Customer Reviews:
 Grim and gutsy June 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Short of a Stanley Lombardo translation -- Where are you, Stanley? -- that would do Xenophon full justice, this is a fine, taughtly crafted version of the Anabasis. Rouse is all vernacular, and all business. Still, Lombardo would put more swagger in the warriors' exploits, and sharpen their tongues. Rouse sometimes erred on the side of middle-America "mass market" folksiness, but only slightly. Here is a passage from the first page that captures his nice, streamlined sense of pacing:
"But when Dareios died and Artaxerxes succeeded, Tissaphernes slandered Cyros to his brother and said he was plotting against him. The king believed him, and siezed Cyros to put him to death, but his mother begged him off and sent him back to his province. When Cyros got clear of this danger and disgrace, he determined never again to be in his brother's power, but to make himself king instead, if he could."
Now, here's a passage from the Rex Warner translation (Penguin), which takes nearly half again as long with the same ideas:
"But, after the death of Darius, when Artaxerxes was established on the throne, Tissaphernes maligned Cyrus to his brother and accused him of plotting against him. Artaxerxes believed the story and arrested Cyrus with the intention of putting him to death: but his mother by her entreaties secured his life and his recall to his province. Still, after the danger and disgrace from which he had escaped, Cyrus took measures to ensure that he should never again be in his brother's power; instead, if he could manage it, he would become king in his brother's place."
An exciting literary expedition May 9, 2003
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is one of those books you have on your list of "books-I-am-going-to-read-someday." Okay, someday arrived. I should have read it decades ago. This is a fairly good translation and the story is written, as was the custom at that time, from the third person point of view. The story begins with a bang and immediately carries us into the expedition itself. When a Greek mercenary army attempts to help Cyrus overthrow his relative, (his brother, Artaxerxes, was the Persian King), it marches all the way to Babylon to give battle...and wins! But Cyrus is killed in the battle and the Greeks find themselves stranded. After the Greek generals are killed in a treacherous parley, the army does not disintegrate, as Artaxerxes and the Persians expect. Instead, they elect new officers, Xenophon among them, and proceed to march out of the Persian Empire across 1,500 miles of hostile terrain teeming with savage adversaries. Xenophon employs a straightforward, soldierly style as he describes people, places and events. It is a wonderful narrative and the action keeps you turning pages until the end. By a happy coincidence, history has preserved this enchanting adventure story. If you prefer to hear a recorded version of it, I recorded it for Audio Connoisseur and you can find it here at Amazon.
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