Anabasis (ed. 3)
- Language:
- English
- Translation:
- Frances Younghusband
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Adaptation by C. Witt / Frances Younghusband
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~47,400 words · 225 passages
Cite this work
- APAXenophon. (n.d.). The retreat of the ten thousand [Anabasis (ed. 3)] (Frances Younghusband, Trans.). Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/xenophon/the-retreat-of-the-ten-thousand
- MLAXenophon. The retreat of the ten thousand [Anabasis (ed. 3)]. Translated by Frances Younghusband. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/xenophon/the-retreat-of-the-ten-thousand.
- ChicagoXenophon. The retreat of the ten thousand [Anabasis (ed. 3)]. Translated by Frances Younghusband. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/xenophon/the-retreat-of-the-ten-thousand.
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 the Ten Thousand from the heart of Persia, in another English translation of the Anabasis.
Context and history
The same work as the Anabasis, in different words. 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.
prompt and barbarous punishment. Not only criminals, but even persons merely suspected of having committed crimes, were put to death in the most horrible manner. Some were crushed between stones, others were torn limb from limb, and others, again, suffered painful imprisonment in troughs. For merely trifling offences they were cruelly mutilated. There is a Persian proverb that ‘the King has many eyes and ears.’ In every state the king must have means of knowing through his trusted officers, who see and hear for him, what is going on among the people. But in Persia the arrangements for obtaining information of this kind were reduced to a science. Satraps and people alike were constantly watched by a body of spies, and so secretly was this done that it was not even known who were the officers employed. A favourite device of the spies was to feign a friendship for the person whose actions they wished to report, and a man might be arrested and executed without once suspecting the false friend who had given information of his real or imaginary guilt. Sometimes the spy would denounce an innocent man for no other reason than to bring himself into notice as active in the King’s service. Another plan was to take note of every one who passed along the roads which led from the various Residences of the Great King to the other principal towns of the empire. These roads were commanded by fortresses where officers were stationed whose duty it was to enquire of every wayfarer whither he was going and on what errand, and any messenger carrying a letter was obliged to give it up for inspection. This was intended to check the free passage of suspicious persons, and to prevent the sending of letters not approved by the government; but it must often have been easy to find means of evading the King’s officers.…
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