Book: The Expedition of Cyrus
Because “a room without books is like a body without a soul” (Cicero)
The Expedition of Cyrus, by Xenophon, translated by Robin Waterfield.
Summary:
The Expedition of Cyrus tells the story of the march of the Ten Thousand. The exploits of this famous army of Greek mercenaries in modern-day Turkey, Syria, and Iraq were described by one of their leaders, the Athenian historian and philosopher Xenophon.
They were recruited at the end of the fifth century BC by a young Persian prince, Cyrus, who rose in revolt against his brother, the king of Persia. After Cyrus' death, the army was left stranded in the desert of Mesopotamia, a thousand miles from home. Their long march, across mountains and plateaux to the sight of 'The sea! The sea!', and back to the fringes of the Greek world, is the most exciting adventure story to survive from the ancient world.
Xenophon's gripping narrative offers a unique insight into the character of a Greek army struggling to survive in an alien world. It is also the most sustained eyewitness account of the landscape of the vast and wealthy Persian empire.
My capsule review:
The Expedition of Cyrus, otherwise known as the Anabasis (literally, the march up country) has actually little to do with the expedition mounted by Cyrus the Younger in 401 BCE in an attempt to dethrone his brother, Artaxerxes II. That episode takes up only the very beginning of the story. But the book is a classic masterpiece nevertheless, and Robin Waterfield has become my go-to translator for all things Ancient Greek. The Anabasis was written by Xenophon, one of the Greek commanders who led the surviving 10,000 Greek mercenaries, stuck in the middle of hostile territory in Persia, back home to Greece. It is an incredible tale, which is hard to believe nobody (as far as I know) has made into a movie or a Netflix series, yet. Xenophon narrates of the many perils, both natural and of human origin, his men had to tackle and survive. We learn of Greek and Persian customs, as well as of a series of novel military tactics employed by Xenophon to minimize casualties during the long journey home. The Anabasis is a great example of why it is very much worth it to read the classics: we discover our common humanity with these men who lived almost two and a half millennia ago. Though superficially our customs and ways of thinking are very different, at bottom, especially when it comes to survival, we are all humans.