Reddit reviews The Persian Expedition (Penguin Classics)

Read the original, it's not daunting! Xenophon is by far the most readable of all the Greek historians. You'll get a bit bored at first as he documents the progress of the army of Kyros the Younger by days and parasangs, but it gets more exciting after Book 1. Free translation here or check out Rex Warner's Penguin Classics edition. The bit about Nineveh is here (Anabasis 3.4.10-12).

I've recently posted twice on the Anabasis of Xenophon. Great story, based on true events, of a 10k strong Greek mercenary army that enters Persia to help a pretender to the throne, Cyrus, who gets killed in the first battle, Cunaxa, 399 B.C. The army is now behind enemy lines, and Xenophon, student of Plato, from whom he learnt the art of rhetoric, organizes this army, and they march northward, along the Euphrates, to the Black Sea, via Armenia. The novel is about how does this young man organize the return of this massive army, with its soldiers having identity struggles within the army (think Athens vs Sparta), and how this affects their ability to work together in their common struggle to return home.

In terms of translations, you have either W.H.D. Rouse or Rex Warner. Also this is the story that the [Warriors film is based on](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Warriors_(film)