History’s Oldest Documented Survival Story — The March of the Ten Thousand
Video Overview & Insights
In 401 BC, thirteen thousand Greek mercenaries marched deep into the Persian Empire to fight a civil war — only to find themselves stranded a thousand miles from home after their employer was killed in battle, with every path back blocked by hostile armies, freezing mountain passes, and tribal warriors who rolled boulders onto them from the cliffs above.
OKAY I WILL COME ,BUT I AM BRINGING MY E BIKE ,CERTAINLY ONE OF HISTORYS UPLIFTING STORIES ,HARD NOT TO SEE A COMPARISON WITH TODAYS TROUBLES ,GIVEN PERSIAS CONTINUAL BAD FAITH ,WHEN ONE HEARS OF THAT DESICABLE POINTLESS BETRAYAL AFTER THE MAIN BATTLE WAS OVER ,MAKES ALEXANDERS DESTRUCTION FEEL LIKE EARNED PAYBACK .
📖 Read the original eyewitness account: The Persian Expedition by Xenophon https://geni.us/upVVAhR
🎨 Visual Storytelling: This documentary features digital historical reconstructions and composite imagery to bring the past to life.
It is a great story but having seen many stories on Youtube a question comes up on their historical accounting of events and legitimacy which can only be verified by proving the impossible. This means deviating from the story to tell how the impossible was made possible.
📕 Also referenced: Xenophon's Retreat: Greece, Persia and the End of the Golden Age by Robin Waterfield — https://geni.us/TzXER
Xenophon's Anabasis is the oldest surviving firsthand account of a military expedition and one of history's greatest true survival stories. This documentary follows the retreat of the Ten Thousand — a leaderless Greek army that fought its way from Babylon to the Black Sea across Mesopotamia, the Kurdish mountains, and the frozen Armenian plateau — enduring starvation, blizzards, treachery, and constant ambush over a grueling two-year, three-thousand-mile march. Only about eight thousand six hundred made it home alive.
It was in a different time it was a living one way to make a living or be poor and be step on like shit money talks bullshit walk
📚 FURTHER READING
The Persian Expedition by Xenophon - https://geni.us/upVVAhR
Carduchi ancestors of the Kurds ☀️✌️
Xenophon's Retreat by Robin Waterfield — https://geni.us/TzXER]
A Greek Army on the March: Soldiers and Survival in Xenophon's Anabasis by John W. I. Lee - https://geni.us/UWuePC1
You used BC / AD, thank you , rather then using BCE / CE ,however you used measurements not understood by Americans of the Americans I know . Piss on you European measurements.
Now the book ,
March up country , reaching Greek city's , they locked the gates against them , some had gone over to the great king , as mercenaries .
in the mountains they had fought men much the same as
ICE man , found in the northern alps of Italy frozen for centuries , who had
Wickard shield', You didn't depart from the account completely , but many things I remember from the book , like the point where if they had any woman with them they would have founded a Greek
Colony of their oun.
Their leader who leadership fell on was of more Noble birth then the men and had came along as an observer , hailed as history s first War correspondent , however ended up in command.
Some men I believe made it home , however some simply joined another army and went back again.
However the Commander
retired to a farm Villa somewhere under mount Olympus .
I don't trust history told like this it's to Easley historic fiction , and at worst historic
Rewritten historic fiction for
Political purpose , such as
Indoctrination and propaganda.
Such as emphasize women and minorities in history where they never were , giving them
Historic importance they never had . Changeing understandings such as Columbus discovering America
Pointing to Leif Erikson and Vineland a Viking short lived settlement in the new world , never mind Europe never heard of the wild vikings sea travel's , or the fact the universities of
Europe never taught the world was round untill Columbus proved it .
