Xenophon was an eye-witness of the events which he describes in the Anabasis. He had joined the expedition, not as general or captain or private, 3 but upon the solicitation of his friend Proxenus, who was one of the Greek generals in Cyrus' service. At this time Xenophon was probably somewhat less than thirty years of age. Despite his comparative youth, and despite the fact that he was an Athenian in an army of Peloponnesians,4 he was destined to play the leading part in the famous retreat of the Ten Thousand, a part which he describes with simple directness and unaffected modesty.