Anabasis
by
Xenophon
Part 5 out of 5
V
Crossing over in the direction of the Thracians above Byzantium, they 1
reached the Delta, as it is called. Here they were no longer in the
territory of the Maesades, but in the country of Teres the Odrysian
[an ancient worthy[1]]. Here Heracleides met them with the proceeds of
the spoil, and Seuthes picked out three pairs of mules (there were
only three, the other teams being oxen); then he summoned Xenophon and
bade him take them, and divide the rest between the generals and
officers, to which Xenophon replied that for himself, he was content
to receive his share another time, but added: "Make a present of these
to my friends here, the generals who have served with me, and to the
officers." So of the pairs of mules Timasion the Dardanian received
one, Cleanor the Orchomenian one, and Phryniscus the Achaean one. The
teams of oxen were divided among the officers. Then Seuthes proceeded
to remit pay due for the month already passed, but all he could give
was the equivalent of twenty days. Heracleides insisted that this was
all he had got by his trafficking. Whereupon Xenophon with some warmth
exclaimed: "Upon my word, Heracleides, I do not think you care for
Seuthes' interest as you should. If you did, you have been at pains to
bring back the full amount of the pay, even if you had had to raise a
loan to do so, and, if by no other means, by selling the coat off your
own back."
[1] See above re previous Teres. The words "an ancient worthy" may
possibly be an editor's or commentator's note.
What he said annoyed Heracleides, who was afraid of being ousted from
the friendship of Seuthes, and from that day forward he did his best
to calumniate Xenophon before Seuthes. The soldiers, on their side,
laid the blame of course on Xenophon: "Where was their pay?" and
Seuthes was vexed with him for persistently demanding it for them. Up
to this date he had frequently referred to what he would do when he
got to the seaboard again; how he intended to hand over to him
Bisanthe, Ganos, and Neontichos[2]. But from this time forward he
never mentioned one of them again. The slanderous tongue of
Heracleides had whispered him:--it was not safe to hand over fortified 8
towns to a man with a force at his back.
[2] For Bisanthe see above. Ganos, a little lower down the coast, with
Neontichos once belonged to Alcibiades, if we may believe
Cornelius Nepos, "Alc." vii. 4, and Plutarch, "Alc." c. 36. See
above.
Consequently Xenophon fell to considering what he ought to do as
regards marching any further up the country; and Heracleides
introduced the other generals to Seuthes, urging them to say that they
were quite as well able to lead the army as Xenophon, and promising
them that within a day or two they should have full pay for two
months, and he again implored them to continue the campaign with
Seuthes. To which Timasion replied that for his part he would continue
no campaign without Xenophon; not even if they were to give him pay
for five months; and what Timasion said, Phryniscus and Cleanor
repeated; the views of all three coincided.
Seuthes fell to upbraiding Heracleides in round terms. "Why had he not
invited Xenophon with the others?" and presently they invited him, but
by himself alone. He, perceiving the knavery of Heracleides, and that
his object was to calumniate him with the other generals, presented
himself; but at the same time he took care to bring all the generals
and the officers. After their joint consent had been secured, they
continued the campaign. Keeping the Pontus on their right, they passed
through the millet-eating[3] Thracians, as they are called, and
reached Salmydessus. This is a point at which many trading vessels
bound for the Black Sea run aground and are wrecked, owing to a sort
of marshy ledge or sandbank which runs out for a considerable distance
into the sea[4]. The Thracians, who dwell in these parts, have set up
pillars as boundary marks, and each set of them has the pillage of its
own flotsom and jetsom; for in old days, before they set up these
landmarks, the wreckers, it is said, used freely to fall foul of and
slay one another. Here was a rich treasure trove, of beds and boxes 14
numberless, with a mass of written books, and all the various things
which mariners carry in their wooden chests. Having reduced this
district, they turned round and went back again. By this time the army
of Seuthes had grown to be considerably larger than the Hellenic army;
for on the one hand, the Odrysians flocked down in still larger
numbers, and on the other, the tribes which gave in their adhesion
from time to time were amalgamated with his armament. They got into
quarters on the flat country above Selybria at about three miles[5]
distance from the sea. As to pay, not a penny was as yet forthcoming,
and the soldiers were cruelly disaffected to Xenophon, whilst Seuthes,
on his side, was no longer so friendlily disposed. If Xenophon ever
wished to come face to face with him, want of leisure or some other
difficulty always seemed to present itself.
[3] Or, "the Melinophagi."
[4] See, for a description of this savage coast, Aesch. "Prom." vinc.
