Xenophon, Anabasis I · Κύρου Ἀνάβασις Α

Ten thousand Greek soldiers march inland with the Persian prince Cyrus, who means to take the throne from his brother. Xenophon (about 430–354 BC) was there and wrote it down. Book I ends at the battle of Cunaxa, 401 BC.

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Word help

Tap a word in the passage for dictionary links.

Things to watch for

Xenophon often tells past events in the present tense (γίγνονται, μεταπέμπεται). Translate them as past.
μέν … δέ pairs two things: “on the one hand … on the other,” or just “while.” Often μέν is best left untranslated.
After a past-tense verb, reported words can go into the optative: ὡς ἐπιβουλεύοι αὐτῷ, “that he was plotting against him” (1.1.3).
A παρασάγγης (parasang) is a Persian measure of distance, which Herodotus puts at 30 stades, roughly 3 to 4 miles. A σταθμός is a stage of the march.
Words in [square brackets] are ones the editor thought were added later; words in ⟨angle brackets⟩ were added by the editor.

Grammar help

Greek AlphabetSix short lessons, with breathings and accents
New Testament Greek for Beginners (Machen)A first course in Koine, the later Greek of the New Testament
Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges (1920)The standard reference for Attic Greek

About the Anabasis

Anabasis means “the march up,” from the coast into Asia. The whole work has seven books; after Cunaxa, the Greeks must fight their way home to the Black Sea. Harvard asked for the whole Anabasis in 1859 and for Books I–IV by 1880 (the old Harvard list).

The numbers in the text are chapter and section: 2.5 is chapter 2, section 5. More about the work: Grokipedia, Anabasis.