The Quiet Narrator

New preface to the classic translation of Xenophon's Anabasis

“Anabasis” by Xenophon, translated by Sergei Aleksandrovich Osherov, was first published half a century ago and has deservedly enjoyed the recognition of readers since then. For the reissue of this work, prepared by the talweg publishing house, a new preface was written by Lyubov Summ. We invite readers of Gorky to familiarize themselves with it.

All of us, since February 24, 2022, have found ourselves in the face of advancing barbarism, violence and lies. In this situation, it is extremely important to preserve at least the remnants of culture and support the values ​​of humanism - including for the sake of the future of Russia. Therefore, the editors of Gorky will continue to talk about books, reminding our readers that there is still a place for thought and fiction in the world.

Xenophon. Anabasis. St. Petersburg: talweg, 2026. Translation from ancient Greek by Sergei Osherov. Content

Parasangs of centuries

The biography of Xenophon is known only in basic details, in broad strokes, and in no small measure thanks to his writings. "Greek History", brought up to 362 BC. BC, and a posthumous panegyric to the Spartan king Agesilaus, who died in 358, indicate that Xenophon lived until at least 357. The date of birth is more difficult to determine. Xenophon counted himself among the circle of Socrates' students, which means he was significantly younger than the famous philosopher, but this range remains wide - from 455 to 425 BC. e. It is possible to narrow it somewhat thanks to the news of Xenophon’s military service during the war between Athens and Sparta. The protracted war lasted from 431 to 404 BC. e. and ended with the defeat of Athens. At that time, Xenophon acquired experience, clearly manifested in Anabasis. After several years of civil unrest that followed the defeat, Xenophon considered it best in 401 BC. e. leave his homeland for a while and, at the invitation of his acquaintance Proxenus, join the Persian prince Cyrus. The year of birth 425 would mean that almost all of Xenophon’s combat experience before the campaign in Asia was limited to service as a private, even as a recruit. In Anabasis, he appears as an experienced warrior, capable of leading a large detachment, so the date is 430 BC. e. or a little earlier, advocated by most researchers, looks most likely.

Xenophon's youth fell on a turbulent, but still full of hope, time in the history of Athens. At the beginning of the 5th century BC. e. Athens played a leading role in the struggle of the Greek city-states against the Persian Empire, which led to the formation of the Athenian Maritime League, that is, a kind of federal empire of small city-states led by Athens, the development of democratic institutions and an unprecedented flowering of culture. In the first half of the century, Aeschylus dominated the tragic theater, Herodotus read chapters of his “History” in the agora, philosophers and teachers of eloquence flocked to the city. In the second half of the century, before the eyes of Xenophon, new tragedies by Sophocles and Euripides, comedies by Aristophanes and many dozens and hundreds of plays, of which at best fragments have reached us, were staged. The great debater Socrates walked along the streets of the city, asking seemingly simple questions to the young men he met.

In democratic Athens, an endless number of speeches were made - during public assemblies, in courts, in eloquence schools, over friendly drinking, publicly and privately. These speeches, from which an even smaller share has reached us than from tragedies (imagine how many meetings, trials and speeches of exemplary orators took place annually!), biographies of famous men (almost nothing has survived), historical works (only the works of Herodotus, Thucydides and our own Xenophon have survived) formed a ready-made matrix for everyone writing in prose. Or not a matrix, but a “hive”, if we refer to the nickname given to Xenophon in antiquity - “the Attic bee”. All the wealth of the classical Greek language, Attic, that is, Athenian, speech belonged to him and, to a large extent, only thanks to him - despite so many losses - was preserved.

Of course, “bee” primarily implies the sweetness of speech, as well as its usefulness, but connotations associated with cooperation and the well-known fact that bees do not create honey out of nothing, but transform nectar already prepared for them by nature, are also important. Likewise, Xenophon did not invent a special language: he gratefully accepted his secondary nature, the opportunity to use what had already been developed to say his own, and in the content he also did not pretend to be particularly original, following either the pioneers or life experience shared with others.

