[a. Gr. κατάβασις a going down, descent, f. καταβαίνειν to go down; cf. ANABASIS.] A going down; a military retreat, in allusion to that of the ten thousand Greeks under Xenophon, related by him in his Anabasis.
1837. De Quincey, Revolt Tartars, Wks. 1862, IV. 112. The Russian anabasis and katabasis of Napoleon.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 17 May, 4/1. Little space is devoted to the Anabasis; it is, as in the story of Xenophon, the Katabasis which fills the larger part.