726, etc.--
"{trakheia pontou Salmudesia gnathos
ekhthroxenos nautaisi, metruia neon.}"
"The rugged Salmudesian jaw of the Black Sea,
Inhospitable to sailors, stepmother of ships."
But the poet is at fault in his geography, since he connects "the
Salmydesian jaw" with the Thermodon.
[5] Lit. "thirty stades." Selybria is about fourty-four miles from
Byzantium, two-thirds of the way to Perinthus.
VI
At this date, when nearly two months had already passed, an embassy 1
arrived. These were two agents from Thibron--Charminus, a
Lacedaemonian, and Polynicus. They were sent to say that the
Lacedaemonians had resolved to open a campaign against Tissaphernes,
and that Thibron, who had set sail to conduct the war, was anxious to
avail himself of the troops. He could guarantee that each soldier
should receive a daric a month as pay, the officers double pay, and
the generals quadruple. The Lacedaemonian emissaries had no sooner
arrived than Heracleides, having learnt that they had come in search
of the Hellenic troops, goes off himself to Seuthes and says: "The
best thing that could have happened; the Lacedaemonians want these
troops and you have done with them, so that if you hand over the
troops to them, you will do the Lacedaemonians a good turn and will
cease to be bothered for pay any more. The country will be quit of
them once and for ever."
On hearing this Seuthes bade him introduce the emissaries. As soon as
they had stated that the object of their coming was to treat for the
Hellenic troops, he replied that he would willingly give them up, that
his one desire was to be the friend and ally of Lacedaemon. So he
invited them to partake of hospitality, and entertained them 3
magnificently; but he did not invite Xenophon, nor indeed any of the
other generals. Presently the Lacedaemonians asked: "What sort of man
is Xenophon?" and Seuthes answered: "Not a bad fellow in most
respects; but he is too much the soldiers' friend; and that is why it
goes ill with him." They asked: "Does he play the popular leader?" and
Heracleides answered: "Exactly so." "Well then," said they, "he will
oppose our taking away the troops, will he not?" "To be sure he will,"
said Heracleides; "but you have only to call a meeting of the whole
body, and promise them pay, and little further heed will they pay to
him; they will run off with you." "How then are we to get them
collected?" they asked. "Early to-morrow," said Heracleides, "we will
bring you to them; and I know," he added once more, "as soon as they
set eyes on you, they will flock to you with alacrity." Thus the day
ended.
The next day Seuthes and Heracleides brought the two Laconian agents
to the army, and the troops were collected, and the agents made a
statement as follows: "The Lacedaemonians have resolved on war with
Tissaphernes, who did you so much wrong. By going with us therefore
you will punish your enemy, and each of you will get a daric a month,
the officers twice that sum, and the generals quadruple." The soldiers
lent willing ears, and up jumped one of the Arcadians at once, to find
fault with Xenophon. Seuthes also was hard by, wishing to know what
was going to happen. He stood within ear shot, and his interpreter by
his side; not but what he could understand most of what was said in
Greek himself. At this point the Arcadian spoke: "For the matter of
that, Lacedaemonians, we should have been by your sides long ago, if
Xenophon had not persuaded us and brought us hither. We have never
ceased campaigning, night and day, the dismal winter through, but he
reaps the fruit of our toils. Seuthes has enriched him privately, but
deprives us of our honest earnings; so that, standing here as I do to
address you first, all I can say is, that if I might see the fellow
stoned to death as a penalty for all the long dance he has led us, I 10
should feel I had got my pay in full, and no longer grudge the pains
we have undergone." The speaker was followed by another and then
another in the same strain; and after that Xenophon made the following
speech:--
"True is the old adage; there is nothing which mortal man may not
expect to see. Here am I being accused by you to-day, just where my
conscience tells me that I have displayed the greatest zeal on your
behalf. Was I not actually on my road home when I turned back? Not,
God knows, because I learned that you were in luck's way, but because
I heard that you were in sore straits, and I wished to help you, if in
any way I could. I returned, and Seuthes yonder sent me messenger
after messenger, and made me promise upon promise, if only I could
persuade you to come to him. Yet, as you yourselves will bear me
witness, I was not to be diverted. Instead of setting my hand to do
that, I simply led you to a point from which, with least loss of time,
I thought you could cross into Asia. This I believed was the best
thing for you, and you I knew desired it.
