Anabasis, by Greek soldier and writer Xenophon

Anabase dans sept livres, du soldat professionnel et écrivain grec Xénophon

Free eBook Anabasis is the most famous work, published in seven books, of the Greek professional soldier and writer Xenophon. The text was composed around the year 370 BC, and in translations, Anabasis is rendered The March of the Ten Thousand or The March Up Country. The journey it narrates is his best known accomplishment and "one of the great adventures in human history"

Book I

Cyrus makes preparations in order to take the throne from his brother.

Cyrus marches to take out the Pisidians and gains troops as he progresses through the provinces.

Word spreads that Cyrus might be moving against the king and the soldiers begin to question continuing onward.

Cyrus and his generals continue marching onward, now towards Babylon. Xenias and Pasion are seen as cowards for deserting Cyrus.

The soldiers face hardship with few provisions other than meat. Dissention arises after Clearchus has one of Menos’s men flogged, which leads to escalating retaliation.

Orontas is put on trial for a treasonous plot against Cyrus.

Cyrus sizes up the situation for the coming battle against the king. Cyrus and his army pass safely through a trench constructed by the king.

The battle between Artaxerxes’s royal army and Cyrus’s army commences.

Xenophon describes a sort of eulogy after the passing of Cyrus.

The king rallies his forces and attacks Cyrus’s army again. Then Artaxerxes retreats to a mound where upon being confronted again by the Hellenes, he and his men retreat for the day.

Book II

The army finds out about Cyrus’s death and heralds are sent to meet the army and ask for them to relinquish their weapons to the king.

The generals of Cyrus’s army and the officers of the Hellenes join forces to better their chances for returning home. The Hellenes are frightened by something in the night, which turns out to be nothing at all.

The king asks for a truce and Clearchus asks for breakfast after establishing one. Clearchus says to Tissaphernes that the Hellenes only followed Cyrus’s orders when they were attacking the king’s authority.

The Hellenes wait for Tissaphernes to return so they can leave. Tissaphernes comes with his troops and the Hellenes suspect they will be betrayed as they progress homeward.

Clearchus trusts Tissaphernes enough to send generals, captains and some soldiers to his camp. This turns out to be a trap and Clearchus is killed and the generals do not return to the Hellenes’s camp.

All of the captured generals are decapitated and Xenophon describes their pasts and personalities.

Book III

None of the Hellenes can sleep for fear of not returning home alive.

Book IV

The Hellenes travel through the land of the Carduchians and lose two warriors when Cheirisophus does not slow for Xenophon on rearguard.

Book V

The soldiers decide to send Cheirisophus back to Hella to return with ships to take them back home.

Book VI

The Hellenes make a deal with the Paphlagonians to cease fighting. Xenophon feels he should not be the leader on the last part of the trip.

Book VII

The Hellenes muscle their way back into the city after learning of their planned expedition to Chersonese