Palmyrah's Reviews > The Persian Expedition

The marched and fought their way right round Turkey! And a good chunk of Iraq, too! All the way from the Ionian coast to Mesopotamia — they got within fighting distance of Babylon – and then all the way back to the Bosporus (here's a map). They fought the Persians, the Kurds, the Armenians, the Thracians and anyone else who got in their way. And all they were doing was trying to get home.

It took them fifteen months. There were ten thousand of them to begin with and eight thousand left at the end. Some were killed in battle, some perished from cold in the high mountain passes, some died of treachery. And when they reached the relative safety of the Black Sea coast, they took to quarrelling amongst themselves.

An absolutely amazing story—a combination of traveller's tale, adventure story, manual of military tactics and meditation on man's ingratitude. One of the great literary works of civilisation, the Anabasis is also a rattling good read.