Anabasis

Ten thousand Greek mercenaries march into Persia for a prince who is killed in his first battle; their generals are seized under a flag of truce; and the survivors, leaderless in hostile country, elect a young Athenian to lead them home. Xenophon wrote the account himself, in the third person, and the shout when they reach the water — the sea, the sea — is one of the oldest thrills in literature.