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Summary: Warfare during classical age of Greece comes to life.
Review: This is a brilliant first person account of learning leadership the hard way - defeated in combat, in enemy territory, surrounded and cut off with all officers dead. Xenophon was selected to lead the army. He took command and lead his army home against immense odds.
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Summary: Military Leadership 101
Review: This is a brilliant first person account of learning leadership the hard way - defeated in combat, in enemy territory, surrounded and cut off with all officers dead. Xenophon was selected to lead the army. He took command and lead his army home against immense odds.
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Summary: The most famous account of a military withdrawal in history
Review: This is an excellent translation of Xenophon's classic report, also known as "Anabasis." Xenophon (c. 430 B. C. to c. 355 B. C.) was a Greek soldier and historian who was born in Athens and was a student of Socrates. In 401 B. C., Xenophon joined an army of Greek mercenaries who were aiding Cyrus the Younger in his military campaign against his brother, King Artaxerxes II. Unfortunately, Cyrus was killed in the Battle of Cunaxa in 401 B. C. and the 10000 Greeks find themselves alone in enemy territory, more than 1000 miles from the nearest Greek colony. In addition, the leaders of the force were treacherously murdered by the Persian satrap Tissaphernes. Xenophon is one of the Greek leaders chosen to lead the army in retreat out of Persia. In a march that lasted five months, traveled over 1500 miles, and overcoming many obstacles (both external and internal), they finally reach the colony of Trapezus (now Trabzon, Turkey) on the Black Sea. This book, which (in the original Greek) is usually the first book read by modern students of the ancient Greek language, is Xenophon's eyewitness account of that retreat and is one of the most famous books in military history. It should be required reading for everyone.
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Summary: Retreating in style: A classic by a very fine writer
Review: Xenophon's Anabasis (or "The Persian Expedition", as it is called here) is a classic tale of adventure, and a model of precise style on par with the more familiar works of Roman authors like Julius Caesar (De bello gallico) and Tacitus (Germania). Like Caesar, he uses simple, straightforward language, and the language reflects the character of the man who helped lead 10,000 Greek mercenaries through hostile territory: a man of clear values, determination, ambition, and a strong sense of honor. With Tacitus he shares an interest in odd details and in strange customs of foreign people: "a four days' march of sixty miles took him to the river Chalus, which was a hundred feet in breadth and full of large tame fish which the Syrians regarded as gods and would not allow anyone to harm them. (They think the same way about pigeons.)".Xenophon's story has an immediacy and clarity that is truly amazing given the fact that he wrote it down 30 years after the events took place, and that we read it today, almost 2,400 years later. The Italian writer Italo Calvino captured the vivid yet factual tone of the Persian Expedition very nicely when he remarked that reading the book today "is the nearest thing to watching an old war documentary which is repeated every so often on television or on video." (Calvino's essay can be found in his collection of essays "Why Read the Classics?") Although the story is a never-ending succession of visual details and action, it is never boring. Xenophon writes succinctly, sprinkles small anecdotes, portraits of soldiers, speeches, and interesting details over the text, and peppers the story with exotic details. Certain passages of the Persian Expedition reminded me of Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast". Especially in the way both authors employ visual images and celebrate the qualities of food. Hemingway enjoys "the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture"; Xenophon reminisces that "going forward, then, they arrived at the villages where the guides told them they could get supplies. There was plenty of corn there and date wine, and a sour drink made form boiled dates. As for the dates themselves, the sort which one sees in Greece were set aside for the servants, while the ones reserved for the masters were choice fruit, wonderfully big and good looking. Their colour was just like amber, and they used to dry some of them and keep them as sweets." The big difference, however, is that the aging Hemingway recreated the joy of his best years in Paris whereas the old Xenophon wrote an account of the most challenging weeks of his life. Xenophon is not only a very fine writer, he is also a man whose writing reveals his ethics. As it befits the writer who does not want to hit his readers on the head with a sermon, his morality is implicit in the style in which he writes, and in the tone of his story. Xenophon is not a sufferer, nor is he a stoic. He is an officer, a professional soldier. Xenophon's morality is that of a man of action who decides on right and wrong by looking at what he needs to do in order to master a given situation: "what we have to do is to surmount our difficulties like brave men, not to give in, but to try, if we can, to win honour and safety by victory." Italo Calvino sensed in this attitude a precursor to the modern ethic of perfect technical efficiency, but in my opinion, Xenophon's ethics are more informed by a sense of commitment to the men he commands and the gods he respects. Xenophon strives to do his job well in order to generate discipline, solidarity and trust among his men, which is necessary not only for surviving the hardships of the journey but also for keeping one's dignity. He knows the psyche of his soldiers ("when people are not trusted, their words, I notice, merely drift about without force in themselves and without inspiring confidence in others") and he knows how to motivate them ("there will be a great rise in their spirits if one can change the way they think, so that instead of having in their heads the one idea of 'what is going to happen to me?' they may think 'what action am I going to take?'"). Even if one can not enjoy Xenophon's qualities as a storyteller, or if one does not agree with his ethics, the Persian Expedition is still a fine example of how literature can give style and sense to a military debacle and a desperate adventure which, being a retreat after a defeat, is not honorable or heroic in itself.
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