The Persian Expedition

Xenophon is an ambitious 20ish man from a prominent family in Athens that doesn't have money anymore because of the war with Sparta, which they lost. He agrees to his friend's Proxenus plee , urging him to fight for the treacherous Prince Cyrus, younger brother of Artaxerxes II , the Persian king in......more

The Persian Expedition (or The Anabasis, or The March Up Country) tells the story of an army of Greek mercenaries who ended up fighting for the losing side of a Persian civil war and must travel through hostile territory to return home. And this isn't a metter of just dialing up 10,000 Uber rides (b......more

The book is an account of Prince Cyrus's attempt in 401 BCE to replace his brother Ataxerxes II on the Persian throne. The narrative moves at a nice clip though at the expense of detail. The Ten Thousand, as the Greek mercenaries are known, advance a thousand miles from Greek Sardis in Asia Minor to......more

A bit dry in parts perhaps but a necessary read for any student or aficionado of Greek history. The story of Xenophon and his march with his fellow Greeks across the deserts and wilderness of places like modern day Iraq and Turkey is a fascinating and timeless one. I think my biggest takeaway in rea......more