A Greek Army on the March: Soldiers and Survival in Xenophon's Anabasis (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780521870689)

Professor Lee provides a social and cultural history of the Cyreans, the mercenaries of Xenophon's Anabasis. While they have often been portrayed as a single abstract political community, this book reveals that life in the army was mostly shaped by a set of smaller social communities: the formal unit organisation of the lochos ('company'), and the informal comradeship of the suskenia ('mess group'). It includes full treatment of the environmental conditions of the march, ethnic and socio-economic relations amongst the soldiers, equipment and transport, marching and camp behaviour, eating and drinking, sanitation and medical care, and many other topics. It also accords detailed attention to the non-combatants accompanying the soldiers. It uses ancient literary and archaeological evidence, ancient and modern comparative material, and perspectives from military sociology and modern war studies. This book is essential reading for anyone working on ancient Greek warfare or on Xenophon's Anabasis.

Author: John W. I. Lee
ISBN-10: 0521870682
ISBN-13: 9780521870689
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 01/10/2008
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 2.10lbs
Size: 9.24h x 6.25w x 1.04d