Xenophon

In these blogs we often see the word Xenophobia used, most know it means a hatred of foreigners, some know it has a capital letter because it is from a person's name, Xenophon. Who was Xenophon what is his story.

As a young man I had to study both Greek and Latin, because I was a boy, the books that were chosen for our studies were the two great military classics "Xenophon's Anabasis" and Caesar's "De Bello Gallico".

 Anabasis is one of the first unabridged texts used by students of classical Greek because of  its clear and simple style; as is Caesar's  De Bello Gallico for Latin students, both are both autobiographical tales of military adventure.

I hated both Latin and Greek, at 'O' level I obtained 27% for Latin and 14% for Greek, which rather sealed my fate as a Classics scholar and confirmed me as a future scientist. However, I did fall in love with these two books, particularly "Anabasis"

Here is a brief account of the story, some parts I have 'lifted' from wikipaedia to save me some effort.

Xenophon, a Greek officer, accompanied the Ten Thousand, a large army of Greek mercenary foot soldiers hired by Cyrus the Younger, who intended to seize the throne of Persia from his brother, Artaxerxes II. Though Cyrus's mixed army fought to a tactical victory at Cunaxa in Babylon (401 BC), Cyrus himself was killed in the battle, rendering the actions of the Greeks irrelevant and the expedition a failure.

With no payment and stranded deep in enemy territory, the Spartan general Clearchus and the other Greek senior officers were subsequently killed or captured by treachery on the part of the Persian satrap Tissaphernes. Xenophon, one of three remaining leaders elected by the soldiers, played an instrumental role in encouraging the Greek army of 10,000 to march north across foodless deserts and snow-filled mountain passes towards the Black Sea and the comparative security of its Greek shoreline cities. 

 Abandoned in northern Mesopotamia, without supplies other than what they could obtain by force or diplomacy, the 10,000 had to fight their way northwards through Corduene and Armenia, making ad hoc decisions about their leadership, tactics, provender and destiny, while the King's army and hostile natives constantly barred their way and attacked their flanks.

On aspect of the journey that impressed me was the ingenuity of Xenophon, at one point his men were under repeated attacks by fast moving mounted archers, the famous "Parthian shot" as it was to become known. He had to constantly stop and form phalanxes against such attacks. He knew that many of his soldiers had been shepherds in their youth, guarding their flocks with slingshots.

He formed a perimeter guard of such men and slingshots, these had greater range and accuracy than Persian arrows and missiles were readily available, this solved his problem.

Ultimately this "marching republic" (their leaders had been elected after the killing of their Generals), managed to reach the shores of the Black Sea at Trabzon (Trebizond), a destination they greeted with their famous cry of joyous exultation  "thalassa, thalassa", "the sea, the sea"  they were at last among Greek cities.

Michael Curtis Ford's 2001 novel The Ten Thousand is a fictional account of this group's exploits.