The Return of the Ten Thousand 401 BC
Spring 401 BC, Sardis. Cyrus, younger son of King Darius, is gathering Greek mercenaries, saying he means to fight the bandits of Pisidia. No one believes it, but no one asks. You are Xenophon of Athens, aged 29, and you have come to this army with a letter from your Boeotian friend Proxenus.
Historical background
In 404 BC the Peloponnesian War ended with the surrender of Athens. The Persian prince Cyrus, who had paid the Spartan fleet, secretly set his sights on the throne from Sardis when his father Darius II died that year and his brother Artaxerxes II became king. In 401, through generals such as the Spartan Clearchus, he gathered more than ten thousand Greek mercenaries, and Xenophon of Athens joined the army at the invitation of his friend Proxenus. Socrates told him to go and ask at Delphi. Only at Tarsus did the army learn its true destination, and that September it faced the Great King's army at Cunaxa near Babylon. The Greeks routed the wing opposite them, but Cyrus charged his brother's bodyguard and was killed.
Tissaphernes made a truce, then seized the Greek generals on the banks of the Great Zab. That night Xenophon woke the captains and urged them to elect new generals, and he himself became one. The Greeks passed through the mountains of the Carduchi and the snows of Armenia, cried "The sea! The sea!" on Mount Theches and reached Trapezus on the Black Sea. Afterwards they served Seuthes of Thrace, then in 399 went over to the Spartan general Thibron, who had crossed to Ionia. That same year Socrates drank the hemlock in Athens. Xenophon followed the Spartan king Agesilaus, who had crossed into Asia, stood on his side at Coronea in 394 and was banished from Athens. Sparta gave him an estate at Scillus near Olympia, where he built a temple of Artemis and wrote his account of the expedition and his history of Greece. He left Scillus after Leuctra in 371, and after his banishment was lifted his son Gryllus died fighting in the Athenian cavalry at Mantinea in 362.
Who you are
You begin as Xenophon, aged 29, son of Gryllus of the deme of Erchia in Athens. You grew up in a cavalry-class family that could keep horses, and following Socrates you learned how to ask questions. You have no land or title and little gold, but you are healthy and have Wit. Your father Gryllus and mother Diodora are in Athens; at your side are your Boeotian friend Proxenus, the Spartan Clearchus and Cyrus, master of the army. In time your wife Philesia, two sons and the Spartan king Agesilaus enter this life.
Two ways to start
This scenario can be started in two ways. As the character puts you in the place of the person described on this page, to live out their story. At this moment keeps the same year and the same world, but you choose your seat, gender, age and home region yourself; instead of the character's own story events, the great moments of that time reach you in a form that fits the seat you chose.
Seats you can choose “At this moment”
- Hoplite in Cyrus' mercenary army — A spearman from Arcadia
- Ionian merchant — A shipowner of Miletus
- Scribe at the Persian court — A reckoner in Babylon's royal storehouses
- Athenian citizen — A cobbler in the agora
- Spartan — A Spartiate who has finished the agoge
Or start as someone elsewhere and pick your home region yourself.
Turning point: If Cyrus had lived at Cunaxa
This scenario has no current of history; its backbone is the new turning point "If Cyrus had lived at Cunaxa". How you dealt with the soldiers at Tarsus and what you did on the field of Cunaxa decide the odds on the spot. If Cyrus falls, real history runs through the night on the Great Zab and the election of generals, the mountains of the Carduchi and the snows of Armenia, the cry of "The sea!", the feast of Seuthes, Agesilaus and Coronea, and exile and the estate at Scillus to your study at Corinth in 360 BC; if Cyrus survives, a different branch goes on through a King of Kings in Babylon, a Greek bodyguard, the court at Susa and an expedition to the Nile to its own ending.
Sides you can take
- At Cyrus' side Stay by the prince at Cunaxa, or urge that the line be turned towards the king. This road leads to a world where Cyrus survives to become King of Kings.
- The Greek line Go back to Proxenus' ranks and take up your spear. As in real history, it leads to the road on which ten thousand men walk back to the sea.
Tips
Questions and answers
How close is this scenario to real history?
Cyrus' expedition of 401 BC and the unrest at Tarsus, the Battle of Cunaxa and Cyrus' death, the seizure of the generals on the Great Zab, the Carduchi and Armenia, the cry on Mount Theches and Trapezus, Seuthes, Thibron and the death of Socrates in 399, Agesilaus' Asian campaign of 396, Cnidus and Coronea in 394, Xenophon's banishment and Scillus, the King's Peace of 387, Leuctra in 371, and Mantinea and the death of Gryllus in 362 are historical. Xenophon and his family, Proxenus and Clearchus are real people too. The starting map, realms, real historical figures and the major events of the current of history follow actual history. The hero you play when you start “As the character” and their family are mostly real people, while some of the companions, rivals and loves around you are fictional people who could have lived in that age. Once you start, history may diverge according to your choices and those of the AI rulers.
What station do I start in?
You start as Xenophon, a 29-year-old man of the Athenian cavalry class, in Ionia (Smyrna on the game map), part of Cyrus' satrapy of Sardis. You have neither land nor wife, and you have joined Cyrus' Greek mercenaries.
Is it free? Can I play right away?
Yes. Crown & Plough is a free browser game with no account and nothing to install. The "Start in this scene" button on this page opens the scenario's intro screen directly, and progress is saved automatically in your browser. It works on phones too.