Anabasis
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~94,900 words · 451 passages
Cite this work
- APAXenophon. (n.d.). Anabasis. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/xenophon/anabasis
- MLAXenophon. Anabasis. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/xenophon/anabasis.
- ChicagoXenophon. Anabasis. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/xenophon/anabasis.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
The retreat of ten thousand Greek mercenaries through the heart of the Persian empire after the prince who hired them died in battle. Xenophon was there and ended up leading them.
Context and history
401 BC. The earliest surviving first-person account of a military campaign, and the cry «Thalatta! thalatta!» — the sea, the sea — on sighting the Black Sea is among the most quoted scenes in antiquity. For centuries it was the text on which Greek was learnt, and it taught the Greeks that Persia could be crossed: Alexander read it. Note: the catalogue carries the Anabasis in more than one version — complete, the first four books, and another English translation — plus the modern Greek volume. Say which edition you are citing, and better still the book and chapter.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
were sailing round from Ionia to Cilicia. Whatever the reason might be, Cyrus made his way up into the hills without let or hindrance, and came in sight of the tents where the Cilicians were on guard. From that point he descended gradually into a large and beautiful plain country, well watered, and thickly covered with trees of all sorts and vines. This plain produces sesame plentifully, as also panic and millet and barley and wheat; and it is shut in on all sides by a steep and lofty wall of mountains from sea to sea. Descending through this plain country, he advanced four stages--twenty-five parasangs--to Tarsus, a large and prosperous city of Cilicia. Here stood the palace of Syennesis, the king of the country; and through the middle of the city flows a river called the Cydnus, two hundred feet broad. They found that the city had been deserted by its inhabitants, who had betaken themselves, with Syennesis, to a strong place on the hills. All had gone, except the tavern-keepers. The sea-board inhabitants of Soli and Issi also remained. Now Epyaxa, Syennesis's queen, had reached Tarsus five days in advance of Cyrus. During their passage over the mountains into the plain, two companies of Menon's army were lost. Some said they had been cut down by the Cilicians, while engaged on some pillaging affair; another account was that they had been left behind, and being unable to overtake the main body, or discover the route, had gone astray and perished. However it was, they numbered one hundred hoplites; and when the rest arrived, being in a fury at the destruction of their fellow soldiers, they vented their spleen by pillaging the city of Tarsus and the palace to boot.…