Part of the army that Cyrus raised were some ten thousand Greek soldiers, primarily mercenaries.
Cyrus and his army were defeated in the fall of that year in what appears to be (looking at the maps provided in my copy of the book) what we would today call Iraq.
So the Greeks had a choice of submitting to the King or going home to Greece. They choose the latter and so begins a fantastic adventure story!
They had to march home on foot - fighting hostile tribesmen such as Kurds most of the way and crossing high mountains in six foot deep snow on the way home.
They had to steal a lot of the food and other supplies for their journey, as only a few peoples would sell or trade with them. This history was written by a young general from Athens, who helped lead the rearguard of the 10,00 on their way home. Xenophon has a pretty straightforward and easy to read style.
The forward says that he is thought to have (ahem) enlarged his own part in things in the story, and that his description of the big battle between the Prince and the King is lacking - but the basic story of adventure and survival by an army of ten thousand battling their way through hostile lands in the winter snows are real.