Thus, Xenophon’s “Greek History” picks up Thucydides’ “History” from where he left off. This does not prevent him from arguing with Thucydides on something, doing something in his own way - better, as he believes. And to gratefully acknowledge that it was “better” provided, among other things, by the efforts of its predecessor. Even in “Anabasis,” which Xenophon would have had every reason to tell in the first person, while boasting quite a bit, for a long time, right up to the Third Book, he does not step out from the ranks of the army, and having stepped forward out of necessity, he does not seek the position of leader and is ready to serve his comrades in any capacity: if as a boss, then as a junior to the elders; if you lead a detachment, then it is better to have a rear guard; if there is anything to boast about, it is advice, reasonable foresight and the ability to get along with people, and not exploits. And so he remains in the third person until the end, and in “Greek History” he attributes his work to the fictitious Themistogenes of Syracuse.

The Socratic works of Xenophon also move in the rearguard: apparently, they are written after Plato’s, partly arguing with them: “Apology” is the correct defense of Socrates at trial; “Feast” is an ordinary feast at which they drink and amuse themselves with vulgar scenes, and do not fly to the region in absentia. “Memoirs of Socrates” does not have a memoir form; rather, they are individual meetings and conversations, some episodes and gestures. They do not pretend to be exhaustive - and that is why they seemed reliable to many. In these memoirs, for the first time, perhaps in ancient literature, the true nature of memory is touched upon: its incompleteness, lacunae. Xenophon reports all sorts of unimportant little things precisely because - so it seems to the reader - that much that is significant is swallowed up in oblivion and every speck of dust is precious.

This begs the question: where in Anabasis does this scrupulous accuracy come from in the names of foreign localities and tribes, in the description of daily marches and the circumstances of the death of comrades - too many for all of them to be well known to Xenophon? Most likely, he relied on daily records, which, apparently, the commander of a large detachment was obliged to keep. Philologists and historians have discovered references to this kind of diaries in late ancient writings. Most likely, this duty was so obvious that Xenophon did not think of explaining it. Four centuries later, Julius Caesar, who carefully read the works of his predecessor, would turn his war diary into a special genre, send excerpts from it to Rome, and then publish “Notes on the Gallic War” in the form of a book. In contrast, Xenophon does not seek to present himself as the main character of the story and even to establish himself as the Author, but relies on a tradition in which to mark the route, bury the dead and record the circumstances of their death - everyone understands the work of Xenophon the character, Xenophon the commander, who does not merge with the author of Anabasis.

This assumption is supported by a change in optics from the moment Xenophon in the Third Book becomes one of the commanders, takes on the responsibility of giving advice to the main commander and participating in the development of the route. This is where he begins to notice all the details of the landscape: how to prevent the enemy from pinning the Greeks in a gorge, how to prevent the enemies from rolling stones, or how to block the Greeks’ path to the ford. Xenophon the character is inventive in finding ways, attentive to human characters, attentive to the characteristics of the tribes he encounters, to their way of life. A striking contrast with the first books of Anabasis, where although the length of the transitions is indicated (in Persian parasangs, equal to approximately 5-6 kilometers), the details of the path are not described, and this path leads to the next city “crowded” or “crowded and rich” - we see no effort to describe the cities, we do not see any difference between them. The Greek army moves as if by inertia, not yet understanding where this campaign will lead it. We also do not receive explanations about the sources of information. And yet, from the first sentence, as if obeying some instinct, we follow the path traversed by ten thousand Greeks, and after them by countless generations of humanists, high school students and students.

“Darius and Parysatis had two sons: the eldest, Artaxerxes, and the youngest, Cyrus.” From this simple informative phrase, the transition to the “real” ancient Greek language, to reading the original, is still being carried out (parasang after parasang). That’s why they start with it, because the phrase is simple and at the same time introducing the matter. Behind it are the same syntactically transparent, direct in meaning, energetic phrases, and at the end of a small paragraph the balance of power after the death of Darius already appears. Betrayed by Tissaphernes and narrowly escaping execution at the hands of his older brother, Cyrus prepares for war against the new king. Another page with a description of the army Cyrus was recruiting, with a list of detachments of Greek allies and mercenaries, and Cyrus sets off. This journey deep into the vast Persian Empire, and especially the long and difficult return from there to the sea, will become the plot of “Anabasis”, giving the book its title: literally, “The Ascent.” In the very first lesson, with the first small portion of reading, we are already immersed in the “heart of the matter.”

