Xenophon’s March: Into the Lair of the Persian Lion

The year is 403 BCE. The Athenian philosopher Xenophon finds himself with an army of Greeks marching to what is now Turkey. Their mission: to aid the Persian pretender Cyrus in a war against his brother Artaxerxes. At a great battle, Cyrus is killed & his army destroyed—except for the Greeks holding his right flank. Xenophon & the Greeks are now stranded in the heart of the Persian Empire, outnumbered a hundred to one. The story of Xenophon’s march to escape the Persian noose is an intensely personal & human tale, replete with clashes of arms & desperate hardships. It’s also the tale of two civilizations at mortal odds with each other. With their turbulent mix of anarchy & democracy, Xenophon’s men resembled a mobile Greek city, cutting both a military & a cultural slash through the Persian Empire. Tho Xenophon’s journey would end badly, his experience in the East would prove invaluable for those who followed, for 60 years later, the Greeks would return to Persia under Alexander. John Prevas brings this epoch-shaping story to life with a compelling narrative vivified by his personal retracing of much of the route trod by Xenophon & his men in one of history’s great adventures.