king’s troops break into Cyrus’s camp and seize his mistresses, money, and property. Tissaphernes then joins the king’s force and attacks the Greeks, but again the Greeks put the Persians to flight.

Phalinus, a messenger from King Artaxerxes, attempts to force Clearchus to surrender, but the Spartan, regarding the Greeks as victors, refuses. The Greeks then ally themselves again with Ariaeus, who was second to Cyrus, and pledge their support of him. When Ariaeus refuses to attempt further battle against the king, the joint decision is to take a longer route back, putting as much distance as possible between their forces and the king’s army.

The Greeks begin their march and by accident come close to the king’s army, frightening it into retreat. A truce is then arranged, and the king transfers supplies to the Greeks. Finally a treaty is made that provides safe conduct for the Greek army, with Tissaphernes as escort.

Many of the Greek leaders suspect Tissaphernes of treachery, but Clearchus, reassured by a conference with the Persian general, goes to Tissaphernes with four of his generals and twenty of his captains in order that those who were slandering the Persian commander can be named. Then, at a signal from the treacherous Tissaphernes, the Persians massacre the captains and take the generals as prisoners. The generals—Clearchus, Proxenus, Monon, Agias, and Socrates—are taken to the king and beheaded. Ariaeus is discovered to be involved with Tissaphernes in this act of treachery.

After the capture of the generals, Xenophon, who accompanied the Greek army at the urging of his friend Proxenus, bolsters the courage of the Greeks and urges that new generals and captains be appointed. The army responds to this decisive act of leadership.

Mithridates, a Persian commander who was with Cyrus, returns to the Greeks and pretends to be friendly, but he suddenly attacks them and is driven back. The Greeks are then pursued by Tissaphernes and harassed by attacks from the Carduchi as they cross the mountains to Armenia. Hearing that Tiribazus, the governor of Western Armenia who promised the Greeks safe passage, plans to attack them, the Greek generals order a raid on Tiribazus’s camp and then quickly resume the march across snow-covered plains. The soldiers suffer from snow blindness and frostbite.

To encourage the soldiers, Xenophon often works and marches with the men. He arranges to procure guides from the Armenians and conceives the idea of capturing the mountain pass beyond the Phasis River by climbing it at night. Chirisophus and Xenophon are the principal leaders of the march.

In the country of the Taochi the Greeks are delayed by an attack from a fortification out of which large boulders are rolled down a hill, but when the stones are exhausted and as the opposing forces—including women and children—begin to leap from the walls, the Greeks take possession. Finally, after fighting the Chalybes, the Greeks come within sight of the sea on their arrival at Trapezus.

Chirisophus is sent to secure ships, and the Greeks, now numbering eighty-six hundred troops of their original ten thousand, go on plundering expeditions for supplies. When Chirisophus is delayed, the available ships are loaded with the sick and wounded and with women, children, and baggage, while the rest of the army continues by land. After battling their way through the country of the barbarous Mossynoici, the Greeks arrive in the Euxine. There Xenophon considers founding a city, but he rejects the idea when the others oppose him. Some of the generals are critical of Xenophon’s disciplinary measures, but he is able to defend himself against their charges.

The Greeks buy food and also plunder supplies from the Paphlagonians. During their stay in that territory the captains go to Xenophon and ask him to be commander-in-chief of the army, but after reflection and sacrifices to the gods he decides that it would be better both for himself and for the army if the command were either kept divided or given to some other man. When Chirisophus is elected commander-in-chief, Xenophon willingly accepts a subordinate position.

By this time the Greeks have enough ships to carry all of their men, and they sail along the Paphlagonian coast from Harmene, the port of Sinope, to Heraclea, a Greek city in the country of the Maryandyni. The army then splits into three parts because of a disagreement about demanding supplies from Heraclea. The Arcadians and Achaeans, who favor the demand, form one body; Chirisophus, no longer in supreme command, heads a second body of troops; and Xenophon commands the remainder. The Arcadians land in Thrace and attack some villages. When they get into difficulties, they are rescued by Xenophon and his force. At Port Calpe the three armies are reunited.

Many Greeks are killed by the Bithynians while hunting for supplies, but the Greek forces finally achieve victory. A quarrel involving Cleander, the Spartan governor of Byzantium, and Agasias, a Greek captain who rescued one of his men from arrest by Dexippus, a traitorous Greek acting on Cleander’s order, is settled by Xenophon’s diplomacy.

Eventually the army crosses the straits from the East to Byzantium. After some difficulty with Anaxibius, a Spartan admiral at Byzantium, the Greeks join forces with King Seuthes of Thrace and participate in numerous raids on Thracian villages for supplies. When King Seuthes withholds pay from the Greeks, Xenophon is blamed, but after a long inquiry, during which Xenophon is accused of being too much concerned with the welfare of the ordinary soldier, King Seuthes finally gives the Greeks the money due them.

Xenophon then leads the army out of Thrace by sailing to Lampsacus, marching through the Troad, and crossing Mount Ida to the plain of Thebes. When the army reaches Pergamon in Mysia, Xenophon conducts a partially successful raid against the Persian Asidates. He then turns the Greek army over to Thibron, the Spartan commander, who uses the Greeks to war against Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus, a Persian governor.

Bibliography

Anderson, J. K. Xenophon. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974. Complete and scholarly study of Xenophon’s life and works. Judges Anabasis as the work of a reporter, not a historian. A list of important dates, twelve pages of plates, suggestions for further reading, and concise footnotes enrich this study.

Fox, Robin Lane, ed. The Long March: Xenophon and the Ten Thousand. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2004. Twelve essays provide various interpretations of Anabasis, including discussions of sex and gender, the religious dimension, the depiction of the army, and displacement and identity in the work. Another essay examines when, how, and why Xenophon wrote Anabasis.

Livingstone, R. W., ed. The Pageant of Greece. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1923. Reprint. 1953. A history of the literature and culture of classical Greece, with a broad introduction followed by excerpts from the major writers and commentary on them. Characterizes Xenophon as “a man of action” and praises his “natural, unaffected style.”

Nussbaum, G. B. The Ten Thousand: A Study in Social Organization and Action in Xenophon’s “Anabasis.” Leiden, the Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1967. A scholarly study that addresses basic questions about military organization. Separate sections examine the common soldiers, the captains, the generals, and the assembly; others treat the public and the leadership.

Rood, Tim. The Sea! The Sea! The Shout of the Ten Thousand in the Modern Imagination. New York: Duckworth Overlook, 2005. Examines the cultural influence of Anabasis in Europe and America during the past two hundred years. Discusses literary works by Heinrich Heine, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and James Joyce, travel and adventure literature, magazine articles, romantic novels, plays, and films that adapt Xenophon’s work.

Waterfield, Robin. Xenophon’s Retreat: Greece, Persia, and the End of the Golden Age. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2006. Attempts to round out Xenophon’s account of Cyrus’s Persian campaign by providing additional details of military logistics, the lives of Greek and Persian soldiers, motivations for the war, and other aspects of the battle. Compares Cyrus’s experiences in Persia with present-day developments in the Middle East.

Xenophon. The Persian Expedition. Translated by Rex Warner. New York: Penguin Books, 1972. Excellent paperback edition, with a map and an informative introduction by George Cawkwell. A six-page glossary of names is useful, as is the comprehensive index. The complicated historical context is spelled out in detail.