A map tracing the route of the Greek mercenaries who marched with Cyrus from Sardis into Mesopotamia, then made their way back toward the Black Sea and Pergamon.
This map comes from Storica National Geographic 212 (October 2026), where it accompanies the article "La ritirata dei Diecimila". The article covers the expedition of Cyrus the Younger against his brother, the Persian king Artaxerxes II, and the return journey of the Greek mercenaries who marched with him.
Drawn over shaded relief of Anatolia, Mesopotamia and the shores of the Black Sea, the map plots the route in thirteen numbered stages. It begins with the departure from Sardis in 401 BC, followed by the halt at Celaenae, the sack of Tarsus and the crossing of the Euphrates. It then marks the battle of Cunaxa, the retreat up the Tigris, the Zagros Mountains and the Armenian plateau. It ends with the first sighting of the Black Sea, the arrival at Byzantium and the end of the journey at Pergamon.
Zoom in to read the ancient names of cities and regions, such as Lydia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Armenia, Media and Babylonia, and of peoples the Greeks met on the way, including the Carduchi and the Taochi. A timeline along the bottom summarises the five main phases between 401 and 399 BC.
Most of what we know comes from Xenophon, the Athenian who joined the expedition and told its story in the Anabasis.
Published in Historia National Geographic no. 212, 2026-10
