We will read, in Greek, selections from Xenophon's Anabasis and Cyropaedia, examined as both literary texts and historical sources. The first work recounts Xenophon's own participation in the famous expedition of the Ten Thousand into the heart of the Persian Empire in support of the rebel prince Cyrus the Younger, and the troops' difficult homeward journey. The second work is a fictional biography of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire.