Xenophon’s Anabasis: Books I - IV (Greek and English Edition)

**Warning** Not An English Translation.I am very disappointed with this purchase. The discription specifically mentions that it is in Greek and English. I assumed it would be an interlinear translation or something like that but it is not. You can imagine my surprise when the person I bought it for leafed through and had no way to enjoy it.

Very useful for undergraduate study. Excellent notes.

Excellent edition of the Anabasis.I recommend it to anyone interested in Greek history and literature.The commentaries are informative and really add to the experience.

I haven't read it yet, but it looks good.

Accidentally ordered the greek version.

I used Hewitt & Mather years ago to work through the first four books of the Anabasis, and it is a good tool for the first-time student of Xenophon. While I agree with most of the other reviews here, I would add that it does have some shortcomings. First, the editors are often exasperating in their reluctance to give direct help with many passages, instead making oblique remarks or referring the student to analogous passages previously explained. Second, the notes are keyed to the page and line numbers of this edition, rather than to the standard chapter and section numbers used in other editions. This of course makes it laborious to consult other works.I would recommend supplementing this text with W.W. Goodwin's 1894 student edition of the Anabasis. Goodwin contains both text and copious notes, and he explains many passages, constructions, idioms, etc that Hewlett & Mather pass over. You can get a readable hardcopy of Goodwin from one of Amazon's resellers for about $5 or so. It will be invaluable in filling in the gaps left by H & M.If you can spare the cash, I would also recommend a copy of Alpheus Crosby's "A Lexicon to Xenophon's Anabasis", which is a photographic reprint and not expensive. Its vocabulary is much fuller than H & M and the word entries give many references to the text as examples of the various usages.Finally, if you are encountering the Anabasis for the first time, Robin Waterfield's "Xenophon's Retreat" is a terrific introduction to Xenophon's times, Greek and Persian culture, military practice, and so much more. Very readable, up to date, and not expensive.Finally, I strongly recommend going to the Perseus Project on the internet, if you are translating any Greek or Latin author. It has most of the texts of the standard ancient authors, with various forms of information keyed to them. For example, for Xenophon you can click on any word in the text and quickly bring up the dictionary entry in the "Liddell & Scott Intermediate" Greek dictionary. No more laborious, time-wasting thumbing through a hardcopy dictionary! And it's free.Enjoy.

Mather and Hewitt's edition of the Anabasis is self-contained in a way that very few Greek texts currently in print are: not only does it have a very detailed line-by-line commentary, map and complete vocabulary, it also has a fulsome introduction to Xenophon and the Anabasis, including what the ancients thought of Xenophon, Xenophon's personality and subsequent literary career, and the organization and equipment of the Persian and Greek armies. The introduction and commentary are both pre-multiculturalist and therefore unabashedly discuss such things as the moral lessons to be drawn from the Anabasis, and the Anabasis as a model of democracy. Throughout, the text is furthermore illustrated with delightful little reproductions of Greek and Persian art, technology, monuments, coins, weapons, etc.And of course, if you're looking to brush up on your Greek without the aid of a classroom and instructor, this edition is a great choice. Not only does it have the advantages enumerated above, but the Anabasis itself is relatively easy and clear Greek with a historical rather than philosophical vocabulary.

This edition is impressive in that it fits four books of the Anabasis into a compact paperback. The vocabulary is very generous, often referring you to the 1st person singular forms of verbs in Aorist or Perfect form. The commentary has references to grammars like Smyth and Goodwin, the latter of which is available in free PDF form online.There are some downsides to this volume. You will find yourself flipping through the glossary quite frequently to find the meanings of unusual words, of which there is a fair amount. Other texts might supplement this by having infrequent vocabulary underneath the text. You are definitely going to want to invest in some Post-It flags.