Ten Thousand: A Novel of Ancient Greece FROM THE PUBLISHER
In 401 B.C., a thundering army of mercenaries, camp followers, dreamers, and glory seekers set off to help a rebellious foreign general named Cyrus. In the months that followed, ten thousand men--trained and hardened in three decades of war in Greece--would engage in pitched battles, witness untold horrors, and begin a desperate march across he desert, over raging rivers, and into the jaws of hell itself. By the time it was over, some would be alive, others dead, and one among them would emerge and the greatest hero of all...
In a novel of high adventure and riveting historical drama, Michael Curtis Ford brings to life an amazing true story from Greek antiquity--Xenophon's march of the ten Thousand. A tale of war and peace, of loyalties and betrayals, and of a soldier's love for a mysterious and dangerous woman, The Ten Thousand captures the eternal spirit of courage--in the face of impossible odds.
FROM THE CRITICS
James Brady
The Greek mercenaries of the time of Socrates lost a war to the Persians but gained immortality. Thrilling, eloquent, illuminated by scholarship comes this retelling of the epic running battle of the Ten Thousand from Babylon to the sea.
Victor Hanson
Michael Curtis Ford's moving account of the fighting and dying of these heroic Greek mercenaries is not only historically sound, but very human in making Xenophon's tale come alive in a way that no ancient historian or classicist has yet accomplished.
Library Journal
When Darius II, King of Persia, died and was succeeded by his brother Artaxerxes, Darius's son, Cyrus the Younger, collected a force of 100,000 Persians and 13,000 Greek mercenaries, mainly Spartans, and marched on Artaxerxes's stronghold in an attempt to win the throne for himself. In 401 B.C.E., the armies of Cyrus met those of Artaxerxes in battle at Cunaxa, near the Euphrates River. After Cyrus was gruesomely killed in battle, the Greeks wanted nothing more than to return to their beloved homeland. Without the provisions needed to return by way of the desert over which they had come, they struggled 1000 miles through Kurdistan and over the Armenian mountains in the dead of winter until finally reaching the Black Sea. Along the way, the "Ten Thousand" were decimated by hostile forces, starvation, frostbite, and disease. Based primarily on the writings of Xenophon, a junior officer who assumed command of the Spartan forces after most of the senior officers were treacherously slaughtered, this novel retains much of the flavor of the soldier's memoirs. Ford, a Romance linguistics scholar, combines historical accuracy with eloquent storytelling to create an epic story that will capture the imagination of anyone interested in the history of ancient Greece. A worthy successor to Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire (LJ 9/1/98), this is highly recommended for all public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/01]. Jane Baird, Anchorage Municipal Libs., AK Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Xenophon's Anabasis provides the model for this epic first novel of Greek mercenaries stranded in the heart of the Persian empire during the late fifth century b.c. When Xenophon composed the Anabasis he used the pseudonym Themistogenes of Syracuse, but here, Ford brings Themistogenes—Theo—to the foreground as narrator and protagonist. Xenophon's lifelong companion, Theo is initially a slave, later a freedman, and now serving as aide-de-camp. It's through Theo's eyes that we see Xenophon's growth from a rather delicate and pampered boy to the questioning young scholar who sits at the feet of Socrates, to the soldier of fortune. The main action takes place after Athens' defeat by Sparta and the subsequent reign of the Thirty Tyrants. Xenophon is lured to the mercenary life, against his father's wishes, by a cousin, Proxenus, who is in the command of Cyrus the Younger, half-brother to the Persian king Artaxerses and pretender to the Persian throne. When Cyrus is killed in battle, the entire Greek command, ten thousand strong, is left to fend for itself in hostile territory. Later, when the Greek commanders, including Proxenus, are treacherously murdered by the Persians, Xenophon leads them through Asia Minor and Armenia to the Black Sea. Having Theo narrate is a nice touch, as he can move freely through the army's strata. His observations and comments are sharp, the way we have come to expect a person of his rank to behave in literature. With the exception of Socrates, he spares no one, and is pointedly critical of Thucydides, historian of the Peloponnesian War. The descriptive language throughout is heroic, at times echoing the Iliad. Ford brings an interesting, fictivelypersonal outlook to one of the classics. Inspired and highly informed, The Ten Thousand may lead many readers back to the original.
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