Anabasis ( Xenophon ) Anabasis ( ; Greek : Ἀνάβασις , ; " An Ascent " / " Going Up " ) is the most famous work , in seven books , of the Greek professional soldier and writer Xenophon . The journey it narrates is his best known accomplishment and " one of the great adventures in human history , " as Will Durant expressed the common assessment . The account . Xenophon accompanied the Ten Thousand , a large army of Greek mercenaries hired by Cyrus the Younger , who intended to seize the throne of Persia from his brother , Artaxerxes II . Though Cyrus ' mixed army fought to a tactical victory at Cunaxa in Babylon ( 401 BC ) , Cyrus himself was killed in the battle , rendering the actions of the Greeks irrelevant and the expedition a failure . Stranded deep in enemy territory , the Spartan general Clearchus and the other Greek senior officers were subsequently killed or captured by treachery on the part of the Persian satrap Tissaphernes . Xenophon , one of three remaining leaders elected by the soldiers , played an instrumental role in encouraging the Greek army of 10 , 000 to march north across foodless deserts and snow - filled mountain passes towards the Black Sea and the comparative security of its Greek shoreline cities . Now abandoned in northern Mesopotamia , without supplies other than what they could obtain by force or diplomacy , the 10 , 000 had to fight their way northwards through Corduene and Armenia , making ad hoc decisions about their leadership , tactics , provender and destiny , while the King ' s army and hostile natives constantly barred their way and attacked their flanks . Ultimately this " marching republic " managed to reach the shores of the Black Sea at Trabzon ( Trebizond ) , a destination they greeted with their famous cry of joyous exultation on the mountain of Theches ( now Madur ) in Surmene : " " thálatta , thálatta " " , " the sea , the sea ! " . " The sea " meant that they were at last among Greek cities , but it was not the end of their journey , which included a period fighting for Seuthes II of Thrace , and ended with their recruitment into the army of the Spartan general Thibron . Xenophon related this story in Anabasis in a simple and direct manner . The Greek term " anabasis " referred to an expedition from a coastline into the interior of a country . The term " katabasis " referred to a trip from the interior to the coast . While the journey of Cyrus himself is indeed an anabasis from Ionia on the eastern coast of the Aegean Sea to the interior of Asia Minor and Mesopotamia , most of Xenophon ' s narrative is taken up with the return march of Xenophon and the Ten Thousand from the interior of Babylon to the coast of the Black Sea . Socrates makes a cameo appearance when Xenophon asks whether he ought to accompany the expedition . The short episode demonstrates the reverence of Socrates for the Oracle of Delphi . Xenophon ' s account of the exploit resounded through Greece , where , two generations later , some surmise , it may have inspired Philip of Macedon to believe that a lean and disciplined Hellene army might be relied upon to defeat a Persian army many times its size . Besides military history , the " Anabasis " has found use as a tool for the teaching of classical philosophy ; the principles of leadership and government exhibited by the army can be seen as exemplifying Socratic philosophy . Cultural influences . Traditionally " Anabasis " is one of the first unabridged texts studied by students of classical Greek because of its clear and unadorned style ; similar to Caesar ' s " Commentarii de Bello Gallico " for Latin students . Perhaps not coincidentally , they are both autobiographical tales of military adventure told in the third person . Xenophon ' s book inspired " Anabasis Alexandri " , by the Greek historian Arrian ( 86 – after 146 AD ) , about Alexander the Great ( 336 – 323 BC ) The cry of Xenophon ' s soldiers when they meet the sea is mentioned by the narrator of Jules Verne ' s " Journey to the Center of the Earth " , when their expedition discovers an underground ocean . The famous cry provides the title of the Booker Prize - winning novel by Iris Murdoch , " The Sea , the Sea " . The cry of Xenophon ' s soldiers is mentioned by Buck Mulligan in James Joyce ' s novel " Ulysses " , " Ah , Dedalus , the Greeks ! I must teach you . You must read them in the original . Thalatta ! Thalatta ! She is our great sweet mother . " Andre Norton ' s 1955 science fiction novel " Star Guard " appears to have been the first speculative fiction transliteration of the " Anabasis " theme , in which a body of human mercenaries hired out of a future Terra to fight in a dynastic war among autochthons on a distant planet are betrayed in much the same way as were the Hellenic mercenaries of Xenophon ' s account , and left leaderless to negotiate and battle their way across hostile country to safety . Themes from the " Anabasis " were used in Sol Yurick ' s novel " The Warriors " , which was later adapted into a 1979 cult movie of the same name , and finally a Rockstar Games video game in 2005 . Each re - imagining relocates Xenophon ' s narrative to the gang scene of New York . Paul Davies ' novella " Grace : A Story " ( Toronto : ECW Press , 1996 ) is a fantasy that details the progress of Xenophon ' s army through Armenia to Trabzon . Michael Curtis Ford ' s 2001 novel " The Ten Thousand " is a fictional account of this group ' s exploits . Harold Coyle ' s 1993 novel " The Ten Thousand " shows the bulk of the US Forces in modern Europe fighting their way across and out of Germany , instead of laying down their weapons , after the Germans steal nuclear weapons that are being removed from Ukraine . The operational concept for the novel was based on Xenophon ' s account of the Ten Thousand . The 1996 David Drake novel " Redliners " draws on the March of the Ten Thousand for its inspiration , though the enemy of the novel is an adaptive jungle environment somewhat derivative of Harry Harrison ' s " Deathworld " stories . Shane Brennan ' s " In the Tracks of the Ten Thousand : A Journey on Foot through Turkey , Syria and Iraq " ( London : Robert Hale , 2005 ) is an account of his 2000 journey to re - trace the steps of the Ten Thousand . Paul Kearney ' s 2008 novel " The Ten Thousand " is directly based on the historical events but transplants the action to a fictional fantasy world named Kuf , where ten thousand Macht mercenaries are hired to fight on the behalf of a prince trying to usurp the throne of the Assurian Empire . When he dies in battle , the Macht have to march home overland through hostile territory . Valerio Massimo Manfredi ' s 2008 novel " The Lost Army " is a fictional account of Xenophon ' s march with the Ten Thousand . John Ringo ' s 2008 novel " The Last Centurion " involves a similar anabasis from the Persian Gulf to the Black Sea , by US Army troops abandoned in Iran during a global catastrophe . John Ringo and David Weber ' s " March Upcountry " series is a military SF story involving the march of a prince and his bodyguards across a hostile planet in order to return to their home world . The 2005 Parkway Drive song " Anasasis ( Xenophontis ) " , from the album " Killing with a Smile , " is a reference to the Anabasis text . The 2006 Military science fiction series The Lost Fleet , by John G . Hemry ( writing as " Jack Campbell " ) combines the structure of the " Anabasis " with the myth of the King in the mountain . In the series , a space fleet is led home by a commander retrieved from hibernation , a hundred years after a battle that made him a revered historical and mythical figure . In 2011 Eric Baudelaire made an installation with 66 minutes of film and 9 screenprints for the MACBA in Bacelona and published the text to go with them with the title " The ANABAIS of May and Fusako Shigenobu , Masao Adachi , and 27 years without images " T . E . Lawrence ( Lawrence of Arabia ) was said to have read " Anabasis " during the 1916 Arab Revolt and that it influenced both his leadership during that time and his writing of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom .