Memoirs of Xenophon's military adventure in Asia. Books I-III: Cyrus's campaign against Artaxerxes. The Battle of Cunaxa. The Greek army abandoned by allies after the death of Cyrus in an unknown land. The March of the Ten Thousand. The journey of the Greek mercenaries from the interior of Asia to the Black Sea. In the land of the Carduchians and Armenians.

Xenophon was born between 440 and 425 BC. He came from a wealthy family in Athens and, as a young man, was a student of Socrates. His love for military life, perhaps a consequence of his admiration for the Dorian ideal, prevailed over his inclination towards philosophy. In 401 BC he went to Persia, where he followed Cyrus in his campaign against his brother Artaxerxes II.

After the Battle of Cunaxa, he was elected general by the Ten Thousand Greek mercenaries. Xenophon's works, historical, philosophical, and didactic, are, on one hand, an important source for the events of his time, and on the other hand, a composition of moral and pedagogical reflections, in a spirit of simplicity, while characterized by the skillful and clear Attic prose.