Editing Xenophon (section)

===''Anabasis''===
{{main|Anabasis (Xenophon)}}
[[File:Expedition of the Ten Thousand.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Route of Xenophon and the Ten Thousand (red line) in the [[Achaemenid Empire]]. The satrapy of [[Cyrus the Younger]] is delineated in green.]]Written years after the events it recounts, Xenophon's book ''Anabasis'' (Greek: ἀνάβασις, literally "going up")<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Da%29na%2Fbasis ἀνάβασις] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200725234724/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Da%29na%2Fbasis |date=25 July 2020 }}, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> is his record of the expedition of Cyrus and the Greek mercenaries' journey to home.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ambler |first1=Wayne |title=The Anabasis of Cyrus |date=2011 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0801462368 |location=Translator's preface}}</ref> Xenophon writes that he asked Socrates for advice on whether to go with Cyrus and that Socrates referred him to the [[Pythia]]. Xenophon's query to the oracle, however, was not whether or not to accept Cyrus' invitation, but "to which of the gods he must pray and do sacrifice, so that he might best accomplish his intended journey and return in safety, with good fortune". The oracle answered his question and told him which gods to pray and sacrifice to. When Xenophon returned to Athens and told Socrates of the oracle's advice, Socrates chastised him for asking so disingenuous a question (''Anabasis'' 3.1.5–7).

Under the pretext of fighting [[Tissaphernes]], the Persian [[satrap]] of [[Ionia]], Cyrus assembled a massive army composed of native Persian soldiers and Greeks. Prior to waging war against Artaxerxes, Cyrus proposed that the enemy was the [[Pisidia]]ns, and so the Greeks were unaware that they were to battle against the larger army of King Artaxerxes II (''Anabasis'' 1.1.8–11). At [[Tarsus, Mersin|Tarsus]],  the soldiers became aware of Cyrus's plans to depose the king and, as a result, refused to continue (''Anabasis'' 1.3.1). However, [[Clearchus of Sparta|Clearchus]], a Spartan general, convinced the Greeks to continue with the expedition. The army of Cyrus met the army of Artaxerxes II in the [[Battle of Cunaxa]]. Cyrus was killed in the battle (''Anabasis'' 1.8.27–1.9.1). Shortly thereafter, Clearchus was invited by Tissaphernes to a feast, where, alongside four other generals and many captains, including Xenophon's friend Proxenus, he was captured and executed (''Anabasis'' 2.5.31–32).

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[[File:Xenophon and the ten thousand hail the sea.jpg|thumb|19th-century illustration of Xenophon leading his Ten Thousand through Persia to the Black Sea]]
The [[mercenary|mercenaries]], known as the [[Ten Thousand (Greek mercenaries)|Ten Thousand]], had no leadership in territory near [[Mesopotamia]]. They elected new leaders, including Xenophon himself. Dodge says of Xenophon's generalship, "Xenophon is the father of the system of retreat [...] He reduced its management to a perfect method."<ref>Dodge, pp. 105–106</ref>

Xenophon and his men initially had to deal with volleys by a minor force of harassing Persian missile cavalry. One night, Xenophon formed a body of archers and light cavalry. When the Persian cavalry arrived the next day, now firing within several yards, Xenophon unleashed his new cavalry, killing many and routing the rest.<ref>Witt, p. 123</ref>  Tissaphernes pursued Xenophon, and when the Greeks reached the [[Great Zab]] river, one of the men devised a plan: goats, cows, sheep, and donkeys were to be slaughtered and their bodies stuffed with hay, sewn up, laid across the river, and covered with dirt so as not to be slippery and be used as a bridge to cross the river. This plan was discarded as impractical.

Dodge notes, "On this retreat also was first shown the necessary, if cruel, means of arresting a pursuing enemy by the systematic devastation of the country traversed and the destruction of its villages to deprive him of food and shelter. And Xenophon is moreover the first who established in rear of the phalanx a reserve from which he could at will feed weak parts of his line. This was a superb first conception."<ref>Dodge, p. 107</ref>

==== Conflicts ====
[[File:Xenophon Anabasis.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Xenophon's ''[[Anabasis (Xenophon)|Anabasis]]''<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brownson |first1=Carlson L. (Carleton Lewis) |title=Xenophon; |date=1886 |publisher=Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/xenophon03xeno/page/n5}}</ref>]]
The Ten Thousand eventually made their way into the land of the [[Carduchii|Carduchians]], a wild tribe inhabiting the mountains of modern southeastern Turkey. "Once the Great King had sent into their country an army of 120,000 men, to subdue them, but of all that great host not one had ever seen his home again."<ref>Witt, p. 136</ref> The Ten Thousand were shot at with stones and arrows for several days before they reached a defile where the main Carduchian host sat. Xenophon had 8,000 men feint and marched the other 2,000 to a pass revealed by a prisoner under the cover of a rainstorm, and at daylight, they pushed in.<ref>Dodge, p. 109</ref>

After the fighting, the Greeks went to the northern foothills of the mountains at the Centrites River, later finding a Persian force blocking the route north. Xenophon's scouts found another ford, but the Persians blocked this as well. Xenophon sent a small force back toward the other ford, causing the Persians to detach a major part of their force parallel. Xenophon overwhelmed the force at his ford.

[[File:Xenophon bust.jpg|thumb|Xenophon, [[Aphrodisias Museum]]]]
Winter has arrived as the Greeks marched through Armenia "absolutely unprovided with clothing suitable for such weather".<ref>Witt, p. 166</ref> The Greeks decided to attack a wooden castle known to have had storage. The castle was stationed on a hill surrounded by forest. Xenophon ordered small parties of his men to appear on the hill road, and when the defenders shot at them, one soldier would leap into the trees. Then, "the other men followed his example [...] When the stones were almost exhausted, the soldiers raced one another over the exposed part of the road", storming the fortress with most of the garrison now neutralized.<ref>Witt, pp. 175–176</ref>

Soon after, Xenophon's men reached [[Trabzon|Trapezus]] on the coast of the [[Black Sea]] (''Anabasis'' 4.8.22). Before their departure, the Greeks made an alliance with the locals and fought one last battle against the [[Colchis|Colchians]], vassals of the Persians. Xenophon ordered his men to deploy the line extremely thin so as to overlap the enemy. The Colchians divided their army to check the Greek deployment, opening a gap in their line through which Xenophon rushed in his reserves.<ref>Witt, pp. 181–184</ref> They then made their way westward back to Greek territory via [[Üsküdar#Chrysopolis|Chrysopolis]] (''Anabasis'' 6.3.16). Once there, they helped [[Seuthes II]] make himself king of [[Thrace]] before being recruited into the army of the Spartan general [[Thimbron (fl. 400–391 BC)|Thimbron]] (whom Xenophon refers to as Thibron).

Xenophon's conduct of the retreat caused Dodge to name the Athenian knight the greatest general that preceded Alexander the Great.<ref>Dodge, Theodore Ayrault. Great Captains: A Course of Six Lectures on the Art of War. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York: 1890. p. 7</ref>