This beginning is reminiscent of another first phrase, equally memorable to high school and humanities students: “All of Gaul is divided into three parts.” Caesar begins by describing the space he intends to conquer.

In “Notes on the Gallic War” he, of course, focuses on Xenophon, imitating his intelligibility and conscientious transmission of information about everything he saw and happened. And this close similarity makes the differences salient and helps to immediately reveal the attractive features of Xenophon.

Xenophon, too, with his first phrase defines for his Greek readers the scene of action - a foreign country, but constantly present in their minds. The Persian Empire is the only external threat to Greek cities since the mid-6th century BC. e. And it is also a source of wealth, a bait for merchants and hired soldiers, an endless land full of secrets. Only a small part of it was described by the first Greek historian Herodotus, but he described it so lovingly that the Greek concept of history is forever inextricably linked with geography. Readers expect something of this kind from Anabasis, and the author does not disappoint their expectations, although he fulfills them in his own way, reporting not so much on the exotic, but on the prose of life. What do people living in infertile areas feed on? They dig up huge stones, process them and exchange the finished millstones for food. Of the unseen things, Xenophon is most interested in game (for example, ostrich) and methods of catching it. The Kira hunting park is lovingly described. (The structure of such a park is described in even more detail in the Cyropedia - Cyrus the Great hunted there in his youth. The Persian word for this park was introduced by Xenophon into the Greek language: “paradise”. Then it will be useful to the translators of the Septuagint to designate something that no one has ever seen - the Garden of Eden.)

However, here is a clear difference between “Anabasis” and “The Gallic War”: the place of action is indicated not by the name of the country or tribe, but by the names of the king and his heirs.

The Persian Achaemenid dynasty is very economical in terms of names. The founder of the dynasty was Cyrus the Great, to whom Xenophon dedicated the Cyropaedia. After his reign and a short period of unrest, Darius I (also the Great), a distant relative of Cyrus, ascended the throne. Having conquered the Greek cities of Asia Minor, Darius in 490 BC. e. equipped an army to annex mainland Greece to his power, but was defeated at Marathon. Ten years later, his son Xerxes made a second attempt, this time with the help of a fleet, and was completely defeated at Salamis. By the middle of the 5th century BC. e. The military confrontation between Greece and Persia had exhausted itself, but Persia kept a close eye on the Greek civil strife and supported the Spartans in the war against Xenophon’s native Athens. This policy was pursued by Xerxes’ son Artaxerxes, his grandson Xerxes II and great-grandson Darius II, whose name “Anabasis” opens.

The name of Queen Parysatis not only clarifies which of the Dariuses we are talking about, but also reminds us of the active role of Persian women in politics, which is unusual for the Greeks, and sets the tone for the story about other morals and customs that the Greek will have to understand, without ceasing to be himself, but also without being locked into xenophobia (this would be strange for a person whose very name means “foreign sound, foreign speech”). And this is what is no less important for Xenophon: from the very beginning, the name of the queen encourages us to talk about personal relationships, about maternal love, about brotherly enmity, about friendship and betrayal.

Family discord and the betrayal of Tissaphernes (unloved by the Greeks, since it was he who ruled Asia Minor on behalf of the king and pretty much tyrannized it) fit into the first paragraph. Two more pages are devoted to how Cyrus, offended by his brother, gathers an army. The list of who came from where and with what detachment could, with all due respect, become boring (it is much shorter than the list of ships in Homer, but these names, unlike the mythological ones, hardly meant anything to the readers of that time). More important are the accompanying names of the names of the cities and the status of the participants in the campaign: for the most part they are either already exiles or in conflict with the dominant political party in their homeland. The political picture of the Greek city-states, their internal and internecine strife, clearly appears on the pages of Anabasis. With a nostalgic motive - to return to Greece, get to the sea and take the usual wet route home! - the impossibility of return is intertwined. Some will die bravely, others recklessly. Some will freeze on the way, others will get carried away in the pursuit of prey. And yet, through unimaginable spaces never before seen by the Greeks, through so many hostile peoples, Xenophon managed to lead and keep two-thirds of the army alive. He did much better than Odysseus, who lost all his companions. Only then - so that at the end of the journey he was overtaken by the news: there is no return to his native Athens. He left more out of curiosity to see what was going on in the world and out of reluctance to interfere in hopeless civil strife. While Xenophon was away, Socrates was executed, and his students became suspicious of the Athenians; those who made friends with the Spartans, doubly so.