Your story is a good story , would make an excellent full length Hollywood movie
( If they could keep their political correctness out of it )
However I see it more as historic fiction , no feel of the time comes through , no tossing the man out of the meeting , because he wasn't Greek , no , someone coughed , which was a good
Odom , didn't say anything about how they found , I believe was wild honey, but it made them Sick or dizzy but told about the hunger in camp.
The men in the hills had tattoos like the Iceman of northern Italy.
It pointed out black and white to men , why the Greeks were called civilized , because the Iceman in the alps , and those men the Greek met were the same, European stoneage (both carried wicker shield's ) tribesmen. Called troglodytes or better known as barbarians .
Piss on your European
Measurement's try , yards , miles , and 10 / 20 below Fahrenheit..
The Landmark Xenophon's Anabasis (ed. Shane Brennan & David Thomas, 2021) — https://geni.us/FV0Sw
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I read 'The Anabasis' at school. Amazing story.
His 'Hellenica' is also a great adjunct to Thucydides 'History of the Peloponnesian War'.
Survival Instinct explores history's most extraordinary true stories of human endurance, maritime disasters, and survival against impossible odds.
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Excellent vid, well done. I am a 59 year ould Family Medicine MD and love to read history. I have heard of this long ago. The description of hypothermia was medically accurate. I may have read this old story before , Anabis by Xenophon. Now have a a PDF copy of this history in American English. Thank you!
#history #survival #documentary #ancientgreece
The retreat of Xenophon and the Ten Thousand from Babylon to the Black Sea in 401 BC is considered the first great military memoir ever written. The Greek mercenaries' famous cry of "Thalatta! Thalatta!" — "The Sea! The Sea!" — upon glimpsing the coast after months of fighting through Persian territory, Kurdish mountain warfare, and deadly Armenian blizzards remains one of the most iconic moments in ancient history and a lasting testament to human resilience under extreme conditions.
Amazing story. I never read Anabasis but wondered how Alexander was so successful against Persians whom he never fought until crossing the Aegean. Now I understand cuz he carried a copy of the Anabasis and was a student of Aristotle & his logic, very analytical learning from Xenophon how to think about the art of war from a philospher.
More User Perspectives
We translated this in my Greek classes in undergrad. 8am class. Reading endless paragraph after paragraph of kinda boring description of camps, armies, geography, punctuated suddenly by these graphic, gory detailed accounts of dismemberment, tongues cut out and palpating on the ground, a spy hoisted over a beam by his unmentionables... All described in equal detail. Lol
It was a unique early morning experience...
Surrender meant death or slavery. Better to march and fight. The Greeks were many things , mostly bad if you weren't Greek, but cowards wasn't one of them.
@barksdalehales438Games in the beach? Well, the ones without frostbite or debilitating injuries I suppose.
@thomasmurray3920So thats where Kardashians get their name.
@peterkratoska4524That's a long, long walk
@bogbody9952Conn Iggulden , The Falcon of Sparta is good novel.
@brianasciak1668Greece has always been a fortress against the East.
@JamesFrancisMcGilliganJust another example that Islamic words can not be trusted
@ScottMcDowell-gi6rlSurprised that the harsh cold winter didn't finish them all off .. would today .?
@jasonpoole-f8sSo these are hired mercenaries who fought for money, basically plundering their way home, stripping the villages like locusts, killing people trying to save seed grain.
The glory in this escapes me. But, you know, guys never change, lol
2:19 I wonder if you'll mention the cities found on the race back. 2 cities at the time assumed to be the victims of a great flood but were the remnants of some of the oldest civilizations on the planet. So old they were ancient to the Greeks.
@Nono66727Be better to use Fahrenheit, but not a big deal. Main thing is, unlike the metrosexuals on YouTube, you don't use the work term "BCE", so UpVote.
@Mike-fj2lnThere is a reference to this story in the Paul Cooper’s terrific “Fall of Civilizations” channel, in the episode about the Sumerians (or Assyrians - I can’t remember for sure). It’s my favorite history channel ever nn YouTube.
