The Anabasis of Cyrus

Imagine yourself a non-commissioned officer (sargent, let's say), a thousand miles from home in an army of 10,000 countrymen, on a regime-change mission with the guy who should be King of the empire of your mortal enemy in two previous wars. You use the usurper's contacts to get almost to the city gates of the enemy empire, and in one, brief battle you lose the would-be King. In the next couple days you lose ALL of your officers, who figure the enemy would be glad to just let them leave, but instead are slaughtered during a truce negotiation. Now it's up to you alone to lead the entire Army 1,000 miles, through an unknown, mountainous, hostile environment, with little to no supplies, past city states crammed full of people and Armies that want nothing more than to see you dead to the last man. This is THAT book, written by the sargent-come-general himself, after he made it home. Xenophon was an excellent general, becoming a hero in the next major war, this time between Athens and Sparta, and writing a landmark history of the war (Hellenika) after he was sidelined, interviewing folks on both sides of the conflict. Xenophon writes with a clear, historically attuned style, relating the action as it happened. No story teller, he writes so that people who come after him will learn from his writings what happened, why it happened, and how it could have been avoided.

A very fine edition of a well known classic - now available in a better print - Xenophon is a very important Greek historian and military leader - His study of Cyrus is not exact history but rather a study in leadership by an accomplished practitioner - and observer of many other leaders. The Cyropaedia might be translated ' the education of Cyrus - rather than anabasis as that might lead the reader to think it compares in content with Xenophon's own 'anabasis' of his retreat from Persia.

As I've said in other reviews, the strength of a book like this is highly dependent on the skill of the translator and Ambler does not dissapoint.The translation is clean & easy to follow.Notes are nested at the end - and kept to a minimum! - so they do not distract.Where appropriate, Ambler notes back to events in ealier chapters so you can remind yourself what happened.The only draw back? Maps. It is hard to determine how a battle played out without maps. I would have loved even sketchwork to show how different battles played out. But again, the work here is so good I will give Ambler a pass.

Eminently readable. Recommended.

No Problem

This story is amazing! Truly epic, it’s really interesting to be able to share such experiences with people who lived 2,500 years ago. I can’t believe this hasn’t been made into a movie! The story starts kind of slow but when it gets rolling you can’t put it down. It also gives invaluable insight into how people thought back then, and the cultures involved. It also lets you know what hasn’t changed in human life right up to today. The ancient Greeks were truly a special people.

A friend of mine, a Greek scholar, once told me, speaking of Aristotle and Ancient Greece, "These are the people who taught humanity how to think!" I kept thinking of that as I read this. The power of Xenophon's oratory, his unescapable logic, his unfailing clarity of thought when dealing with, and leading, what was effectively a mob of 10,000 Greek soldiers lost in a foreign land and surrounded by enemies, are ample proof that my friend was right.

This book is such a great epic, as well as standard military fare from 400 BC. I love how I can read a book written 3000 years ago and feel a deep pain of humanity as Xenophon and his cohort's trials. This book is amazing, with a wicked sense of humor, and morbid pragmatism, made more compelling due to it's non-fictional nature.

Amazing book with multiple story levels and layers. A must read

This book revolutionised the way I perceived the ancient world. The antics performed to get out of a tight situation by the men in this story still amuse me to this day. I was left asking myself, is Xenophon a fat man or a thin man?