More than 2,400 years ago one of the most thrilling war stories in history was being read and discussed in Greece.
Cover by Johnny Shumate..
Illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher.
Previously a World Landmark book.
Geoffrey Household worked with British Intelligence in World War II, covering much the same terrain that Xenophon did in the Middle East.
To read The Exploits of Xenophon is to read a story as vivid as if it had been written by an army colonel in the last war.
And all the way the armed Persian hordes continued their attack with poisonous arrows, sweeping sabers, or great boulders from high mountain passes.
In short order, they selected Xenophon as one of their new commanders and began the heroic retreat through enemy territory.
Panic seized the men as they realized they were leaderless and 1,000 miles from their native Greece.
Cyrus wanted to seize the throne from his brother, Artaxerxes; but in the Battle of Cunaxa, Cyrus was killed and his Greek army was defeated.
More than 13,000 Greeks, including Xenophon, were serving with Cyrus, one of the imperial governors of ancient Persia.
In that day, it was customary for men to hire themselves out as soldiers fighting for another country.
It retells much of the war hero\'s own story, a superb picture of a valiant Greek army and its impact upon the ancient civilization of the East.
In Exploits of Xenophon , Geoffrey Household cut the Anabasis to a quarter of its length and modernized Xenophon\'s style.
It was called the Anabasis and was written by a Greek noble named Xenophon, who described at first hand what he did, what he suffered, and what he saw during a campaign against the Persians.
More than 2,400 years ago one of the most thrilling war stories in history was being read and discussed in Greece