"But when Aristarchus came with his ships of war and hindered our
passage across, you will hardly quarrel with me for the step I then
took in calling you together that we might advisedly consider our best
course. Having heard both sides--first Aristarchus, who ordered you to
march to the Chersonese, then Seuthes, who pleaded with you to
undertake a campaign with himself--you all proposed to go with
Seuthes; and you all gave your votes to that effect. What wrong did I
commit in bringing you, whither you were eager to go? If, indeed,
since the time when Seuthes began to tell lies and cheat us about the
pay, I have supported him in this, you may justly find fault with me
and hate me. But if I, who at first was most of all his friend, to-day
am more than any one else at variance with him, how can I, who have
chosen you and rejected Seuthes, in fairness be blamed by you for the
very thing which has been the ground of quarrel between him and me?
But you will tell me, perhaps, that I get from Seuthes what is by
right yours, and that I deal subtly by you? But is it not clear that,
if Seuthes has paid me anything, he has at any rate not done so with 16
the intention of losing by what he gives me, whilst he is still your
debtor? If he gave to me, he gave in order that, by a small gift to
me, he might escape a larger payment to yourselves. But if that is
what you really think has happened, you can render this whole scheme
of ours null and void in an instant by exacting from him the money
which is your due. It is clear, Seuthes will demand back from me
whatever I have got from him, and he will have all the more right to
do so, if I have failed to secure for him what he bargained for when I
took his gifts. But indeed, I am far removed from enjoying what is
yours, and I swear to you by all the gods and goddesses that I have
not taken even what Seuthes promised me in private. He is present
himself and listening, and he is aware in his own heart whether I
swear falsely. And what will surprise you the more, I can swear
besides, that I have not received even what the other generals have
received, no, nor yet what some of the officers have received. But how
so? why have I managed my affairs no better? I thought, sirs, the more
I helped him to bear his poverty at the time, the more I should make
him my friend in the day of his power. Whereas, it is just when I see
the star of his good fortune rising, that I have come to divine the
secret of his character.
"Some one may say, are you not ashamed to be so taken in like a fool?
Yes, I should be ashamed, if it had been an open enemy who had so
decieved me. But, to my mind, when friend cheats friend, a deeper
stain attaches to the perpetrator than to the victim of deceit.
Whatever precaution a man may take against his friend, that we took in
full. We certainly gave him no pretext for refusing to pay us what he
promised. We were perfectly upright in our dealings with him. We did
not dawdle over his affairs, nor did we shrink from any work to which
he challenged us.
"But you will say, I ought to have taken security of him at the time,
so that had he fostered the wish, he might have lacked the ability to
decieve. To meet that retort, I must beg you to listen to certain
things, which I should never have said in his presence, except for
your utter want of feeling towards me, or your extraordinary
ingratitude. Try and recall the posture of your affairs, when I 24
extricated you and brought you to Seuthes. Do you not recollect how at
Perinthus Aristarchus shut the gates in your faces each time you
offered to approach the town, and how you were driven to camp outside
under the canopy of heaven? It was midwinter; you were thrown upon the
resources of a market wherein few were the articles offered for sale,
and scanty the wherewithal to purchase them. Yet stay in Thrace you
must, for there were ships of war riding at anchor in the bay, ready
to hinder your passage across; and what did that stay imply? It meant
being in a hostile country, confronted by countless cavalry, legions
of light infantry. And what had we? A heavy infantry force certainly,
with which we could have dashed at villages in a body possibly, and
seized a modicum of food at most; but as to pursuing the enemy with
such a force as ours, or capturing men or cattle, the thing was out of
the question; for when I rejoined you your original cavalry and light
infantry divisions had disappeared. In such sore straits you lay!
"Supposing that, without making any demands for pay whatever, I had
merely won for you the alliance of Seuthes--whose cavalry and light
infantry were just what you needed--would you not have thought that I
had planned very well for you? I presume, it was through your
partnership with him and his that you were able to find such complete
stores of corn in the villages, when the Thracians were driven to take
to their heels in such hot haste, and you had so large a share of
captives and cattle. Why! from the day on which his cavalry force was
attached to us, we never set eyes on a single foeman in the field,
though up to that date the enemy with his cavalry and his light
infantry used undauntedly to hang on our heels, and effectually
prevented us from scattering in small bodies and reaping a rich
harvest of provisions. But if he who partly gave you this security has
failed to pay in full the wages due to you therefrom, is not that a
terrible misfortune? So monstrous indeed that you think I ought not to
go forth alive[1].
[1] I.e. the fate of a scape-goat is too good for me.
