Robin Waterfield Reflects on Xenophon’s Anabasis in Persia, and Other Greco-Persian Conflicts

What can we learn by reflecting on Waterfield's take on Xenophon's Anabasis, the Persian expedition? The Anabasis is Xenophon's remarkable eyewitness account of the Greek mercenary army hired by Cyrus the Younger. Cyrus was challenging his brotherhood Xerxes for the throne of Persia. Although the 10,000 Greek hoplites won the battle militarily, this win was wasted when a spear ran through their patron Cyrus, killing him in battle. Stranded behind enemy lines and with their generals murdered by the treacherous Persians in a banquet, the Greek army of 10,000 elected Xenophon to lead them to march for many miles and many months through enemy territory before they reached the Greek colonies on the shores of the Black Sea. And the modern historian and translator Robin Waterfield has many interesting insights on this adventurous story and the Greco- Persian conflicts that preceded it. Please, we welcome interesting questions in the comments. Let us learn and reflect together. At the end of our talk, we'll discuss the sources used for this video. Please feel free to follow along in the PowerPoint script we uploaded to SlideShare. We've already reflected on Xenophon's remarkable account of this adventure, the Anabasis. In this adventure, Cyrus the Younger and his Persian rebel army with the Greek mercenary army marches tens of thousands of miles to battle the mighty Persian forces near Baghdad, deep in the desert on the banks of the mighty Tigris and Euphrates rivers. And the Greek hoplite infantry forces were the best warriors of their time. They were eagerly employed as mercenaries in the ancient world. The Greeks won this battle of Canuxa. Although Artaxerxes was wounded in the battle, his younger brother Cyrus died fighting. The Greek forces were stuck thousands of miles from home, but the Persian forces of Artaxerxes were fearful of directly attacking them. At first, the Persian forces guided them towards the Greek colonies of the Black Sea, but then they double-crossed them, killing many of their generals in a banquet. The Greeks simply elected new generals, Xenophon now leading their forces as they first fought the Persians, then mountain tribesmen, fighting for provisions as they retreated to the Greek colonies on the shores of the Black Sea. Robin Waterfield has much background information that is either missing or under-emphasized in Xenophon's history of this long retreat of the 10,000 to the Black Sea, which includes fascinating Persian court intrigues. Waterfield also answers several questions we had when reflecting on the Greco-Persian Wars, and he has some insights into the Peloponnesian Wars that followed, where the Persians bankrolled the eventual victory of the Spartans over the Athenians. Greek colonies both in Ionia and the west coast of Asia Minor, and on the north coast of the shores of the Black Sea, played a major role in the Greco-Persian Wars, and in subsequent wars in Xenophon's adventure. Many Greek colonies were established as early as the 8th through the 6th century BC, across the Mediterranean Sea and on the shores of the Black Sea. When a Greek city-state was unable to provide for all its citizens, it asked for volunteers to colonize the distant shores of the Mediterranean. Many historians refer to the Mediterranean as an ancient Greek pond. Although the main city-state assisted in their founding, these were not colonies in the modern sense, like the colonies of the British Empire. These colonies were independent city-states with only emotional and historical and trade ties to their mother city-state. Sometimes the colony and the mother city-state would oppose each other. For example, the First Peloponnesian War was sparked by a conflict between Corinth and her colony, Corsaira. The colonies in Ionia, which are on the islands and west coast of what is Turkey today, were often controlled by the Persian Empire, although they were briefly free after the Greco-Persian Wars. The Greek colonies on the shores of the Black Sea and on what is the northern coast of Turkey today were usually not controlled that tightly by Persia. The Athenian Empire relied on trade with the Greek colonies on the shores of the Black Sea for grain to feed its citizens. The main Greek colony of Syracuse and Sicily won a major battle against the Athenians in the final Peloponnesian War. Now what were the tensions that led up to the Greco-Persian Wars? In the last decade of the 6th century BC, an expanding Sparta was threatening to annex the then insignificant Athens into its land empire. The Athenian aristocrat Cleisthenes, who passed reforms that would strengthen democracy in Athens, sent an envoy to investigate the possibility of an alliance with King Darius I of Persia, as Athens was being threatened by Sparta. Darius told the envoy that an alliance was possible only if Athens consented to become a vassal state of Persia. The envoy felt