The Anabasis of Kyros - 398 B.C.

Xenophon the Athenian

Described by historian Will Durant as, "one of the great adventures in human history", The Anabasis of Kyros¹ is the most famous work of the Greek author Xenophon the Athenian. Born in 430 B.C., Xenophon was a student of Sokrates alongside Plato, but these early years are rather unattested apart from being mentioned here and there among the Platonic dialogues. He flourished c. 401 B.C. when he was convinced by his Boiotian friend Proxenos to help the younger prince of Persia, Kyros II, overthrow his elder brother, the newly-ordained king, Artaxerxes II: thus is the subject of The Anabasis, the commentaries on the march of Xenophon and ten-thousand Greek mercenaries deep into the Persian heartland on Kyros' behalf.
The Greek word ἀνάβασις² means "an up-going, an ascent" and specifically may be used to define a route from the coast (the lowlands) inland (the highlands, hence "going up"). Contrary to this is a κατάβασις, "a down-going, a descent", describing a route from inland to the coast. The early text of The Anabasis describes the initial journey of the mercenary Grecian soldiers employed by Kyros as they marched inland towards their ultimate goal at Persepolis; however the objective of the mission drastically changed when the prince of Persia was killed at the Battle of Cunaxa. Their reason for being in Persia now bust, the Ten Thousand were forced to band together and undertake a κατάβασις as they marched through perilous enemy territory towards the coast of the Black Sea; there, they could find safety in the Grecian colonies which littered the shoreline.

The Route of the Ten Thousand

The Royal Achaemenid Family Tree of Persia

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1. The work is often just known as The Anabasis, despite there being a rather well-known "sequel" of sorts: the Greek historian Arrian borrowed heavily from Xenophon when he wrote his own Anabasis, describing another famous inland invasion of Persia, but by Alexander the Great. ^↩  

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2. ἀνά - "up" + βα - "go" + σις - "-ing" from the verb ἀναβαίνω ^↩  

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