Line #9 Literature/Anabasis


1	[[quoteright:328:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/theanabasis.jpg]]
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3	The ''Anabasis'' ([[IHaveManyNames also called]] ''The Anabasis of Cyrus'', ''The March Up Country'', ''The March of the Ten Thousand'', and ''The Persian Expedition'') is a work by the [[UsefulNotes/AncientGreece ancient Greek]] writer Creator/{{Xenophon}}. It details the journey of 10,000 Greek mercenaries in the army of Cyrus the Younger as he seeks to overthrow his older brother, the King of Persia Artaxerxes II. They fight Artaxerxes' army at Cunaxa, defeating it, and all seems well...
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5	Until they realize that Cyrus [[DecapitatedArmy had been killed in battle]], leaving the Ten Thousand deep in the Persian Empire--whose king they had just fought to overthrow--with few or no friends and a long way to go before they could find anything even remotely resembling safety.
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7	[[OhCrap Well, crap.]]
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9	There begins the real story, as the Ten Thousand battle the elements, Persian treachery, and their own fears--encountering some interesting people along the way--as they try to [[TheHomewardJourney make their way back to Greece]].
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11	A classic of Western literature, and frequently the first full original text a student of Ancient Greek will read, on account of the exciting, action-packed plot and Xenophon's clear, energetic writing style (rather like [[UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar Caesar]]'s ''Literature/CommentariesOnTheGallicWar'' for Latin students). Classics professors often joke (or half-joke) that ''this'' is the book that Hollywood should make a movie of. And they have--sort of: ''Film/TheWarriors'' is a SettingUpdate of the ''Anabasis'', with numerous embellishments and edits. There also exists a LowFantasy novelization, ''The Ten Thousand'', by Paul Kearney.
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13	You can read the original work [[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text;jsessionid=BD7F750EB08CBCA8A17961DC749836E5?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0201 here]]. If that's all Greek to you (sorry), you might want to check out [[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0202 this English translation]] instead.
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15	----
16	!! Tropes found in the ''Anabasis'' include:
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18	* AerithAndBob: The Persians' names include Artaxerxes, Tissaphernes, [[TheUnpronounceable Ariaeus, Artaozus]]... and Cyrus.
19	* AssholeVictim: By modern standards, the Persians' prolonged torture of Menon is their most horrific act, but right before we learn about it Xenophon establishes Menon as such a horrible person that it doesn't seem so bad.
20	* BadassArmy: The Ten Thousand. They start off strong with their hoplites routing twice their number at Cunaxa at the cost of one wounded until it turned out [[PyrrhicVictory Cyrus the Younger was already killed anyway and made their victory immaterial]]. The sudden capture and execution of their officers only led to some panic until [[SneezeOfDoom a sneeze occurred to one man]] (a sneeze was seen as a sign of the gods) which emboldened them to re-organize and march all the way back to Greece. Their morale held out to do this over ''two years'' before they succeeded. Lacking the clothing for winter in Armenia proves to be more lethal to them than whatever battles they got up to in the season. Xenophon also hypes up the Carduchians as "...a fierce, war-like race, who had never been conquered. Once the Great King had sent into their country an army of 120,000 men, to subdue them, but of all that great host not one had ever seen his home again.", but the Ten Thousand defeat them in a battle with a combination diversionary-and-flanking attack (though they pursue the Ten Thousand some more later).
21	* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: The Ten Thousand once attack a wooden fortress on a hill surrounded by a forest to plunder it for food. The Ten Thousand expedited their encirclement by having small groups of men appear before the fortress to bait them into hurling the stones they used for ammunition at them before jumping back to take cover back in the forest. After the defenders were about out of ammunition, the Ten Thousand simply stormed the fortress and the garrison barely put up a fight back, with the inhabitants being said to have thrown their children and then themselves over the walls to their deaths.
22	* BloodKnight: Clearchus really, really, ''really'' likes war. So much so that after the Peloponnesian War ended, instead of retiring in peace, he convinced Sparta to let him go to war in Thrace. After he had left, they changed their mind and told him to return. He preceded to ignore them and go to war anyways, resulting in him being sentenced to death in his home city. Bear in mind that the Spartans were the same people who (according, incidentally, to Xenophon, writing elsewhere) had gone to war with Elis "because they had no one else to fight at the time."