compelled to accept this condition. But back in Athens, the crisis had passed, so they repudiated the agreement to become vassals of Persia, which irritated Darius. Relations grew worse when the aristagoras of Miletus and Ionia rebelled against Persia, seeking independence. Athens unwisely sent 20 triremes with hoplites. The Greeks foolishly attacked Sardis, the capital of the regional Persian satrapy, burning the residential areas of the town before turning back. In retaliation, Darius decided to sail a modest Persian force to subjugate Athens, to make her a vassal state of the Persian Empire. Most Greek city-states declined to assist Athens, fearing the wrath of Persia. Sparta claimed she was busy with a religious festival. She did not want to anger the god Apollo. Only the hoplites from Athens and the small city-state of Plataea faced down the mighty Persian Empire, winning a surprising victory in the Battle of Marathon. The ancient historian Herodotus, in his account of the Battle of Marathon, doesn't answer the key question, why didn't the Persian cavalry fight in this battle? Some scholars theorize that the horses couldn't charge in the marshes surrounding the battlefield, but Robin Waterfield has another, more plausible answer to this question. Robin Waterfield said that the Greeks had encamped on rising ground to dissuade a Persian attack, and the two sides watched each other for several days. The Persians became bored with a stalemate and decided to re-embark and sail around the Attic Peninsula to attack Athens more directly. When the formidable Persian horsemen were out of the way, boarding the ships, the Athenians and the Plataeans moved down the slope, 10,000 hoplites facing 20,000 or more Persians, and charged to minimize the amount of time they were vulnerable to the Persian arrows. And he continues, in the center, the Athenians only just managed to hold their ground, but the two wings were victorious. They routed the enemy, but with admirable discipline turned to assist the center, rather than pursue their fleeing opponents. And this was not done at the Battle of Canuxa. Now before long, the entire Persian army was withdrawing and disarray to their beached ships. After some bloody hand-to-hand fighting right by the ships, the Persians managed to take to the safety of their ships, but they lost some of their ships. And the Athenians lost 192 men, while the lighter-armed Persians lost over 6,000 men. The ghosts of dead men and horses were said, in later years, to haunt the battleground every night. The Persian ships then sailed around the peninsula to attack and sack the unguarded city of Athens. The Greeks marched quickly to the beaches of Athens and were there to meet the Persian ships. Seeing that their landing would be a post, King Darius and his forces sailed back to Persia. The Greeks knew the Persians would be returning, and in greater numbers. But before Darius could mount another larger force against Greece, there were rebellions in Egypt and Babylon. When he passed away in 486 BC, his son Xerxes first had to stabilize his rule, before organizing a more substantial invasion of Greece. A conference of Greek states was held in Corinth a little before that, in 491 BC. About 5% of the Greek city-states sent delegates. And the participating city-states decided that Sparta would lead the defensive efforts. Not only did many smaller Greek city-states fear the Persian Empire, but they also knew that the Persians ruled with a light hand, permitting cultural and religious diversity, only exacting payment of tribute. Major preparations were made for this invasion. This time a much larger army would march around the coast, forwarding the Dardanelles with a double pontoon of boats, with a substantial navy following the army off the coast. The Persians even dug a two kilometer canal against the Athos peninsula, so the ships would not have to risk the stormy seas in the area. Now first, a small Greek force held the much larger Persian army at the narrow pass of Thermopylae for several days, until a trader showed the Persians a mountain trail bypassing the pass. Then the famous Spartan 300 fought the Persians to the death. The Athenians evacuated their inhabitants to safety on the island of Salamis and elsewhere, while the Persians sacked Athens unopposed. And the Greek leader, Themistocles, tricked the Persian navy into blockading the Greek fleet in the Straits of Salamis, keeping them from escaping. But this mainly meant that the Persian sailors pulled an all-nighter guarding the straits, and had to fight the Greek navy in the morning without a proper breakfast, without getting any sleep, and likely without drinking water. And the superior seamanship of the Athenian rowers meant that their triremes sank many Persian ships, winning a major victory. Like his father, King Xerxes sailed back to Persia, along with the least effective soldiers. Now the core of the Persian army marched north to winter with the Persian ally, King Alexander of Macedon, but this large army was slaughtered in battles in central Greece in the following spring, with only a few Persian soldiers escaping. And many generations later, it would be Alexander the Great of Macedon who would defeat the Persian empire. The 50-year period from the end of the Greco-Persian wars, when the Persians were defeated, to the beginning of the Peloponnesian wars, is called the Penta-Contacia by the ancient historian Thucydides. With the Persian morale broken and many of their ships sunk, many of the Greek city-states in Ionia successfully revolted against Persian rule. The Spartans initially led this effort, but as Robin Waterfield says, the Spartan regent Pausanias, in charge of land operations against the Persians in Asia Minor, was an arrogant, unlikable man, and he made the mistake of appearing too familiar with his supposed enemies. The rumors spread thick and fast. They said that he had contracted to marry the daughter of a Persian satrap, or regional governor, and that he had agreed to abandon Asia Minor to the Persians. This rumor was likely true. Now in response, the Ionian Greeks requested that Athens form the Delian League, an alliance of Athens and Ionian city-states to protect them from Persia. And the Delian Empire gradually evolved into the Athenian Empire. Many larger city-states benefited from the increased commerce by belonging to the Delian League, while other city-states chafed under Athenian rule, resentful of the tribute they paid to Athens. And the Athenian leader Pericles, convinced that armed struggle with Sparta was inevitable, planned for the first phase of the Peloponnesian wars, which was a war of attrition. Sparta would repeatedly raid the Athenian farms, while the Athenian fleet would attack the far-flung territories of Sparta and her allies. Pericles died in the plague, which struck the Athenians, crowded behind the city walls, and the Peace of Nicias was negotiated. Now, the Peace of Nicias was interrupted when the cocky, charismatic Alcibiades, who was raised in the household of Pericles, persuaded the Athenian assembly to commit a large portion of the Athenian navy to the Sicilian expedition. Alcibiades had many enemies in the radical democracy of Athens, and after the fleet set sail, he was summoned for a trial in the assembly on trumped-up charges for acts offensive to the gods. A trial where he would lose, since those in the fleet could not vote. He fled to exile in Sparta, leaving the Timanicius to lose the battle through indecision, where most of the Athenian navy was destroyed. Athens had lost a quarter of its population due to a plague, and this added to their catastrophic loss of manpower. Alcibiades then offered good advice to the Spartans, which enabled them to prevail against Athens in the war. But the outrageous Alcibiades seduced and impregnated the Spartan queen, causing him to be exiled from Sparta also. So then he fled to the court of the Persian satrap Tisiphrones. They became fast friends. Following the advice of Alcibiades, Tisiphrones adopted a policy of supplying the Spartans just enough to keep them in the fight, but not assuring either side of a victory, so that Persia could swoop in and control Greece once the two sides had exhausted each other. Alcibiades was playing a double game. He told the Athenians he was driving a wedge between Tisiphrones and Sparta. But when Tisiphrones hinted that he might finance the Athenians, the Spartans abandoned him and received aid from the other Persian satrap, Pharnabazus. Alcibiades talked himself into the good graces of the Athenian fleet posted in the Aegean Sea, and under his command they won victory after victory. He was welcomed as a conquering hero in Athens, but the Athenians became too accustomed to his victories. He was exiled once more after a minor defeat. The successor generals were both timid and careless. They allowed the trireme naval crews to beach and go into town. The Spartan general Lysander caught them by surprise, destroying the Athenian navy, leading to the total defeat of Athens. And we'll discuss how the intrigues of the Persian court influenced events. And what we did not discuss in depth in Xenophon's account was how the intrigues of the Persian court affected Persian policies in the Peloponnesian Wars and afterwards, including the decision of Cyrus the Younger to attempt to overthrow his brother. When King Artaxerxes I died, the throne passed to his son, King Xerxes II. But after only a month and a half, he was murdered by his brother Sogdianus. His illegitimate brother, Ocus, rebelled, executing him, and he seized the throne under the name of King Darius II, with the help of his wife, Perisades. Queen Perisades had a network of spies and informants. She ordered the execution of several Persians who were a threat to her husband's throne. But since Cyrus the Younger later died on the battlefield, in hindsight Robin calls him the pampered boy and favored younger son of Queen