Xenophon's Anabasis

Xenophon’s Anabasis is the Greek author and soldier Xenophon’s first-person account, written in the early fourth century BC, of the Ten Thousand Greek mercenaries marching out of Persia after the 401 BC battle of Cunaxa. Its most-quoted moment is the cry Thalatta! Thalatta! (the sea! the sea!) in Book 4, when the retreating army first sights the Black Sea from Mount Theches and knows it can reach home by coastal route. The phrase became the classic literary expression of relief at sighting the sea.