Hatrack, anxious to be near the action, came with the platoon. He looked about with annoyance at men flat on their backs, paying no heed to security. Nor did they need to. The surrounding jungle was so hopelessly tangled that nothing could get near you. Down below, the sounds of the company thrashing their way up to you sounded like an elephant stampede.
 “Why did we stop here?” Hatrack demanded of Holly.
 “This was as far as we could get,” Holly said.
But Hatrack wasn’t interested in him.
 “See any traces, Corporal Naughton?” he asked anxiously.
 “Traces of what?” Nigel asked irritably.
Hatrack gazed about darkly: “It’s hopeless trying to go straight up like this. Don’t you agree, Corporal.”
 “Absolutely. Nobody could ever go anywhere in this tangle.”
 “Try plotting your way from crater to crater and weaving around them. That must be the way they go.”
 “Who goes?”
But Hatrack, who would be the last to believe what was already obvious, was careful to walk away.

Anabasis—the march upcountry—the mighty classic by Xenophon of the escape of a trapped mercenary army from a failed venture deep into Persia.
There was in the army an Athenian, Xenophon, who came with them neither as captain nor officer nor man, but Proxenos had invited him to come, being an old family friend. Proxenos promised, if he would come, to introduce him to Cyrus, who was, he said, more than home and country to himself.  Xenophon read his letter, and consulted Socrates the philosopher about this trip. Socrates had a suspicion that there might be some state objection to his being friendly with Cyrus, because Cyrus had favored the Lacedaimonians in their war against Athens; so he advised Xenophon to go to Delphi and inquire of the oracle about this journey.  Accordingly  Xenophon went and asked Apollo what god he should sacrifice and pray to, that he might best accomplish the journey he had in mind, and come back safe and successful.  Apollo named the gods to whom he must sacrifice.
  When he came back he told the oracle to Socrates. But Socrates blamed him because he had not asked first whether it was better for him to go or to stay, but just decided to go, and then asked how he could best do it. “But,” said he, “since you did ask that, you must do what the god bids.” 
    And Socrates is right, for the mercenaries have been double-crossed by Cyrus and are actually taking part in a coup, which fails when Cyrus is killed, and leaves the Greeks trapped somewhere near Baghdad, far from home and everyone an enemy between here and there.
    Apart from the curiosity that Xenophon speaks of himself in the third person, making you eternally doubt that he wrote it (but he did), it’s an ongoing battle all the way to the sea. A great adventure, if rather simply told. Mostly, it is a lot of arguing about what the hell to do next in impossible circumstances, but Xenophon leads the ten thousand to safety in the end.
    The only decent movie made based on Xenophon’s Anabasis was The Warriors. The New York gangs have a conference in Central Park, but their leader, Cyrus, is assassinated. Thus the Coney Island gang must fight their way against all sides through the territories of rival gangs, trying to get back to the sea. Pretty good movie for its kind.