Perisades. Brought up to believe in his abilities and leadership qualities, much as the future president of FDR was pampered and encouraged by his mother. And she convinced her husband, King Darius II, to send his young 16-year-old son, Cyrus the Younger, east, giving him military and administrative control of both these satrapies, sidelining both Ctesiphones and Pharnabazus, demoting them to governors of subordinate regions. Cyrus the Younger took over the war effort, and he developed a close relationship with the Spartan commander, Lysander, providing him with an initial sum of 500 talents. And Cyrus said if that was not enough, he would use his own money, and if that also ran out, he would break up his throne of silver and gold on which he sat. And Cyrus's generosity in supplying the Spartan navy and army helped Sparta win the Peloponnesian Wars. Cyrus led his youth Claudio's judgment when he executed two of his father's cousins, when he thought they did not show him the respect due to a king, although he was only a satrap and not yet a king. His father, King Darius, recalled him to Susa to remind him that he was not yet a king. Meanwhile, the scheming of Perisades did not go unnoticed. She became the bitter rival of Cyrus's older brother's wife, Statira, who also involved herself in palace intrigue. Not long afterward, King Darius fell deathly ill. He sent a message to Cyrus imploring him to allow his older brother to assume the throne in peace. Cyrus returned to Susa, the capital, and remained there for his brother's coronation, who assumed the royal name of King Artaxerxes II. But a worrying incident guaranteed that peace between these brothers would be impossible. Robin Waterfield informs us, Not long before the investiture was to begin, Ctesiphones brought to Artaxerxes one of the priests who had an astonishing tale to tell. Cyrus, he said, was planning to hide himself in the sanctuary and kill Artaxerxes when an opportune moment presented itself. What made the story especially credible was that this priest was close to Cyrus. He had been his boyhood tutor. Even so, this story is implausible and makes little sense. Perhaps it was even manufactured long after the death of Cyrus. But Queen Perisades persuaded her older son Artaxerxes to allow his brother to return to his post in Susa. But this distrust led King Artaxerxes to reduce his brother's power. So he reassigned the Greek Ionian city-states with their generous tribute payments to Ctesiphones. Cyrus suspected that his brother would tolerate him only as long as their mother, Queen Perisades, was alive. And this was a period when the satrap Fornabasus, eager to earn the king's gratitude, had his agents murder Alcibiades, the former advisor to Cyrus. And around this time, Queen Perisades was highly suspected of poisoning her rival, Queen Statira. But Artaxerxes let his mother pass on this. But her son did not exile or execute mom. Robin Waterfield also asserts that the aristocratic rulers of the Greek Ionian city-states preferred Cyrus over Ctesiphones, since they suspected that Ctesiphones preferred that the Greek city-states adopt a more democratic form of government, which meant that their city assemblies would have more power. Only the important city-state of Miletus supported Ctesiphones, since he had executed or exiled the These exiles went to the court of Cyrus, who gave the men an assistance to take back Miletus. And perhaps Artaxerxes was relieved that Cyrus was distracted by this conflict. It was not uncommon for Persian kings to exploit conflicts between satraps to weaken them. And this meant that Cyrus could assemble forces for his coup attempt under the guise of plotting against Ctesiphones. Robin Waterfield said that Cyrus began a propaganda war against his brother, seeking support among the Persian nobles. Cyrus spread rumors that his brother was a weakling and a drunkard, who might run a splendid court but would ruin the empire. Xenophon tamely agreed with this assessment of Artaxerxes. By contrast, Cyrus saw himself as the chosen of the gods and a man of vigor, a great hunter and warrior, schooled in the Persian virtues and capable of holding his drink. And Xenophon, in his Anabasis, speaks of his admiration for his patron Cyrus the Younger, comparing him to Cyrus the Great. Indeed, Xenophon's fanciful portrait of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian empire many generations ago, echoes the qualities he most admires in Cyrus the Younger. And this loose biography should be read as background for Xenophon's Anabasis. And this biography also contains many stoic sayings by Xenophon. Robin Waterfield discusses Xenophon's judgment of the character of Cyrus the Younger. He cautions that in war, and ancient Greece was definitely a warrior culture, sometimes deceit is needed so you don't reveal your plans to your adversary. Desertion was endemic in ancient armies. Sometimes Greek armies supplied the enemy with false desserts to mislead them of their