Xenophon focuses less on names than on relationships and motives for action. He carefully examines how Cyrus attracts barbarians and how he attracts Greeks. He lured the inhabitants of Miletus with the promise of freedom; He conquered Clearchus, admiring him out loud and presenting him with money, with which Clearchus hired even more warriors; Cyrus had a relationship of hospitality with other Greek military leaders - Cyrus treated these voluntary emigrants or political exiles at his table. According to an ancient custom, described in the Iliad, the guest and the host are bound by eternal friendship, which is inherited by children and grandchildren. The first readers of Xenophon did not have to explain this; for them, the institution of private friendship, as well as officially formalized proxy - hospitality on behalf of the state - was a living reality. It is no coincidence that one of Cyrus’s guests is called Proxenus: it is he who invites Xenophon on a campaign, and then with his death forces him to emerge from the faceless mass of warriors and become a storyteller.

The beginning of "Anabasis" is written "from an unknown person." This is not just a third party - it is an unidentified point of view. There seems to be no author, this is “the story itself,” without references to witnesses or opinions. But even under this mask we recognize Xenophon with his characteristic interest in family dynamics, making friends, the main skill of a ruler - to show generosity, the main human virtue - gratitude.

The army is setting out on a campaign. The information reported by Xenophon is still scarce and impersonal; we are talking about the army as a whole: they stopped in such and such a city, crossed into the land of such and such a people. The length of the transitions is indicated from the first day: perhaps Xenophon used the notes of other participants in the campaign, or he made such notes from the very beginning - or maybe he estimated it by eye in hindsight. So far, in this accumulation of parasangs there is neither a clear logic of the route nor a feeling of enormous distance. Xenophon himself, apparently, is afraid that the introductory part will seem tedious, and skillfully adds a touch to almost every “report of the day,” holding the reader’s attention. Then another Greek detachment joined the army, then they remembered the satyrs who lived in these places, the cruel myth of Marcia and the instructive one about Midas, then the royal hunt, then Cyrus had a love affair with the wife of a local ruler, and from this there was a benefit for the Greeks: the beauty helped Cyrus pay the soldiers a monthly salary.

And the measure that sets the rhythm is parasangs. After all, nothing prevented us from measuring distances in stages. Yes, of course, each Greek polis has its own stages, and the Persian parasangs seem to be generally known, but this can be easily corrected: indicate which city’s measure you decided to use. From the first day of the journey, the parasangs take us to another - non-Greek - world. It would be easy to go backwards through the stages; they are the same here and there. Парасанги, как мы знаем и ждем, заведут греческое войско вглубь неведомой страны, откуда обратного пути нет — только через еще большую глушь и дичь.

На ритм, отбиваемый парасангами, ложится пока еще глухой мотив — недоверия и обмана. Первый абзац сообщил нам о предательстве Тиссаферна, второй — о коварстве самого Кира, который собирает войско против брата под предлогом усмирения непокорных подданных и лжет своим варварам и грекам о цели похода. Кир легко рассыпает посулы будущих наград, войско же опасается и за уже оговоренное, невыплаченное жалование. Все как-то нехорошо, неспокойно. Войско начинает подозревать, что его ведут на царя, кто-то вовремя откалывается, но большинство так и идет парасанги за парасангами, привычно повинуясь начальникам, не желая возвращаться с пустыми руками или же потому, что эти парасанги уже слишком далеко завели.

Они доходят до того места, где их поджидает царь с огромной армией. Ксенофонт неоднократно повторяет: центр царского войска, — то есть то самое место, куда намерен ударить Кир, ибо там находится ненавистный брат, — оказался далеко за пределами левого фланга Кира. Греки рассеивают варваров, а Кир героически и глупо гибнет, успев нанести брату рану.

Удивительно передана ситуация суматохи, в которой греки уверены, что победили они — только никак не сообразят, куда же подевался их претендент. О том, что Кир погиб и таким образом победа обернулась поражением, они узнают лишь много часов спустя. Пожалуй, вплоть до Льва Толстого никто больше так не сумеет немногими штрихами передать внечеловеческое измерение войны, движение больших людских масс, складывающееся из множества вроде осмысленных, рациональных или эмоциональных поступков, но в совокупности не внятное ни для кого из участников.

