Xenophon's Retreat: Greece, Persia, and the End of the Golden Age

This is essentially an extended footnote to Xenophon's Anabasis. I think it may well be the best footnote I've ever read, and believe me, I've read a few. I would recommend you read Anabasis first. It's great literature. There's a good translation by Dakyns on Project Gutenberg. No notes, but if you have Xenophon's Retreat you won't need them. That said, I understand Waterfield has done his own. I should imagine it's rather good. More than 20 years ago someone told me Republic was a good read, so I obtained a copy (it just happened to be Waterfield's translation) and that was the start of my love affair with ancient Greece. A couple of years ago I read someone else's translation of Republic and it was plodding and boring. None of the show more zing and pzzazz Plato should have. If I'd read that first I probably wouldn't have continued.

Anyway, this is a very well structured book. Waterfield uses the same necklace approach as does Herodotus, with the story of the expedition forming the chain of the book and with sections on a great variety of subjects depending from it, steadily building up a picture of the world. He makes firm statements about what happened using inference and supposition from the meagre evidence we possess. The book thereby has narrative drive and there is an excellent bibliography for those who wish to explore the controversies of history. Waterfield's opinion though is sensible and well informed.

The 2006 F&F paperback looks good but the spine is poorly constructed. Caveat emptor. show less

One of the most fascinating stories in Greek military history is Xenophon's Ascent and Waterfield here has done an admirable job of presenting the first field account of a military campaign. Almost a side note but as Waterfield traveled much of Xeonophon's route the author was not able to view the sight of the sea that suggested the Greek mercenaries had a good chance of returning home alive, most of them anyway. The day that Waterfield visited the sky was too cloudy for the water to be seen. In any case, he made an admirable attempt to traverse the same route that Xenophon and his troops did.

For many non-specialists they may be put off by their unfamiliarity with Xenophon and although Waterfield is not quite at the quality of writing show more as a Barry Strauss or a Victor Davis Hanson he is accessible and lively enough for many readers to become more knowledgeable about the ancient Greeks and their first reported field campaign.

This volume should be paired with the original text by Xeonophon. show less

Robin Waterfield, a Greece-based translator of Xenophon and other classics, has written an entertaining companion to Xenophon's eyewitness report on the failed expedition of Cyrus and the retreat of the Greek mercenaries back home (completing a tour de Turquie). After Cyrus died during the battle of Cunaxa, the now masterless Greek mercenaries were escorted by the Persian army to die in the wintery Turkish highlands. Xenophon led the men to the Black Sea, fending off local tribes. Within reach of Greek civilization, the soldiers started plundering and misbehaving and the unity found in adversity was dissolved. Xenophon, however, amassed a fortune which allowed him to retire as a gentleman farmer writer.
Waterfield's introduction to show more Ancient Greece at the turn of the fifth century BCE enhances (but never replaces) the (not included) original text with comments, explanations and tourist impressions (including badly rastered B/W pictures). His vignettes of Greek warfare and camp life as well as the continued squabble among the Greeks are well written and incite to further lecture (in which task the ably commented and collected bibliography comes handy). show less

Quite a good book, going into detailed analysis of the things Xenophon doesn't really go into. The politics of Cyrus' situation in the Persian Empire. The logistics and strategy of Cyrus' campaign (and of the march to the sea itself), the tactics of the Battle of Cunaxa. All pretty well informed by some on-the-ground experience by the author.

El autor toma como eje central la obra Anábasis de Jenofonte rodeándola de datos de forma magistral. La inmersión en el viaje es tal que crees estar visualizando infinidad de elementos de
la época antigua, tanto humanos como materiales. Un placer.