plans. Cyrus was thus compelled to deceive his brother of his intentions, and thus he was also compelled to deceive the Greek mercenaries of their true mission until they had marched deep into Persia. Confiding only in his Greek commander, Clearchus. Waterfield observes that Cyrus may not have been as widely loved and admired as Xenophon claims. He threatened brutal retaliation if certain Greek forces rebelled. It also appears that Cyrus received scant support from the other satraps and from disaffected Persian nobles. We included Robin Waterfield's biographical notes on Xenophon with other sources, including the ancient biographer Diogenes of Laertes' Lives of Eminent Philosophers in our Reflections on the Life and Adventures of Xenophon, and Cyrus and the Greeks prepare to march. Cyrus opened negotiations with Sparta, who was not interested in honoring their obligation to Artaxerxes, guaranteeing that the Greek Ionian city-states would continue paying tribute to Persia. Cyrus promised Sparta a free hand in Greek Ionia, the city-states on the west coast of Asia Minor, if they helped him defeat his brother and seize the throne of Persia. Robin Waterfield presents some background information on Clearchus, the Spartan general leading the Greek mercenary forces of Cyrus. That is not emphasized in Xenophon's account. Clearchus occasionally directly disobeyed orders for his personal gain. He had been a Spartan naval commander in the last phases of the Peloponnesian Wars and was proxenos, or military general, of the area surrounding the small town of Byzantium, which is in northern Ionia. He displayed the same high-handedness in dealing with the Ionian Greeks as did Pausanias at the end of the Greco-Persian Wars. And Clearchus' solution to the internal strife in Byzantium was to execute the troublemakers and seize their property for himself. When he was briefly absent from the city, they opened their gates to the Athenians. And the Spartans recalled him, but when he refused to relinquish his post and return to Sparta, they sent an armed force against him, causing him to flee to the court of Cyrus in Greek Ionia. The Spartans then banished him, proclaiming a death sentence on him. This was the Spartan general Cyrus chose to lead his Greek mercenary army. Robin Waterfield summarizes Xenophon's thumbnail sketch of Clearchus. While in his dealings with his fellow generals, Clearchus usually looked for a consensus before implementing any strategy, his treatment of his men was quite different. He possessed the admirable quality to boil his men into an obedient fighting unit, but he did this by making them frightened of his quick temper and random, brutal punishments. Spartan officers were notoriously harsh disciplinarians. But many of the mercenaries were little more than thugs, eager for blood and booty. And a harsh disciplinarian may have been just what was needed to keep them at bay. Now what motivated the Spartans and other Greeks to join the mercenary army of Cyrus the Younger? A large professional army had been fighting the for many years. Many now sought further glory and booty. Robin Waterfield explains, mercenary pay covered little more than their daily expenses during the campaign. They bought quite a bit of their food, and in many cases there were dependents to maintain, prisoners to keep alive until they could be sold or ransomed, and the need to repair fragile equipment. Nevertheless, mercenaries generally expected to arrive home wealthier than before, which meant that they sought to profit from booty. It is a distasteful fact of war that soldiers loot. They steal from the corpses of fallen friends and foes alike, if there is no more substantial target available. For the upcoming struggle, Artaxerxes commanded an army of about 45,000. The ancient sources overestimate his strength of 400,000 to say 900,000. The Persians had a standing army. The core of the Persian infantry was the Immortals, which always numbered at least 10,000. The Persian nobility made up the cavalry, riding the sturdinessian breed of warhorses. Cyrus the Young's army was about 30,000, including the famous battle-hardened 10,000 Greek mercenaries, mostly Spartan hoplites, with a few Athenians and other Greeks, including Xenophon, the former student of Socrates. As Robin Waterfield states, the Greek arms, armor, and tactics outclassed anything they faced. Even the famous Persian cavalry. No horse, however passionately urged on by its rider, will hurl itself into a solid phalanx, bristling with spears. In a tightly packed phalanx, the spears of the first three lines were long enough to project in front of the first line, if the soldiers had the necessary strength and skill. The most a horseman could do was ride up close enough to discharge a javelin, and even that was difficult to do effectively in the days before saddles and stirrups. And the so-called 10,000 consisted of 10,600 Greek hoplites, or heavy armed infantry, and 2,300 peltasts, or lightly armed