"But let me ask you, in what condition do you turn your backs on this 31
land to-day? Have you not wintered here in the lap of plenty? Whatever
you have got from Seuthes has been surplus gain. Your enemies have had
to meet the bill of your expenses, whilst you led a merry round of
existence, in which you have not once set eyes on the dead body of a
comrade or lost one living man. Again, if you have achieved any, (or
rather many) noble deeds against the Asiatic barbarian, you have them
safe. And in addition to these to-day you have won for yourselves a
second glory. You undertook a campaign against the European Thracians,
and have mastered them. What I say then is, that these very matters
which you make a ground of quarrel against myself, are rather
blessings for which you ought to show gratitude to heaven.
"Thus far I have confined myself to your side of the matter. Bear with
me, I beg you, while we examine mine. When I first essayed to part
with you and journey homewards, I was doubly blest. From your lips I
had won some praise, and, thanks to you, I had obtained glory from the
rest of Hellas. I was trusted by the Lacedaemonians; else would they
not have sent me back to you. Whereas to-day I turn to go, calumniated
before the Lacedaemonians by yourselves, detested in your behalf by
Seuthes, whom I meant so to benefit, by help of you, that I should
find in him a refuge for myself and for my children, if children I
might have, in after time. And you the while, for whose sake I have
incurred so much hate, the hate of people far superior to me in
strength, you, for whom I have not yet ceased to devise all the good I
can, entertain such sentiments about me. Why? I am no renegade or
runaway slave, you have got hold of. If you carry out what you say, be
sure you will have done to death a man who has passed many a vigil in
watching over you; who has shared with you many a toil and run many a
risk in turn and out of turn; who, thanks to the gracious gods! has by
your side set up full many a trophy over the barbarian; who, lastly,
has strained every nerve in his body to protect you against
yourselves. And so it is, that to-day you can move freely, where you
choose, by sea or by land, and no one can say you nay; and you, on 37
whom this large liberty dawns, who are sailing to a long desired goal,
who are sought after by the greatest of military powers, who have pay
in prospect, and for leaders these Lacedaemonians, our acknowledged
chiefs: now is the appointed time, you think, to put me to a speedy
death. But in the days of our difficulties it was very different, O ye
men of marvellous memory! No! in those days you called me 'father!'
and you promised you would bear me ever in mind, 'your benefactor.'
Not so, however, not so ungracious are those who have come to you
to-day; nor, if I mistake not, have you bettered yourselves in their
eyes by your treatment of me."
With these words he paused, and Charminus the Lacedaemonian got up and
said: "Nay, by the Twins, you are wrong, surely, in your anger against
this man; I myself can bear testimony in his favour. When Polynicus
and I asked Seuthes, what sort of a man he was? Seuthes answered:--he
had but one fault to find with him, that he was too much the soldiers'
friend, which also was the cause why things went wrong with him,
whether as regards us Lacedaemonians or himself, Seuthes."
Upon that Eurylochus of Lusia, an Arcadian, got up and said
(addressing the two Lacedaemonians), "Yes, sirs; and what strikes me
is that you cannot begin your generalship of us better than by
exacting from Seuthes our pay. Whether he like it or no, let him pay
in full; and do not take us away before."
Polycrates the Athenian, who was put forward by Xenophon, said: "If my
eyes do not deceive me, sirs, there stands Heracleides, yonder, the
man who received the property won by our toil, who took and sold it,
and never gave back either to Seuthes or to us the proceeds of the
sale, but kept the money to himself, like the thief he is. If we are
wise, we will lay hold of him, for he is no Thracian, but a Hellene;
and against Hellenes is the wrong he has committed."
When Heracleides heard these words, he was in great consternation; so
he came to Seuthes and said: "If we are wise we will get away from
here out of reach of these fellows." So they mounted their horses and
were gone in a trice, galloping to their own camp. Subsequently 42
Seuthes sent Abrozelmes, his private interpreter, to Xenophon, begging
him to stay behind with one thousand heavy tropps; and engaging duly
to deliver to him the places on the seaboard, and the other things
which he had promised; and then, as a great secret, he told him, that
he had heard from Polynicus that if he once got into the clutches of
the Lacedaemonians, Thibron was certain to put him to death. Similar
messages kept coming to Xenophon by letter or otherwise from several
quarters, warning him that he was calumniated, and had best be on his
guard. Hearing which, he took two victims and sacrificed to Zeus the
King: "Whether it were better and happier to stay with Seuthes on the
terms proposed, or depart with the army?" The answer he received was,
"Depart."