23	* BloodOath: The Greeks and the barbarians under Ariaeus make one after Cyrus's death, sacrificing animals onto a shield and dipping their swords in the blood. The oath is to be loyal to one another, which Ariaeus promptly violates once they meet up with Tissaphernes.
24	* TheCameo: Creator/{{Socrates}}, of whom Xenophon was a student, makes a brief appearance at the beginning, trying to persuade Xenophon not to join the Ten Thousand.
25	* CainAndAbel: Cyrus and his brother, the Persian king Artaxerxes.
26	* ColdBloodedTorture: After Menon was taken, the Persians kept him alive to torture him for a ''year'' before he died, as punishment for his wickedness.
27	* DecapitatedArmy: Twice. First, Cyrus, the prince who hired the Greeks is dead. Next, the Greek officers who went over to negotiate with the Persians are then captured and killed by them.
28	* DreamingTheTruth: After the generals are killed, Xenophon tries to go to sleep with everyone else. He has a dream of a lightning bolt filling his home with light, and suddenly wakes up and realizes that the Persians are almost certainly attacking soon, everyone is moping around dejectedly instead of preparing, and that ''he'' is the one who has to take charge.
29	* DrillSergeantNasty: Clearchus, who believes that "Soldiers should be more afraid of their leader than of the enemy." As a result of his reputation for this, he gets all the soldiers who joined up because they were forced to or had nowhere else to go.
30	* EasyLogistics: [[AvertedTrope Absolutely not]], of course. The just-about-titular Ten Thousand (Xenophon said they originally numbered 10,400) managing to keep themselves fed over the thousands of kilometers all the way back to Greece is a pretty shocking feat, which they generally obtained by the usual method an army does things - [[RapePillageAndBurn by force]].
31	* TheEmpire: The ''Persian'' Empire, to be exact.
32	* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The King of Persia, who 99% of the time is just referred to as "King" (''basileus''). His name, Artaxerxes, is mentioned once or twice at the beginning.
33	* AFatherToHisMen: Proxenus ''tried'' to be this...the end result was that he was so afraid of his soldiers hating him that he failed to get them to respect him at all.
34	* FrontlineGeneral: All over the place, including both Cyrus and the King of Persia. Cyrus' example [[DecapitatedArmy led to a fairly foreseeable conclusion to his story...]]
35	* HiredGuns: The Ten Thousand, again. Well, technically they're hired spears, but the point stands.
36	* TheHomewardJourney: Most of the ''Anabasis'' is taken up with this.
37	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Clearchus's soldiers see him as this, at least when they're in combat and his harshness is directed on the enemy. Notably, as soon as they get out of combat many men desert him for a less strict general.
38	* KeystoneArmy: Played with. After Cyrus's death, the rest of his army scatters, but the Greek mercenaries hold fast and [[BackFromTheBrink win the day on their own]] -- [[ShaggyDogStory for all the good that ends up doing them]]. It sort of happens again when Tissaphernes betrays and executes the Ten Thousand's officers - the remainder panic at the news only for a spell before electing new officers and continuing their journey back to Greece.
39	* KickTheDog: Tissaphernes allows the Greeks to plunder a certain village because it belongs to Cyrus's mother, just to mock him. ([[LastDisrespects He's already dead by then.]])
40	* NastyParty: After Cyrus' death, the Persian governor Tissaphernes invited the Greek officer corps over to his camp for negotiations. They were [[DeadlyEuphemism relieved of their troubles once and for all.]]
41	* NeverTrustATitle: ''Anabasis'' means "march upcountry", a march from the coastline to the interior. The titular "anabasis" was the march ''with'' Cyrus to the battle that left the Greeks stranded--a small, and not very exciting, portion of the work. The good stuff (and the bulk of the history) is the ''katabasis'', the march from that battlefield back to the sea.
