Sign in with Facebook
Trevor's Reviews > The Persian Expedition
The Persian Expedition
by
by
Xenophon has become a bit of a fascination of mine at the moment. I’ve started reading his Socratic Conversations – which I’ll review when I finish, but am finding remarkable – and then I found this as a talking book under the title The March of the Ten Thousand. I’ve just finished listening to this. Amazing story. A group of Greek mercenaries go off to raid, rape and pillage their way through Persia, when things go awry – seriously awry. All of the leaders are killed – one after being tortured for a year – and the army of ten thousand are left with the Euphrates on one side and the king’s army on the other – and a very long way from home.
This is in part a tale of privations – but only in part. There are interesting bits where he discusses the local customs of the peoples he comes across. Also interesting were the bits where he discusses, in a remarkably off-hand manner, torturing prisoners. The homosexuality of some of the soldiers made me think of all that trouble there was in the US army a while ago over just this issue. There is a point in this book where they decide they have to get rid of all superfluous baggage, but Xenophon notes that some soldiers still hid away some pretty boys and even some women. Even women? Who'd have thought!
What I found most interesting though, was the discussions of sacrifices to see if the time was auspicious to take a particular action. It would be good to be able to think that people really didn’t believe in this nonsense, but it is utterly clear that people did believe. At the start he goes over to see his good friend Socrates to find out if he ought to go off to war and Socrates advises him to consult the Delphic Oracle – I mean, imagine! Socrates then criticises him for not asking the right question of the Oracle – and if anyone knows anything about questions, it is Socrates.
What was perhaps most human about this was that the army was united under attack throughout its journey, but became fragmented once back on Greek soil (I mean territory). And the cause of the fragmentation? Well, naturally that other great divider of humanity – Nationality. If only one could wrap all of the world's holy books in all of the world's flags and drop them somewhere out of harms way – imagine!
This was quite a boy’s own romp – not at all what I was expecting from a mate of Socrates’s. It perhaps suffers a little by being written by Xenophon and so he tends to give himself a remarkably good rap – but there are times when he goes on about his men only remembering the beatings and not remembering the praise … you know, it is funny how people are like that, totally lacking in gratitude.
This is in part a tale of privations – but only in part. There are interesting bits where he discusses the local customs of the peoples he comes across. Also interesting were the bits where he discusses, in a remarkably off-hand manner, torturing prisoners. The homosexuality of some of the soldiers made me think of all that trouble there was in the US army a while ago over just this issue. There is a point in this book where they decide they have to get rid of all superfluous baggage, but Xenophon notes that some soldiers still hid away some pretty boys and even some women. Even women? Who'd have thought!
What I found most interesting though, was the discussions of sacrifices to see if the time was auspicious to take a particular action. It would be good to be able to think that people really didn’t believe in this nonsense, but it is utterly clear that people did believe. At the start he goes over to see his good friend Socrates to find out if he ought to go off to war and Socrates advises him to consult the Delphic Oracle – I mean, imagine! Socrates then criticises him for not asking the right question of the Oracle – and if anyone knows anything about questions, it is Socrates.
What was perhaps most human about this was that the army was united under attack throughout its journey, but became fragmented once back on Greek soil (I mean territory). And the cause of the fragmentation? Well, naturally that other great divider of humanity – Nationality. If only one could wrap all of the world's holy books in all of the world's flags and drop them somewhere out of harms way – imagine!
This was quite a boy’s own romp – not at all what I was expecting from a mate of Socrates’s. It perhaps suffers a little by being written by Xenophon and so he tends to give himself a remarkably good rap – but there are times when he goes on about his men only remembering the beatings and not remembering the praise … you know, it is funny how people are like that, totally lacking in gratitude.
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
The Persian Expedition.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
Comments Showing 1-2 of 2 (2 new)
date
newest »
newest »
Ginnie, your purple-prose review was a delight and alludes to your JFK story - but I would love to hear more. What a remarkable thing to have spoken to JFK about. Much more interesting than what most people would have spoken to him about. I didn't enjoy the Socratic Conversations nearly as much as this - but will eventually get around to reading his history of his times.
And Amen to all that, Mindy - the cornerstone of my faith is that the world comes with twin evils: religion and nationality. Most of the bad things that happen in the world can be traced back to small groups of very powerful people using one, other or both of these to get the rest of us to gleefully do their bidding.
Imagine how shameful it would be to fight a war to steal someone else's oil. But if you simply wrap your flag around your gun-ship while talking about crusades - well it seems you can get away with just about anything.
Amen, Trevor!