anabasis

The Greek term anabasis referred to an expedition from a coastline up into the interior of a country. The term katabasis referred to a trip from the interior down to the coast. So anabasis means "Expedition" or "The March Up Country" and carries the same connotation in Greek as it does in English. There are two classic texts with the name:

• Anabasis Cyru, by the Greek writer Xenophon (431–360 BC), about the expedition of the Persian prince Cyrus the Younger against his brother King Artaxerxes II.
• Anabasis Alexandri, by the Greek historian Arrian (92–175) is about Alexander the Great

Also:

• Anabase (poetry), a book of poems by Saint-John Perse in French which was translated by T.S. Eliot
• Anabasis (genus) is also a genus of desert shrubs
• The "Siberian Anabasis" is a literary name for the march of the Czechoslovak Legions across Siberia during the Russian Civil War. The name tries to link their campaign to the epic of Xenophon.

See also

• Anabasii, couriers of antiquity.

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