ur food failed us."

[Illustration: THE COAST OF AFRICA, AFTER PTOLEMY (MERCATOR'S
EDITION). This map shows the extent of Hanno's voyage from the Pillars
of Hercules, past the Equator, to what is now called Sierra Leone.]

Further knowledge of the world was now supplied by the Greeks, who
were rapidly asserting themselves and settling round the coast of the
Mediterranean as the Phoenicians had done before them. As in more
ancient days Babylonians and Egyptians had dominated the little world,
so now the power was shifting to the Greeks and Persians. The rise
of Persia does not rightly belong to this story, which is not one of
conquest and annexation, but of discovery, so we must content
ourselves by stating the fact that Persia had become a very important
country with no less than fifty-six subject States paying tribute to
her, including the land of Egypt. Efforts to include Greece had failed.

In the year 401 B.C. one Artaxerxes sat on the throne of Persia, the
mighty Empire which extended eastwards beyond the knowledge of Greeks
or Phoenicians, even to the unknown regions of the Indus. He had reigned
for many years, when Cyrus, his brother, a dashing young prince,
attempted to seize the throne. Collecting a huge army, including the
famous Ten Thousand Greeks, he led them by way of Phrygia, Cilicia,
and along the banks of the Euphrates to within fifty miles of the gates
of Babylon. The journey took nearly five months, a distance of one
thousand seven hundred miles through recognised tracks. Here a battle
was fought and Cyrus was slain.

It was midwinter when the Ten Thousand Greeks who had followed their
leader so loyally through the plains of Asia Minor found themselves
friendless and in great danger in the very heart of the enemy's country.

How Xenophon--a mere Greek volunteer, who had accompanied the army
from the shores of Asia Minor--rose up and offered to lead his
countrymen back to Greece is a matter of history. It would take too
long to tell in detail how they marched northward through the Assyrian
plains, past the neighbourhood of Nineveh, till they reached the
mountain regions which were known to be inhabited by fierce fighters,
unconquered even by the powerful Persians.

Up to this time their line of retreat had followed the "royal road"
of merchants and caravans. Their only chance of safety lay in striking
north into the mountains inhabited by this warlike tribe who had held
out amid their wild and ru