Xenophon's March Into The Lair Of The Persian Lion

by Prevas, John

• ISBN13: 9780306811173
• ISBN10: 0306811170
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-01-04
• Publisher: Da Capo Press

Summary

The year is 403 B.C. 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 and his army destroyedexcept for the Greeks holding his right flank. Xenophon and 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 and human tale, replete with clashes of arms and desperate hardships. It is also the tale of two civilizations at mortal odds with each other. With their turbulent mix of anarchy and democracy, Xenophon's men resembled a mobile Greek city, cutting both a military and a cultural slash through the Persian Empire. Though Xenophon's journey would end badly, his experience in the East would prove invaluable for those who followed, for sixty 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 and his men in one of history's great adventures.

Author Biography

John Prevas, writer and adventurer, holds degrees in history, political science, psychology, and forensics and has taught the classics for the last fifteen years. He is the author of Hannibal Crosses the Alps and Xenophon's March. He lives in Florida.

Table of Contents

Chronology	7	(2)
Preface	9	(2)
Introduction	11	(4)
The Greeks and the Persians	15	(22)
The Tumultuous Fifth Century B.C.	37	(20)
The Quarrel of the Persian Brothers	57	(26)
Battle For the Empire	83	(18)
The Greeks Alone	101	(16)
The Persian Gauntlet	117	(14)
North to the Sea	131	(20)
Barbarians and Dissension	151	(24)
Greeks Among Greeks	175	(20)
Living By the Sword	195	(22)
Epilogue	217	(10)
Bibliography	227	(4)
Index	231