Xenophon

Xenophon led ten thousand Greek mercenaries out of the Persian empire and wrote the account of it himself. Born in Athens around 430 BC into a wealthy family, he was a young associate of Socrates, whose conversations he later recorded in the Memorabilia — a portrait far more practical and less metaphysical than Plato's. In 401 BC he joined an expedition of Greek mercenaries hired by Cyrus the Younger to overthrow his brother, the Persian king Artaxerxes II. Cyrus was killed at Cunaxa near Babylon, the Greeks won their part of the field and found themselves victorious, unpaid and stranded fifteen hundred kilometres inside hostile territory. Their generals were then seized and executed at a parley. Xenophon, holding no command and present as a private observer, was elected one of the new generals. The Anabasis describes the march north through Kurdistan and the Armenian highlands in winter, harassed continuously, until they reached the Black Sea at Trapezus and the cry of thalatta, thalatta went down the column. The march had a strategic consequence: it demonstrated that a Greek force could operate deep inside Persia unbeaten, a lesson Alexander's generation absorbed. He then served under the Spartan king Agesilaus, fought against Athens at Coronea in 394 BC, and was exiled for it. Sparta gave him an estate at Scillus near Olympia, where he wrote for two decades. His output covers history, horsemanship, hunting, estate management and an idealised life of Cyrus the Great. The Hellenica continues Thucydides. He died around 354 BC.

• Lived: 430 BCE – 354 BCE
• Nationality: Greek
• Roles: military_leader, historian, philosopher