10 Euros Xenophon

Issued as part of Greece's ongoing ancient historian series, this piece honors Xenophon of Athens — soldier, historian, and student of Socrates — whose Anabasis recounts the grueling 1,500-mile retreat of roughly 10,000 Greek mercenaries through hostile Persian territory after the failed campaign of Cyrus the Younger in 401 BC. The march remains one of antiquity's most remarkable military narratives and influenced commanders as late as Napoleon.

The Bank of Greece has used collector issues of this kind partly to sustain numismatic revenue streams during periods of constrained sovereign finances — a quiet irony for a series celebrating classical Athenian intellectual life.