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Excerpt from The First Four Books of Xenophon's Anabasis: Literally Translated With Explanatory Notes Proxenus, a young friend Of Xenophon's, had been induced by the prospect Of renown and glory to raise a band of mercenaries, and enter the service Of Cyrus, the younger brother Of Artaxerxes, King Of Persia. While at Sardis he wrote to Xenophon urging him to cross over to Asia and join in a proposed expedition against the Pisidians. Xenophon was anxious to go, but first con sulted Socrates as to the advisability Of an Athenian entering into the service of a Per sian prince. Socrates advised Xenophon to consult the oracle at Delphi. Xenophon followed this advice, but being bent on join ing the expedition, merely asked to what gods he ought to sacrifice in order to make his undertaking a success. Socrates blamed him for not asking the. Oracle whether he ought to undertake the expedition, but agreed that inasmuch as his question had been definitely answered it would be proper for him to go. Xenophon accordingly joined Proxenus at Sardis about 401 B. C., and attaching himself to the army without any military appointment he accompanied it in its tedious march toward Babylon. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.