The Retreat of the Ten Thousand

The Greeks elected Xenophon leader. Each soldier pledged to obey and not quarrel. They marched over sand and rock, forded rivers, seized food along the way. Every morning Xenophon formed a square to fight pursuing Persians until nightfall, then marched further before sleeping. Mountain peoples rolled rocks on them. After about a thousand miles, they saw the sea and shouted for joy. But no captain would take them without money, so they walked along the shore, took towns for money, and eventually joined an expedition to free Ionian cities. Ten thousand of eleven thousand survived. Xenophon wrote the Anabasis, still read by students learning Greek.