VII
After this, Seuthes removed his camp to some considerable distance; 1
and the Hellenes took up their quarters in some villages, selecting
those in which they could best supply their commissariat, on the road
to the sea. Now these particular villages had been given by Seuthes to
Medosades. Accordingly, when the latter saw his property in the
villages being expended by the Hellenes, he was not over well pleased;
and taking with him an Odrysian, a powerful person amongst those who
had come down from the interior, and about thirty mounted troopers, he
came and challenged Xenophon to come forth from the Hellenic host. He,
taking some of the officers and others of a character to be relied
upon, came forward. Then Medosades, addressing Xenophon, said: "You
are doing wrong to pillage our villages; we give you fair warning--I,
in behalf of Seuthes, and this man by my side, who comes from Medocus,
the king up country--to begone out of the land. If you refuse,
understand, we have no notion of handing it over to you; but if you
injure our country we will retaliate upon you as foes."
Xenophon, hearing what they had to say, replied: "Such language
addressed to us by you, of all people, is hard to answer. Yet for the
sake of the young man with you, I will attempt to do so, that at least
he may learn how different your nature is from ours. We," he
continued, "before we were your friends, had the free run of this
country, moving this way or that, as it took our fancy, pillaging and 5
burning just as we chose; and you yourself, Medosades, whenever you
came to us on an embassy, camped with us, without apprehension of any
foe. As a tribe collectively you scarcely approached the country at
all, or if you found yourselves in it, you bivouacked with your horses
bitted and bridled, as being in the territory of your superiors.
Presently you made friends with us, and, thanks to us, by God's help
you have won this country, out of which to-day you seek to drive us; a
country which we held by our own strength and gave to you. No hostile
force, as you well know, was capable of expelling us. It might have
been expected of you personally to speed us on our way with some gift,
in return for the good we did you. Not so; even though our backs are
turned to go, we are too slow in our movements for you. You will not
suffer us to take up quarters even, if you can help it, and these
words arouse no shame in you, either before the gods, or this
Odrysian, in whose eyes to-day you are man of means, though until you
cultivated our friendship you lived a robber's life, as you have told
us. However, why do you address yourself to me? I am no longer in
command. Our generals are the Lacedaemonians, to whom you and yours
delivered the army for withdrawal; and that, without even inviting me
to attend, you most marvellous of men, so that if I lost their favour
when I brought you the troops, I might now win their gratitude by
restoring them."
As soon as the Odrysian had heard this statement, he exclaimed: "For
my part, Medosades, I sink under the earth for very shame at what I
hear. If I had known the truth before, I would never have accompanied
you. As it is, I return at once. Never would King Medocus applaud me,
if I drove forth his benefactors." With these words, he mounted his
horse and rode away, and with him the rest of his horsemen, except
four or five. But Medosades, still vexed by the pillaging of the
country, urged Xenophon to summon the two Lacedaemonians; and he,
taking the pick of his men, came to Charminus and Polynicus and
informed them that they were summoned by Medosades; probably they,
like himself, would be warned to leave the country; "if so," he added, 14
"you will be able to recover the pay which is owing to the army. You
can say to them, that the army has requested you to assist in exacting
their pay from Seuthes, whether he like it or not; that they have
promised, as soon as they get this, cheerfully to follow you; that the
demand seems to you to be only just, and that you have accordingly
promised not to leave, until the soldiers have got their dues." The
Lacedaemonians accepted the suggestion: they would apply these
arguments and others the most forcible they could hit upon; and with
the proper representatives of the army, they immediately set off.
On their arrival Charminus spoke: "If you have anything to say to us,
Medosades, say it; but if not, we have something to say to you." And
Medosades submissively made answer: "I say," said he, "and Seuthes
says the same: we think we have a right to ask that those who have
become our friends should not be ill-treated by you; whatever ill you
do to them you really do to us, for they are a part of us." "Good!"
