Anabasis

 The Anabasis by Xenophon, from Xenophon (vols 2 and 3), translated by Carleton L Brownson, 316 pages

As the year 400 BC approached, a Persian prince named Cyrus hired ten thousand Greek mercenaries to help him seize the throne from his brother, Artaxerxes.  Recruited under false pretenses from across Greece, the decisive battle of the campaign ended with the Greeks holding the field but Cyrus dead and their Persian allies inclined to appease the king. Isolated in the midst of a hostile empire, the Ten Thousand managed to fight their way back to Greece. How they did so is the subject of Xenophon's Anabasis, which is not only a historical record but also an eyewitness account, Xenophon himself having been caught up in the Persian adventure and playing a significant role after the death of Cyrus.

Not that long ago, Xenophon's classic was a standard school text.  It is not difficult to understand why.  The book provides an immersion into the lives and culture (and, if one chooses to read it in the original, the language) of the ancient Greeks, packaged within a story of military adventure, manly virtue, and heroic speeches.