“The Godlike King” (Book One of the Anabasis)

Abstract

The Anabasis of Cyrus bears an enigmatic title.¹ Even the casual reader can see that the “ascent” of Cyrus fills only the first of the seven books of the work. Cyrus is killed in the Battle for Babylon and plays no role afterward (1.8.21–29). Yet the entire work is named after him. Why? Xenophon apparently wishes to draw our attention to Cyrus. But let us be more precise. The Anabasis could have been more simply titled “The Expedition of Cyrus,” a phrase used twice in book one.² It is therefore to Cyrus’s ascent that our attention is being drawn. We must seek in the present chapter to understand the character of this ascent. But it will be a much longer time before we can understand why Xenophon chose to name his entire work after “the ascent of Cyrus.”