anabasis

Anabasis, meaning "march upward" in Greek, refers most notably to Xenophon’s Anabasis, a fourteenth-century BCE title given to his account of a historical expedition. The work, likely composed around 360 BCE, is one of the major surviving sources for late Achaemenid Persia and classical Greek military history. It is traditionally published as eight books and is commonly known in English as The Anabasis of Cyrus or The March Up Country.

The principal subject is the expedition of Cyrus the Younger against his brother Artaxerxes II and the subsequent march of the Ten Thousand, the Greek mercenaries who had joined Cyrus. Cyrus is killed at the battle of Cunaxa (401 BCE), but the Greek force survives the engagement and, under leaders chosen by the troops, undertakes a grueling retreat northward and eastward across Asia Minor and Mesopotamia to the Black Sea coast. Xenophon, an Athenian soldier and mercenary who joins the force, emerges as a central narrator and later leader for part of the journey. The narrative details battles, marches, hardships, mutinies, and the eventual crossing to safety at Trebizond and voyage home to Hellas.

Anabasis is valued for its clear military narrative, practical observations on logistics and leadership, and its ethnographic and geographic descriptions. It has influenced later historians and writers and remains a foundational text in classical studies, frequently studied both for its historical content and its literary qualities. The term anabasis has also entered broader usage to denote any significant ascent or expedition into unfamiliar territory.