The Persian Expedition (Penguin Classics)

click here for more details, find new or used items	Xenophon Our price £6.99 (£9.99) New from £4.25 Used from £1.99 Pages: 384 (Paperback) ISBN: 0140440070 Pub: Penguin Classics Pub date: 1975-06-26 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 15260

Reader Reviews:

A great epic, who needs SciFi and Fantasy? (3/3 people found this helpful)

I keep encouraging younger readers to embrace the classics and the Anabasis or Persian expedition is the first recommendation, that I make. An epic yarn that has crossed the ages to the most unlikely places (Consider that Xenophon's Persian Expedition was the inspiration for the 1970s film "The Warriors").
Who needs Sci-Fi and Fantasy when real history produces such heroic epics.
Inspiring but more importantly accessible ...which begs the question why more don't access it.

Fascinating True Ancient Events (6/6 people found this helpful)

Occasionally the language can be a bit turgid and it is'nt edge of the seat stuff all the way through. However, considering exactly how long ago these events took place, the clarity and detail are really impressive. You get battles, scheming, politics and some amazing feats of human endurance but above all these are real events...

Relevant today! (8/8 people found this helpful)

I enjoyed this book both as a serious historical account of a significant event in ancient history and as a rip-roaring boys-own annual type of adventure.
Xenophons account of the fighting return of the ten thousand Greek mercenaries, from the heart of the Persian Empire back to Greece, gripped the imagination of his Greek peers and added to the growing rumblings in the Greek agoras that Persia was ripe for invasion. This culminated with Alexanders famous conquests.
In military terms, the Greeks ability to change tactics in the face of constantly differing challenges, (from formal enemy armies to highly effective guerilla tactics), together with the obvious Greek discipline and camaraderie, could stand in army manuals today.

Page-turner (9/10 people found this helpful)

Nail-biting account of how a defeated army of Greek mercenaries, stranded deep in enemy territory, battled their way home through Persia and Kurdistan. Xenophon's account may be somewhat self-serving (and disconcertingly, he writes about himself in third person), but it's still plenty gripping. It's impossible not to cheer as the Greeks, lost and exhausted, top their umpteenth mountain crest and finally catch a glimpse of their salvation: "The sea! The sea!".

Xenophon is your basic military man, so he pretty much cuts to the chase. Rivers are to be forded, women are to be seized, and he doesn't have much time for poetical asides. Nevertheless he's a sharp observer of human character, in a practical sort of way; this is no dry historical document. The always surprisingly modern outlook of the Greeks comes through in every line, and passages of Xenophon's pep-talks could be taken out a management handbook:

"... 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?"."

The Penguin translation is clear and servicable, although the introduction is actually more difficult to follow than the story itself.

Very pleasurable (19/21 people found this helpful)

A very pleasurable introduction to classical literature. Easily the best work of Xenophon. I slogged through the _Hellenica_ and found this book wonderful in comparison.

It is crisp in language and easy to digest. The Warner translation comes across better than the Loeb translation.

Highly recommended

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