The Persian Expedition

Description

Xenophon’s epic march into the heart of Persia has stirred the imagination of free men for centuries. Possibly written from diaries compiled at the time, there is no doubt that The Persian Expedition is one of the best pictures we have of Greeks confronting the ‘barbarian’ world. We see the soldiers debate leaders and strategy in open assembly; we see them falling on their knees in superstitious fear; we see them planning a piratical colony on barbarian land. And at the same time we share the rigors of the march to Babylon, the dismay of unexpected defeat, the uncertainty of the long road home through wild Armenia, and the relief at last when the Ten Thousand reach ‘the sea, the sea!’.The Persian ExpeditionIntroduction
Translator’s Note
Map

Book I: The Attempt of Cyrus
1. Cyrus Builds up His Army
2. The March from Sardis to Tarsus
3. Clearchus Deals with a Mutiny
4. Through the Syrian Gates and Across the Euphrates
5. The Arabian Desert. Quarrel Between Menon and Clearchus
6. Cyrus Deals with a Traitor
7. Cyrus Prepares for Battle, but the King Retreats
8. The Battle of Cunaxa and Death of Cyrus
9. The Character of Cyrus
10. After the Battle

Book II: The Greeks are Isolated
1. The King’s Messenger
2. The Greeks Join Arieaeus
3. The Greeks sign a Treaty with Tissaphernes
4. The March Begins with Mutual Suspicion
5. Tissaphernes’ Treachery
6. Characters of the Five Generals

Book III: The March to Kurdestan
1. Xenophon Takes the Initiative
2. The Council of War
3. The Greeks Suffer from Slings and Arrows
4. Tissaphernes Still in Pursuit
5. Between the Tigris and the Mountains

Book IV: The March to the Sea
1. The Entry into Kurdestan
2. Fighting in the Mountains
3. The Crossing into Armenia
4. They Sack the Camp of Tiribazus
5. Marching Through the Snow
6. They Capture a Pass by a Manoeuvre
7. The Greeks Catch Sight of the Sea
8. They Arrive at Trapezus

Book V: The March to Paphlagénia
1. Chirisophus Goes to Get Ships
2. A Plundering Expedition
3. The Greeks Leave Trapezus, Xenophon’s Estate in Later Years
4. The Barbarous Mossynoeici
5. Xenophon Speaks for the Army
6. Xenophon Thinks of Founding a City
7. Xenophon Defends Himself
8. Xenophon Justifies Discipline in Emergency

Book VI: The March to the Bosporus
1. Xenophon Refuses the Offer of the Supreme Command
2. The Army Splits into Three
3. Xenophon Rescues the Arcadians
4. The Army Reunited. Difficulties About Provisions
5. A Greek Victory
6. Some Trouble with the Spartans

Book VII: Byzantium, Thrace and Asia Minor
1. Trouble at Byzantium
2. Xenophon Negotiates with Seuthes
3. The Greeks March with Seuthes
4. Successful Fighting with Seuthes
5. Trouble About the Pay
6. Xenophon is Attacked and Defends Himself
7. Xenophon Speaks to Seuthes
8. Xenophon Leaves the Army

Glossary
Index

Xenophon was an Athenian country gentleman born about 430 BC. He may have helped to publish Thucydides’ History, and certainly wrote his own Hellenica as a continuation of it. By his own (probably reliable) account he was a fine officer and outstanding leader, but his admiration for Sparta and devotion to Socrates, among other causes, led to his banishment. He was given an estate at Scillus and settled down to enjoy the life of a landed aristocrat, and it was during this period that he began to write histories, biographies, memoirs and specialist treatises. The defeat of Sparta in 371 forced him to move to Corinth where he probably lived for the rest of his life.
Rex Warner was a Professor of the University of Connecticut from 1964 until his retirement in He was born in 1905 and went to Wadham College, Oxford, where he gained a ‘first’ in Classical Moderations, and took a degree in English Literature. He taught in Egypt and England, and was Director of the British Institute, Athens, from 1945 to 1947. He has written poems, novels and critical essays, has worked on films and broadcasting, and has translated many works, of which Xenophon’s History of My Time and The Persian Expedition, Thucydides’ The Peloponnesian War, and Plutarch’s Lives (under the title Fall of the Roman Republic) and Moral Essays have been published in Penguin Classics.
George Cawkwell is a Fellow and Praelector in Ancient History of University College, Oxford. He has specialized in the history of the fourth century B.C.GB

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