infantry, from the margins of the Greek world. Xenophon's The Expedition of Cyrus is an account of astonishing success. Every time the Greek hoplites charged an enemy, the enemy chose to run away rather than engage them in close quarters. Robin Waterfield has wonderful descriptions of how the Greek hoplite armies engaged each other in Greece, and perhaps it is better than the sources we use to discuss this topic in our reflections on Neuroticus and the Greco-Persian Wars. Now, we don't know where the actual Battle of Canuxa was fought. It is named after the ancient village of Canuxa. Cyrus, with his army, approached the massive trench 65 kilometers long, but was surprised that his brother forces were not anywhere nearby. Perhaps Artaxerxes was not planning to oppose him. After they crossed the ditch and marched on, discipline became lax. He allowed the army to be strung out in disarray. Two days later, a Persian nobleman and Cyrus's staff galloped into camp with news that his brother king Artaxerxes was approaching with a massive army. Cyrus's army hurried to the front, taking hours to deploy, but in the desert heat, they delayed putting on their heavy armor as long as possible, but they could hear the enemy army rumble towards them. Robin Waterfield describes a moment. As Artaxerxes' army approached, the Greeks could see that the enemy was preceded by deadly scythe chariots, whose sharpened blades projected not just to the sides of the axles, but swept the ground underneath so that nothing could escape their onslaught. These chariots were a recent Persian invention, specifically designed for the destruction of hoplite phalanxes. The terror of the sight was magnified by horrible silence. The Persians were not whooping and shouting, but marched on steadily in an eerie quiet, and with far more discipline than the Greeks had been led to expect. Since they outnumbered Cyrus's force, their right flank wrapped around Cyrus's left flank. The original plan was for the Greek troops to wipe out the Persian left flank and swing around to the center where the two king's forces were confronting each other. At the last minute, Cyrus ordered Clearchus, the Greek commander, to instead attack the center, but the Greek, wary of this last-minute change of plan, refused. As in the current position, the river would cover the phalanx's weak right side, and the Greeks won their battle. The Greeks, facing the left wing commanded by the Persian satrap Tisiphrones, whom we've already met, advanced towards the Persians at a quick walk, and the Greek hoplites in their type phalanx formation became more confident. They quickened their pace. As Robin Waterfield puts it, soon the Greeks were all running forward, shouting and screaming and banging their shields with the shafts of their spears, in perfect hoplite formation, of course, in an attempt not just to demoralize their opponents, but to overcome their own fear of the imminent, brutal shock of contact. But even before they closed to about 150 meters, which was the most dangerous point, within range of the enemy bows, although at this distance the arrows lacked much penetrative power, most of the Persian left wing caved in. Charioteers abandoned their vehicles and ran. Horsemen turned tail, and foot soldiers dropped their weapons and fled. And the Greeks slaughtered the fleeing Persians while sustaining only a handful of casualties. And the battle was a repeat of the Battle of Marathon, when the Athenians first defeated a Persian raiding army in the First Greco-Persian War. But there was a difference. Tissapharnes rallied some of his horsemen and counterattacked, with little immediate effect. But then he withdrew, and he made it appear like he was fleeing the battlefield. But it was a feint to draw the Greek forces off the main battlefield to keep them from attacking the center, behind the forces guarding Ordo Xerxes. What happened in the center of the battle? Robin Waterfield tells us. With the Greeks off the immediate battlefield, Ordo Xerxes' cavalry galloped forward, followed by the immortals and the rest of the infantry, in an attempt to encircle Cyrus's right flank, now exposed by the forward movement of the Greeks. Cyrus had to act quickly to come up with a significant counter-threat. He spotted the Persian royal standard with its spread eagle, and led his elite horsemen in a reckless, headlong gallop straight for his brother. And he continues. They broke through Ordo Xerxes' cavalry, but at the cost of being coming scattered. And by that time, Cyrus's impetus had carried him deep into the enemy ranks, while he was accompanied by rather too few of his bodyguards. In the melee and chaos of war and pitched battle, both kings were seriously injured. But Cyrus's wounds were more serious. The killing stab was below the knee, and he died on the battlefield. And as Robin Waterfield reminds us, the death of the pretender spelled defeat, whatever happened elsewhere on the field of battle. And what happened in