Осознав случившееся, греки решают договориться с царем и союзными варварами, обеспечить безопасное возвращение в Малую Азию и оттуда отбыть на родину. Варвары приглашают на переговоры греческих начальников и тут же их убивают. Греков подводит доверчивость — об этом Ксенофонт еще не раз скажет, и сам окажется в какой-то момент жертвой варварского коварства (и тогда сумеет спастись и спасти своих) и предательства греков (это обойдется дороже). Тем не менее и после этого первого, почти катастрофического для войска опыта, и на собственной шкуре прочувствовав чужие интриги и низость, Ксенофонт продолжает настаивать: доверие — одна из главных человеческих ценностей.

Доверие, дружба, взаимные обязательства — именно в них Ксенофонт видит основу эллинской добродетели, и именно они побуждают его сделать шаг вперед, когда варвары, вновь пытаясь обмануть греков, сообщают, что главного их начальника они казнили как предателя, но остальные в заложниках и с ними все будет хорошо, если греки пойдут на дальнейшие уступки.

Я, конечно, тут совсем не главный и мало на чем могу настаивать, говорит Ксенофонт. Но среди захваченных вами был Проксен. Проксен — мой друг. Предъявите Проксена живым и здоровым, только тогда я почувствую себя вправе о чем-то договариваться.

И эта его частная дружеская преданность спасает все войско. Проксен мертв, предъявить его варвары не могут, обман разоблачен. Греки начинают совещаться, как им быть. И обращаются с вопросами к этому самому Ксенофонту, которого еще вчера никто почти и не знал. Ксенофонт предлагает Колумбов путь — пробиваться дальше в глубь Азии, выйти к морю кружным путем.

Поколения читателей хорошо помнят возглас: «Таласса! Таласса!» — «Море! Sea!" Одолев немыслимые расстояния, пройдя сквозь все враждебные племена и не менее враждебный ландшафт, греки вышли — под конец даже выбежали — к морю. Не все помнят, что на этом повествование не заканчивается. Бóльшая часть «Анабасиса» — поход уже вдоль моря, поиски портов и кораблей, постоянные междоусобные дрязги. Именно тут характеристики «коллег» становятся особенно выпуклыми: кто-то одержим страстью к войне, кто-то — жадностью к добыче. Мы вновь поражаемся и наблюдательности Ксенофонта, и умению разбираться в людях, его терпению и преданности безнадежному, казалось бы, делу, которое именно благодаря терпению, преданности и еще одному трудно определимому ингредиенту в итоге удается благополучно довести до конца, обеспечить возвращение если не в родной город, то в эллинский мир.

Трудно определимый элемент в характере Ксенофонта — как персонажа, так и рассказчика — «негромкость». Умение ощущать и представлять себя в связи с другими. Хвалиться не подвигами, а умением распознать возможности ландшафта. Почти всегда Ксенофонт представлен в роли увещевателя, советчика или младшего командира, подающего хорошую идею старшему. То есть представлен в связях, в отношениях с людьми.

Все ведь и началось для него с той минуты, как он выступил из рядов спросить, что же сталось с другом, Проксеном.

С этой минуты он ведет и оберегает войско, отсчитывая парасанги. С этой минуты парасанги наполняются содержанием — деталями ландшафта, обитающими на пути племенами, холодом, голодом, гибелью в засадах, взаимовыручкой, дикарским гостеприимством, чудесными спасениями. Эти парасанги уже не сливаются, как в начале книги.

И вот еще почему, возможно, Ксенофонт выбрал такую меру для расстояний — не только из-за ее персидской специфики. Существует гипотеза, согласно которой «парасанг» был не столько точной мерой длины, сколько мерой пути: отрезком, который можно преодолеть до привала. Его длина менялась в зависимости от ландшафта, погоды и трудности перехода. Если это так, то в «Анабасисе» особенно ясно становится главное, важное и сегодня, — человек как мера всех вещей, глубин собственной души, отношений между людьми и народами, но также и пространства, времени, природы, пути.

Так через парасанги лет, переходя от поколения к поколению, порой легко, а порой преодолевая разрывы культур, гибель цивилизаций и библиотек, сложности перевода, Ксенофонт дружески является к нам.