replied the Lacedaemonians, "and we intend to go away as soon as those
who won for you the people and the territory in question have got
their pay. Failing that, we are coming without further delay to assist
them and to punish certain others who have broken their oaths and done
them wrong. If it should turn out that you come under this head, when
we come to exact justice, we shall begin with you." Xenophon added:
"Would you prefer, Medosades, to leave it to these people themselves,
in whose country we are (your friends, since this is the designation
you prefer), to decide by ballot, which of the two should leave the
country, you or we?" To that proposal he shook his head, but he
trusted the two Laconians might be induced to go to Seuthes about the
pay, adding, "Seuthes, I am sure, will lend a willing ear;" or if they
could not go, then he prayed them to send Xenophon with himself,
promising to lend the latter all the aid in his power, and finally he
begged them not to burn the villages. Accordingly they sent Xenophon,
and with him a serviceable staff. Being arrived, he addressed Seuthes
thus:--
"Seuthes, I am here to advance no claims, but to show you, if I can, 21
how unjust it was on your part to be angered with me because I
zealously demanded of you on behalf of the soldiers what you promised
them. According to my belief, it was no less to your interest to
deliver it up, than it was to theirs to receive it. I cannot forget
that, next to the gods, it was they who raised you up to a conspicuous
eminence, when they made you king of large territory and many men, a
position in which you cannot escape notice, whether you do good or do
evil. For a man so circumstanced, I regarded it as a great thing that
he should avoid the suspicion even of ungrateful parting with his
benefactors. It was a great thing, I thought, that you should be well
spoken of by six thousand human beings; but the greatest thing of all,
that you should in no wise discredit the sincerity of your own word.
For what of the man who cannot be trusted? I see that the words of his
mouth are but vain words, powerless, and unhonoured; but with him who
is seen to regard truth, the case is otherwise. He can achieve by his
words what another achieves by force. If he seeks to bring the foolish
to their senses--his very frown, I perceive, has a more sobering
effect than the chastisement inflicted by another. Or in negotiations
the very promises of such an one are of equal weight with the gifts of
another.
"Try and recall to mind in your own case, what advance of money you
made to us to purchase our alliance. You know you did not advance one
penny. It was simply confidence in the sincerity of your word which
incited all these men to assist you in your campaign, and so to
acquire for you an empire, worth many times more than thirty talents,
which is all they now claim to receive. Here then, first of all, goes
the credit which won for you your kingdom, sold for so mean a sum. Let
me remind you of the great importance which you then attached to the
acquisition of your present conquests. I am certain that to achieve
what stands achieved to-day, you would willingly have foregone the
gain of fifty times that paltry sum. To me it seems that to lose your
present fortune were a more serious loss than never to have won it;
since surely it is harder to be poor after being rich than never to 28
have tasted wealth at all, and more painful to sink to the level of a
subject, being a king, then never to have worn a crown.
"You cannot forget that your present vassals were not persuaded to
become your subjects out of love for you, but by sheer force; and but
for some restraining dread they would endeavour to be free again
to-morrow. And how do you propose to stimulate their sense of awe, and
keep them in good behaviour towards you? Shall they see our soldiers
so disposed towards you that a word on your part would suffice to keep
them now, or if necessary would bring them back again to-morrow? while
others hearing from us a hundred stories in your praise, hasten to
present themselves at your desire? Or will you drive them to conclude
adversely, that through mistrust of what has happened now, no second
set of soldiers will come to help you, for even these troops of ours
are more their friends than yours? And indeed it was not because they
fell short of us in numbers that they became your subjects, but from
lack of proper leaders. There is a danger, therefore, now lest they
should choose as their protectors some of us who regard ourselves as
wronged by you, or even better men than us--the Lacedaemonians
themselves; supposing our soldiers undertake to serve with more
enthusiasm, if the debt you owe to them be first exacted; and the
Lacedaemonians, who need their services, consent to this request. It
is plain, at any rate, that the Thracians, now prostrate at your feet,
would display far more enthusiasm in attacking, than in assisting you;
for your mastery means their slavery, and your defeat their liberty.
"Again, the country is now yours, and from this time forward you have
to make provision for what is yours; and how will you best secure it
an immunity from ill? Either these soldiers receive their dues and go,
leaving a legacy of peace behind, or they stay and occupy an enemy's
country, whilst you endeavour, by aid of a still larger army, to open
a new campaign and turn them out; and your new troops will also need
provisions. Or again, which will be the greater drain on your purse?
to pay off your present debt, or, with that still owing, to bid for
more troops, and of a better quality?
"Heracleides, as he used to prove to me, finds the sum excessive. But 35
surely it is a far less serious thing for you to take and pay it back
to-day than it would have been to pay the tithe of it, before we came
to you; since the limit between less and more is no fixed number, but
depends on the relative capacity of payer and recipient, and your
yearly income now is larger than the whole property which you
possessed in earlier days.