the rear of the battle? Marauding Persians fought for the baggage carts of the Greeks. The camp followers defended themselves and the supplies as best they could with whatever weapons they could find. Many of these Greeks survived, with some of the supplies and concubines, but much precious food and equipment was lost. And a long day then turned into night, and darkness enveloped the battlefield. As Robin Waterfield tells us, the Greeks did not yet know that Cyrus was dead, and they had no idea that the battle was lost. Given their own apparent success, they probably assumed that they had won. Weary and hungry, with bodies chafed, sore from the abrasive blend of dust and sweat inside their armor, they returned to the plundered camp. And the Greek mercenaries won the battle of Canuxa, but their victory was for naught since Cyrus their patron was dead. The Greek hoplites were the most feared military forces of their day. The Persians dared not challenge them in battle. They could not return the way they came through desert and hostile territory. Instead, they chose to go north. Ctesiphones offered to guide them, offering them provisions if they would retreat. And we will let Xenophon tell the tale of the March of the Ten Thousand to the Black Sea. Halfway through Persia, Clearchus and many other Greek generals are tricked into attending a banquet in the Persian camp, where Ctesiphones orders that the Greeks in their camps be executed, although some were held prisoner for some months. The Greeks elect new generals, and Xenophon is elected as the chief general to lead them towards the Black Sea. They fight the Persians as they retreat, and then they fight mountain tribes the Persians were never able to conquer. After thousands of miles, the Greeks start shouting when marching through the northern mountain passes. Xenophon was at the rear, and rushed forward on horseback, fearing the worst. Robin Waterfield quotes Xenophon, Xenophon mounted a horse, and with the cavalry rode up to lend assistance, and before long, they could make out that the soldiers were shouting, Thalada, Thalada, the sea, the sea. Then all the men in the rear began running too, and the pack of animals and the horses broke into a gallop. When everyone reached the mountaintop, they immediately fell into one another's arms, even the generals and company commanders, with tears in their eyes. In the end, over 8,000 Greeks survive this long and arduous trek, and the trip along the shores of the Black Sea, including how the mercenaries hired themselves out to various rulers, and finally enlisting with the Spartans battling the Persians, takes nearly half of the Xenophon's anabasis. But Xenophon chose to retire to Greece, settling on an estate given to him by Sparta. Alexander the Great would relive the resolute tactics and impetuous bravery of Cyrus the Younger on the battlefield, personally charging the bodyguard of King Darius III, causing him to flee into defeat. But Alexander the Great, unlike Cyrus the Younger, first And now we'll discuss the sources we used for this video. If you're interested in reading this adventure story that was popular in both the ancient world and medieval times, I would read both Xenophon's account and Robin Waterfield's commentary. You should also read Xenophon's fanciful biography of the founder of the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great, with his description of the warrior virtues he sees in Cyrus the Younger, with many stoic sayings. Robin Waterfield is also written a book on the life of Plato, which we plan to cover in the future. Xenophon wrote The History of My Times where he discusses the ending years of the Peloponnesian Wars where Thucydides left off, and how they transitioned into the series of wars between all the Greek combatants in the succeeding years. The Peloponnesian Wars permanently weakened Athens, and although they partially recovered, the wars that followed permanently weakened Sparta, with Thebes freeing their Helot Serf population. And this permanent weakening of both Athens and Sparta likely made Greece easier to conquer by Philip of Macedon, before his son Alexander the Great embarked on his conquest of the Persian Empire. Also, there's a series of lectures by Professor John Hale of the Great Courses on the Greco-Persian Wars that we highly recommend. This is not available on Wondrium, but there's also a set of lectures on Wondrium on the Persian Empire by John Lee. The YouTube description includes a link to our PowerPoint script that we uploaded to SlideShare and also our blog. Please support this channel by sharing this video with your friends, and by clicking on the like and subscribe buttons, and by clicking on the Amazon links to purchase any of the books we discussed, which will earn us a very small affiliate commission. And please consider becoming a patron of our channel, plus we will host special discussion groups for our patrons. 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