Forget about 300, here's 10,000!

In 401 BC an army of Greek mercenaries joined the service of Cyrus the Young, Prince of Persia, and took part in a campaign against Cyrus' brother King Artaxerxes II.

After the death of Cyrus in the Battle of Cunaxa, the commanding officers of the Greek mercenaries were treacherously murdered by the Persian satrap Tissaphernes.

Left leaderless in the heart of the hostile Persian Empire, Xenophon was among the new officers chosen to command the Greek force, totaling around 10,000 men,

Assuming responsibility for directing the retreat, he led his men to safety in the ancient Greek colony of Trapezus (now Trabzon, Turkey) on the Black Sea, a 1500 mile march last five months. Their triumphant survival has been attributed largely to his resourcefulness, foresight and tact. In his most celebrated book, the Anabasis he describes the retreat through an unknown country against disheartening obstacles of terrain and weather, savage enemies and failure of supplies.

From Trapezus, Xenophon and the "Ten Thousand" moved on to Chrysopolis. Shortly after their arrival they entered the service of the Spartans in their campaigns against the Persian satraps of Asia Minor. The ransom Xenophon collected from a wealthy Persian prisoner in this campaign enabled him to live in comfort for the rest of his life.

From these foreign adventures he returned to Greece in 394 BC as a member of the staff of Agesilaus II, King of Sparta.

In that capacity he was present at the Battle of Coronea, in which the Spartans defeated the Athenians and their Theban allies.

The Athenians retaliated by condemning him as a traitor and sentencing him to banishment. The Spartan government presented him with an estate at Scillus, in Elius, where he lived the life of a country gentleman for twenty-four years.

After the military power of Sparta was broken at Leuctra in 371, he was driven from his home. Athens lifted the ban of exile against him, but instead of returning home he apparently spent the rest of his life in Corinth.

Apart from the Anabasis, Xenophon's most important writings are Hellenica, a continuation, covering the period 411 to 363 BC, of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. Cyropaedia, an idealized biography of Cyrus the Great; and Memorabilia, recollections of Socrates and Socratic conversations. He also wrote an encomium of Agesilaus; a group of political and economic treatises; a series of essays on horsemanship, hunting and cavalry warfare; and several additional Socratic dialogues.

As soldier, orator, philosopher, essayist, and historian, Xenophon was the prototype of the talented Athenian. As a youth he was a disciple of the Greek philosopher Socrates. However he found the austere Spartan way of life more congenial than the democratic spirit of his native Athens.

The value of his historical writings is impaired by strong pro-Spartan bias and by a lack of a sense of proportion. His Socratic writings reveal a mind that did not fully comprehend the philosophy of his master, and his own ideas are unoriginal, moralistic and commonplace. Sincerity and common sense are his strongest characteristics. His style is easy, elegant and uncomplicated, and he is considered a master of clear exposition.