"Well, Seuthes, for myself these remarks are the expression of
friendly forethought for a friend. They are expressed in the double
hope that you may show yourself worthy of the good things which the
gods have given you, and that my reputation may not be ruined with the
army. For I must assure you that to-day, if I wished to injure a foe,
I could not do so with this army. Nor again, if I wished to come and
help you, should I be competent to the task; such is the disposition
of the troops towards me. And yet I call you to witness, along with
the gods who know, that never have I received anything from you on
account of the soldiers. Never to this day have I, to my private gain,
asked for what was theirs, nor even claimed the promises which were
made to myself; and I swear to you, not even had you proposed to pay
me my dues, would I have accepted them, unless the soldiers also had
been going to receive theirs too; how could I? How shameful it would
have been in me, so to have secured my own interests, whilst I
disregarded the disastrous state of theirs, I being so honoured by
them. Of course to the mind of Heracleides this is all silly talk;
since the one great object is to keep money by whatever means. That is
not my tenet, Seuthes. I believe that no fairer or brighter jewel can
be given to a man, and most of all a prince, than the threefold grace
of valour, justice, and generosity. He that possesses these is rich in
the multitude of friends which surround him; rich also in the desire
of others to be included in their number. While he prospers, he is
surrounded by those who will rejoice with him in his joy; or if
misfortune overtake him, he has no lack of sympathisers to give him
help. However, if you have failed to learn from my deeds that I was,
heart and soul, your friend; if my words are powerless to reveal the
fact to-day, I would at least direct your attention to what the 43
soldiers said; you were standing by and heard what those who sought to
blame me said. They accused me to the Lacedaemonians, and the point of
their indictment was that I set greater store by yourself than by the
Lacedaemonians; but, as regards themselves, the charge was that I took
more pains to secure the success of your interests than their own.
They suggested that I had actually taken gifts from you. Was it, do
you suppose, because they detected some ill-will in me towards you
that they made the allegation? Was it not rather, that they had
noticed my abundant zeal on your behalf?
"All men believe, I think, that a fund of kindly feeling is due to him
from whom we accept gifts. But what is your behaviour? Before I had
ministered to you in any way, or done you a single service, you
welcomed me kindly with your eyes, your voice, your hospitality, and
you could not sate yourself with promises of all the fine things that
were to follow. But having once achieved your object, and become the
great man you now are, as great indeed as I could make you, you can
stand by and see me degraded among my own soldiers! Well, time will
teach you--that I fully believe--to pay whatever seems to you right,
and even without the lessons of that teacher you will hardly care to
see whose who have spent themselves in benefiting you, become your
accusers. Only, when you do pay your debt, I beg of you to use your
best endeavour to right me with the soldiers. Leave me at least where
you found me; that is all I ask."
After listening to this appeal, Seuthes called down curses on him,
whose fault it was, that the debt had not long ago been paid, and, if
the general suspicion was correct, this was Heracleides. "For myself,"
said Seuthes, "I never had any idea of robbing you of your just dues.
I will repay." Then Xenophon rejoined: "Since you are minded to pay, I
only ask that you will do so through me, and will not suffer me on
your account to hold a different position in the army from what I held
when we joined you." He replied: "As far as that goes, so far from
holding a less honoured position among your own men on my account, if
you will stay with me, keeping only a thousand heavy infantry, I will
deliver to you the fortified places and everything I promised." The
other answered: "On these terms I may not accept them, only let us go 51
free." "Nay, but I know," said Seuthes, "that it is safer for you to
bide with me than to go away." Then Xenophon again: "For your
forethought I thank you, but I may not stay. Somewhere I may rise to
honour, and that, be sure, shall redound to your gain also." Thereupon
Seuthes spoke: "Of silver I have but little; that little, however, I
give to you, one talent; but of beeves I can give you six hundred
head, and of sheep four thousand, and of slaves six score. These take,
and the hostages besides, who wronged you, and begone." Xenophon
laughed and said: "But supposing these all together do not amount to
the pay; for whom is the talent, shall I say? It is a little dangerous
for myself, is it not? I think I had better be on the look-out for
stones when I return. You heard the threats?"
So for the moment he stayed there, but the next day Seuthes gave up to
them what he had promised, and sent an escort to drive the cattle. The
soldiers at first maintained that Xenophon had gone to take up his
abode with Seuthes, and to receive what he had been promised; so when
they saw him they were pleased, and ran to meet him. And Xenophon,
seeing Charminus and Polynicus, said: "Thanks to your intervention,
this much has been saved for the army. My duty is to deliver this
fraction over to your keeping; do you divide and distribute it to the
soldiers." Accordingly they took the property and appointed official
vendors of the booty, and in the end incurred considerable blame.
