The Third Book of Xenophon's Anabasis

by Xenophon

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180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 371

About the author

Xenophon (Ancient Greek Ξενοφῶν, Modern Greek Ξενοφώντας; ca. 431 – 355 BC), son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, was a soldier, mercenary and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates. He is known for his writings on the history of his own times, preserving the sayings of Socrates, and the life of ancient Greece.

Historical and biographical works:
Anabasis (or The Persian Expedition)
Cyropaedia
Hellenica
Agesilaus

Socratic works and dialogues:
Memorabilia
Oeconomicus
Symposium
Apology
Hiero

Short treatises:
On Horsemanship
The Cavalry General
Hunting with Dogs
Ways and Means
Constitution of Sparta

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book III is where the plot of the Anabasis, as a rip-roaring adventure story, gets going again. After Book II that got bogged down in negotiations with the Persians, the murder of the Greek generals, and their biographies, the Ten Thousand now set off on the march home, initially up the river Tigris. Xenophon comes to the fore as a character in his own story, and he delivers several important speeches to a dejected and uncertain army – one of them elicits a chuckle from the reader as Xenophon is clearly reaching for any reason to be optimistic and surely didn’t believe what he was saying. The action is non-stop, and whatever editor in Antiquity divided the Anabasis up into books ended this one on a nice cliffhanger.

Reading Book III in the Cambridge “Green and Yellow” edition reminded me of just how important a good and up-to-date commentary is. I don’t mean linguistically here, for Xenophon’s Greek is generally straightforward and explanations for the few really confusing quirks of syntax or idiom can be found in any edition for schoolboys from the nineteenth century on. Rather, Tim Rood in the Cambridge gives great insight into the context of the work. Xenophon briefly mentions passing a city he called “Larissa”, and Rood not only identifies this as Nimrud and describes its history and archaeology, but can even point out to the reader that this site was destroyed by Islamic State in 2015. For matters of army organization, Rood gives references to a whole host of scholarship from recent decades, like the fact that Xenophon on horseback in the last big scene was probably accompanied by an attendant that goes unmentioned.