anabasis

noun

anab·a·sis ə-ˈna-bə-səs

plural anabases ə-ˈna-bə-ˌsēz

: a going or marching up : advance

especially : a military advance

[from the retreat of Greek mercenaries in Asia Minor described in the Anabasis of Xenophon] : a difficult and dangerous military retreat

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The first sense of anabasis follows logically enough from its roots. In Greek, the word originally meant "inland march"; it is derived from anabainein, meaning "to go up or inland," which is formed by combining the prefix ana- ("up") and bainein ("to go"). The second and opposite sense, however, comes from an anabasis gone wrong. In 401 B.C., Greek mercenaries fighting for Cyrus the Younger marched into the Persian Empire only to find themselves cut off hundreds of miles from home. As a result, they were forced to undertake an arduous and embattled retreat across unknown territories. Xenophon, a Greek historian who accompanied the mercenaries on the march, wrote the epic narrative Anabasis about this experience, and consequently anabasis came to mean a dramatic retreat as well as an advance.