Tom Phillips

Tim Rood

Carol Atack

This book is a study both of anachronism in antiquity and of anachronism as a vehicle for understanding antiquity. It explores the post-classical origins and changing meanings of the term 'anachronism' as well as the presence of anachronism in all its forms in classical literature, criticism and material objects. Contrary to the position taken by many modern philosophers of history, this book argues that classical antiquity had a rich and varied understanding of historical difference, which is reflected in sophisticated notions of anachronism. This central hypothesis is tested by an examination of attitudes to temporal errors in ancient literary texts and chronological writings and by analysing notions of anachronistic survival and multitemporality. Rather than seeing a sense of anachronism as something that separates modernity from antiquity, the book suggests that in both ancient writings and their modern receptions chronological rupture can be used as a way of creating a dialogue between past and present. With a selection of case-studies and theoretical discussions presented in a manner suitable for scholars and students both of classical antiquity and of modern history, anthropology, and visual culture, the book's ambition is to offer a new conceptual map of antiquity through the notion of anachronism.

Anachronism and Antiquity

Melina Tamiolaki

This volume constitutes the first large-scale collaborative reflection on Xenophon’s Anabasis, gathering experts on Greek historiography and Xenophon. It is structured in three sections: the first section provides a linear reading of the Anabasis through chapters on select episodes (from Book 1 through Book 7), including the opening, Cyrus’ characterisation, the meeting of Socrates and Xenophon, Xenophon’s leadership, the marches through Armenia and along the Black Sea coast and the service under Seuthes in Thrace. The second section offers an in-depth exploration of hitherto overlooked recurrent themes. Based on new approaches and scholarly trends, it focuses on topics such as the concept of friendship, the speeches of characters other than Xenophon, the suffering of the human body, the role of rumour and misrepresentation, and the depiction of emotions. The third section offers a more thorough investigation of the manifold reception of this work (in Antiquity, Byzantium, Renaissance, modern period, in cinema studies and illustrations). Finally, in acknowledgement of the Anabasis’ long history as a pedagogical text, the volume contains an envoi on the importance and benefits of teaching Xenophon and the Anabasis, more specifically.

Xenophon’s ›Anabasis‹ and its Reception

Luuk Huitink

This is the first comprehensive commentary on a section of Xenophon's Anabasis in English for almost a century. It provides up-to-date guidance on literary, historical and cultural aspects of the Anabasis and will help undergraduate students to read Greek better. It also incorporates recent advances in Xenophontic scholarship and Greek linguistics, showcasing in particular Xenophon's linguistic innovations and varied style. Advanced students and professional scholars will also profit from the sustained attention which this commentary devotes to Xenophon's varied narrative strategies and to the reception of episodes from Anabasis III in antiquity. The introduction and commentary show that Xenophon is just as important (if not more so) to the development of Greek historiography, and of Greek prose in general, as Herodotus and Thucydides.

Xenophon: Anabasis

This book tells the story of 'Thalatta! Thalatta! (The sea! The sea!), the shout first uttered on a mountain in eastern Turkey by the army of 10,000 greek mercenaries whose adventures in what are now Turkey, Syria and Iraq were described by the Athenian historian and philosopher Xenophon, who also participated in the long march to the coast. This story has played a persistent part in the European and American cultural tradition over the last two hundred years. Rood tells its story, taking in literary masterpieces by writers such as Heine, Shelley and Joyce, books of travel and adventure set in the Middle East and elsewhere, articles in Victorian periodicals, popular romantic novels, newpaper editorials at the time of the British evacuation from Dunkirk, a painting by the 19th century artist Benjamin Robert Haydon, an unpublished radio play by Louis MacNeice, and a modern novel and film which transfer Xenophon's story to New York.

The Shout of the Ten Thousand in the Modern Imagination

The Sea! The Sea!

`War is a harsh teache' wrote Thucydides in the fifth-century BC. Rood analyses the techniques through which Thucydides' narrative explains the origin and course of the Peloponnesian War and exposes harsh truths about how individuals and states behave. Rood concentrates on how the use of techniques, such as selectivity, interaction of speech and narrative, and manipulation of time and perspective, points at one level to general human constraints, at another to the self-destructiveness of Athens' imperial power. The book explores some techniques that have received little attention and offers new ways of reading others; it gives new insight into Thucydides' sophistication and the way he relates to his predecessors. It is also important for its attempts to refute views that Thucydides' History is made up of different compositional strata or inspired by pro-Athenian bias. And it addresses directly the way modern historians use Thucydides, contributes to the contemporary debate over narrative history, and shows the value of applying some of the concepts of recent narrative theory to historical texts.

Narrative and Explanation

Thucydides : Narrative and Explanation

'Thalatta! Thalatta!' ('The Sea! The Sea!') was the shout first uttered on a mountain in eastern Turkey by the famous Ten Thousand, the army of Greek mercenaries whose adventures in what are now Turkey, Syria and Iraq were described by the Athenian historian and philosopher Xenophon, himself a participant in their long march to the coast. Their shout has had an extraordinary afterlife, playing a persistent part in Western cultural tradition over the last two hundred years. Here Tim Rood tells its story for the first time, drawing on a wide range of works - literary masterpieces and romantic fiction, tales of travel and adventure, memoirs of childhood and war, a radio play by Louis MacNeice and a cult Hollywood film. Book jacket.

First comprehensive commentary on a section of Anabasis in English for a century, reflecting scholarly advances for students and scholars.

Xenophon: Anabasis Book III

Robin Waterfield

Xenophon,

The Expedition of Cyrus tells the story of the march of the Ten Thousand. The exploits of this famous army of Greek mercenaries in modern-day Turkey, Syria, and Iraq were described by one of their leaders, the Athenian historian and philosopher Xenophon. Their long march, across mountains and plateaux to the sight of 'The sea! The sea!', back to the fringes of the Greek world, is the most exciting adventure story to survive from the ancient world.

Tim Rood

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