42	* TheOathBreaker: Tissaphernes, who swore to protect the Greeks, betrayed them and killed their generals. Similarly, Ariaeus swore to stick together with the Greeks, and abandoned them for Tissaphernes.
43	* OceanAwe: One of the more famous passages of the ''Anabasis'' is the Greek army shouting ''"thalatta, thalatta!"'' ("the sea, the sea!") from joy when they first got sight of the Black Sea (as there were Greek colonies on the Black Sea coast, "the sea" meant that their worst troubles were over).
44	* OnlyOneName: Everyone, because last names haven't been invented yet. Geographic regions of origin are used to identify people specifically.
45	* ParentalFavoritism: Parysatis, Cyrus and the king's mother, likes Cyrus more, and at one point saves his life after Tissaphernes accuses him of plotting against the king.
46	* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Clearchus, the Spartan, of course.
47	* PyrrhicVictory: Cyrus' army, and particularly the Ten Thousand, would unquestionably have bested Artaxerxes' at Cunaxa. However, Cyrus was killed in the fight while he had the army to supplant Persia's ruler, making the whole exercise pointless. As a result, most of his army fled the field for fear of being discovered by the king--except for the Greeks, who didn't hear of Cyrus' death and still stood firm, bringing the battle to a draw. As a result, they get singled out for bad treatment at the hands of the Shah.
48	* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The Greek army is composed of all kind of people from all over the Mediterranean, including exiles and runaway slaves.
49	* RapePillageAndBurn: The usual modus operandi both for the Persians and the [[ValuesDissonance Greek heroes]].
50	* RousingSpeech: All over the place. Xenophon gives a particularly long one after he is elected general in place of Proxenus.
51	* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Both Cyrus and the king lead their armies in person.
52	* SneezeOfDoom: Just after the Ten Thousand's original leaders are captured and killed by the Persians, they decide to hold a meeting to decide what to do. After some panicking, somebody sneezes. Everyone immediately [[PoseOfSupplication drops to the ground in supplication]] (the Greeks considered a sneeze to be a sign from the gods). They then got up, elected new officers, and decided to march back to Greece. Because of a sneeze.
53	* TheSociopath: According to Xenophon, Menon was motivated entirely by greed, had no redeeming qualities whatsoever, manipulated and lied to get what he wanted, regarded his "friends" only as means to an end, and viewed honesty and piety as negative character traits. He was thought he was the only one who realized that stealing from your "friends" is way easier than trying to take things from your enemies. Very little of this is actually demonstrated by his behavior in the Anabasis, although he does use some manipulation to get into Cyrus's favor.
54	* StraightForTheCommander: Before the battle with the king, Cyrus, who knows where the king is, orders Clearchus to use this strategy. Cleachus, unfortunately, refuses. And then intent of such a strategy [[DecapitatedArmy ends up happening to Cyrus instead]].
55	* ThirdPersonPerson: Xenophon is both the author and a major character, but always writes about himself in the third person. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], as the Anabasis is intended as a history, not a memoir, but it sometimes feels a little odd, especially because it is very obvious that the character of Xenophon is the author.
56	* TitleDrop: A few times, in the original Greek. For example, Book III begins: "What the Greeks did during ''The Anabasis of Cyrus'' up till the battle ... has been shown in the preceding book."
57	* TranslationConvention: Everyone in the Anabasis speaks perfect Attic Greek, including the mercenaries, almost all of whom would speak some or another non-Attic dialect, and the Persians, who should probably be speaking...Persian, or something. There are occasional references to interpreters, but that's as far as it goes.
58	* TrappedBehindEnemyLines: More or less why the Ten Thousand have to get back to Greece. Anywhere else, they're in Persia, with an angry Emperor looking for them.
59	* UntranslatedTitle: Except when it's published as ''The March Up Country'', ''The Persian Expedition'', ''The March of the Ten Thousand'', or some variation on that.
60	* WackyWaysideTribe: The Ten Thousand often run into these guys. Sometimes they're helpful, sometimes they aren't.
61	* YouAreInCommandNow: Tissaphernes' betrayal kills the Ten Thousand's officers, leading them to have to elect new ones, Xenophon ending up as their general.

Context Literature / Anabasis