The Persian Expedition [Audio CD]

Xenophon (Author), read by: Bottino (Editor), Pat (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008

This record of one of the most famous marches in history contains an account of the day-to-day life of ordinary men and soldiers and demonstrates how Greek theories of government and morality worked out in practice.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Greek (translation) --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

About the Author

Xenophon was born c.430BC, an Athenian gentleman. Whilst fighting for Greece, he was finally banished due to his devotion to Socrates and support for Sparta. Settling near Olympia under Spartan protection, he began to write his treatises, histories and biographies. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, Inc.; Unabridged edition (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1433245167
• ISBN-13: 978-1433245169
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,613,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Retreating in style: A classic by a very fine writer, May 29, 2001

By 

Boris Bangemann "boyse" (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Persian Expedition (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The usual plodding classicist translation, June 3, 2008

By 

Greenlight (Vermont) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Persian Expedition (The Great Commanders Series) (Hardcover)

Rex Warner's is a pretty sleepy translation, albeit an important, early effort (from 1950). Compare the following passage (on the first page) from Warner...

"But, after the death of Darius, when Artaxerxes was established on the throne, Tissaphernes maligned Cyrus to his brother and accused him of plotting against him. Artaxerxes believed the story and arrested Cyrus with the intention of putting him to death: but his mother by her entreaties secured his life and his recall to his province. Still, after the danger and disgrace from which he had escaped, Cyrus took measures to ensure that he should never again be in his brother's power; instead, if he could manage it, he would become king in his brother's place."

... with WHD Rouse's translation (1959). Rouse drives home the point much faster:

"But when Dareios died and Artaxerxes succeeded, Tissaphernes slandered Cyros to his brother and said he was plotting against him. The king believed him, and siezed Cyros to put him to death, but his mother begged him off and sent him back to his province. When Cyros got clear of this danger and disgrace, he determined never again to be in his brother's power, but to make himself king instead, if he could."

Now if only Stanley Lombardo would put the Anabasis on his to-do list. He had an incredible touch with the Iliad.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most famous account of a military withdrawal in history, May 8, 1999

By 

R. D. Allison ([e-mail]) (Gainesville, Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Persian Expedition (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.