@jelliebird37I've done it a few times in my life...gone to the Wild, endurance tested, belly tested by sharks, wild boars, tree spiders the size of mud crabs & hunted by evil men...& I'm soft...😊
@philipambler3825Trapped like Paulus at Stalingrad.
@heyhandersen5802What would I do? I would have marched. You aren't defeated until you surrender. I don't surrender. I would have marched, and fought, every step of the way, until i dropped.
Army vet
I doubt the residents of Trapezus were able or enthused about feeding 8600 soldiers for 30 days.
@johnnyv3293So, where did the tents and supplies shown in Armenian come from? And the furs? And who carried all this stuff?
@johnnyv3293Wow! Excellent.
@TheFiddle101I had never heard of this epic but considered as the story progressed that this must have been a motivator for Alexander. Xenophon’s name deserved to be more commonly remembered in history.
@Tigs2The Anabasis. Thank you for this from the USA. We need to remember who we qre ans where we came from. How we got here. Perhaps this Greco-Roman tradition does not belong to us. We don't even understand the language. But we are beginning to learn that ignorance is merciless. The man of no book is doomed from the outset. And we must carry on. Our children's future depends upon our judgement at present. Are we men or are we kine? If Tump is our vision. I would rather be blind. Now if you will excuse me, I will rage. Rage! Against the dyingvof the light! By the way, does anybody know when the general strike is to occur? I need to remember to
@chriskickham1272Brilliant narrative. I actually lived this brutal adventure, as I dodged, skipped, manned, despair gripped me, as I negotiate the endless adverts, boring, brain numbing adverts, but I was determined to survive, and I watched every meaningless adverts, until the end. Glory to the Greeks.
@ataboyboyboy8895Ask the First Nation Peoples of America what the USA’s written agreements have ever been worth. Only worth a damn for as long as the US government didn’t want anything of yours
@MrSummerbladeLIARS THEN LIARS NOW - does it matter if they call themselves PERSIANS OR MUSLIMS THEY ARE LIARS
@Homelessnick64If you live by the sword, you will likely die by the sword. Once they chose to be warriors, at least they did the best they could to survive...but to turn this into glory...sad statement on humanity. It will be our undoing...
@joannehoyle9165I thought Xenophon had been a high ranking Athenian who supported the Spartan take over of Athens and as such an autocrat? Also thought he had previous military experience fighting on the side of Sparta
@blahblahblah-g9vSome say "rebels", others say "freedom fighters" ...
@Joe-ef2nrVery Platonic
No fear, courage overcoming
Brotherhood amongst different tribes
Beautiful
! Viva Hellas ! Larga vida a Greecia! ❤
@danielcastilo1840Hope if the USA has to "help" the "Persians" it doesn't backfire and cause loss of USA lives & destruction.
Everyone loves you when you're drastically needed.
The Anabasis of Xenophon.
I learned of it from the Franklin Expedition. Who had their own perilous journey
Its mind blowing how far these warriors march. I march about 700 meters to the convenience store and back and Im spent , lol
@jeffmclean9411The depths of human atrocities have no bounds, either in ancient history or today. Only difference is in the past it was face to face and now it’s the‘Easy’ button on a desktop.
@johnlennon8653KAOSHHH rrhhhaaagahh
@pieterkock695Are Kim Kardashian and the likes descendants of these Carduchians of the mountains?
@fobbyjose7161What history has never revealed is that the Greeks were black people and not Caucasian as the Hollywood picture depicted
@Augustine-mu3ifAn army of mercenaries. They were not fighting for Greece. Paid swords is what they were.
@Bigbudda12I agree, this story would make a great movie....
@Desplorables2:45 is that Arthur Morgan's Greek ancestor?
@matthewg8922I wonder if they got paid ?
A map of their journey would be great.
Some of the best entertainment on YouTube ❤❤
@redcape4205The Anabasis of Xenophon should be read by every young man
@brassteeth75