Anabasis

a-nab'a-sis, a literary name from the Greek, meaning literally a journey upward. Xenophon's Anabasis is an account of the unfortunate expedition of the younger Cyrus against his brother Artaxerxes, 401 B. C. It is written in a simple style. It is the first Greek prose usually read in preparing for college. Xenophon was one of the commanders of a force of 10,000 Greeks, who started from the coast of Asia Minor in the spring of 401 B. C. and marched as far as Cunaxa near Babylon, where Cyrus was killed and the Asiatic portion of his forces routed. The 10,000, however, held together in the face of a host of half a million Persians. After many hardships they regained their native land. The retreat is one of the most famous in history. In celebrity it ranks with Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. The expedition demonstrated the superiority of Greek discipline, and paved the way for the final conquest of Persia two generations later. See Xenophon