Overview

In 401 B.C. Cyrus the Younger (424?-401 B.C.) marched into the heart of the Persian Empire to take the throne from his brother Artaxerxes II (reigned 404-359/58 B.C.). The core of his army was a contingent of Greek mercenaries, later known as the "Ten Thousand." Their ranks included a junior officer named Xenophon (431?-354? B.C.). After Cyrus was slain on the battlefield of Cunaxa, Xenophon helped lead the harried Greek soldiers north to the Black Sea and then home. Their trek through the Kurdistan mountains and Armenian tableland remained the only exploration of these isolated and inhospitable regions until modern times. Xenophon's Anabasis, which recounts these exploits, is one of the very few extant eyewitness accounts of the Persian Empire.

Background

The death of Xerxes the Great (519?-465 B.C.) marked the beginning of the Achaemenid...