Xenophon held aloof. In fact it was no secret that he was making his
preparations to return home, for as yet the vote of banishment had not
been passed at Athens[1]. But the authorities in the camp came to him
and begged him not to go away until he had conducted the army to its
destination, and handed it over to Thibron.
[1] I.e. "at this moment the vote of banishment had not been passed
which would prevent his return to Athens." The natural inference
from these words is, I think, that the vote of banishment was
presently passed, at any rate considerably earlier than the battle
of Coronea in B.C. 394, five years and a half afterwards.
VIII
From this place they sailed across to Lampsacus, and here Xenophon was 1
met by Eucleides the soothsayer, a Phliasian, the son of Cleagoras,
who painted "the dreams[1]" in the Lycium. Eucleides congratulated
Xenophon upon his safe return, and asked him how much gold he had got?
and Xenophon had to confess: "Upon my word, I shall have barely enough
to get home, unless I sell my horse, and what I have about my person."
The other could not credit the statement. Now when the Lampsacenes
sent gifts of hospitaliry to Xenophon, and he was sacrificing to
Apollo, he requested the presence of Eucleides; and the latter, seeing
the victims, said: "Now I believe what you said about having no money.
But I am certain," he continued, "if it were ever to come, there is an
obstacle in the way. If nothing else, you are that obstacle yourself."
Xenophon admitted the force of that remark. Then the other: "Zeus
Meilichios[2] is an obstacle to you, I am sure," adding in another
tone of voice, "have you tried sacrificing to that god, as I was wont
to sacrifice and offer whole burnt offerings for you at home?"
Xenophon replied that since he had been abroad, he had not sacrificed
to that god. Accordingly Eucleides counselled him to sacrifice in the
old customary way: he was sure that his fortune would improve. The
nexy day Xenophon went on to Ophrynium and sacrificed, offering a
holocaust of swine, after the custom of his family, and the signs
which he obtained were favourable. That very day Bion and Nausicleides
arrived laden with gifts for the army. These two were hospitably
entertained by Xenophon, and were kind enough to repurchase the horse
he had sold in Lampsacus for fifty darics; suspecting that he had
parted with it out of need, and hearing that he was fond of the beast
they restored it to him, refusing to be remunerated.
[1] Reading {ta enupnia}, or if {ta entoikhia} with Hug and others,
translate "the wall-paintings" or the "frescoes." Others think
that a writing, not a painting, is referred to.
[2] Zeus Meilichios, or the gentle one. See Thuc. i. 126. The festival
of the Diasia at Athens was in honour of that god, or rather of
Zeus under that aspect. Cf. Arist. "Clouds," 408.
From that place they marched through the Troad, and, crossing Mount
Ida, arrived at Antandrus, and then pushed along the seaboard of Mysia
to the plain of Thebe[3]. Thence they made their way through 8
Adramytium and Certonus[4] by Atarneus, coming into the plain of the
Caicus, and so reached Pergamus in Mysia.
[3] Thebe, a famous ancient town in Mysia, at the southern foot of Mt.
Placius, which is often mentioned in Homer ("Il." i. 366, vi. 397,
xxii. 479, ii. 691). See "Dict. Geog." s.v. The name {Thebes
pedion} preserves the site. Cf. above {Kaustrou pedion}, and such
modern names as "the Campagna" or "Piano di Sorrento."
[4] The site of Certonus is not ascertained. Some critics have
conjectured that the name should be Cytonium, a place between
Mysia and Lydia; and Hug, who reads {Kutoniou}, omits {odeusantes
par 'Atanea}, "they made their way by Atarneus," as a gloss.
Here Xenophon was hospitably entertained at the house of Hellas, the
wife of Gongylus the Eretrian[5], the mother of Gorgion and Gongylus.
From her he learnt that Asidates, a Persian notable, was in the plain.
"If you take thirty men and go by night, you will take him prisoner,"
she said, "wife, children, money, and all; of money he has a store;"
and to show them the way to these treasures, she sent her own cousin
and Daphnagoras, whom she set great store by. So then Xenophon, with
these two to assist, did sacrifice; and Basias, an Eleian, the
soothsayer in attendance, said that the victims were as promising as
could be, and the great man would be an easy prey. Accordingly, after
dinner he set off, taking with him the officers who had been hs
staunchest friends and confidants throughout; as he wished to do them
a good turn. A number of others came thrusting themselves on their
company, to the number of six hundred, but the officers repelled them:
"They had no notion of sharing their portion of the spoil," they said,
"just as though the property lay already at their feet."
[5] Cf. Thuc. i. 128; also "Hell." III. i. 6.
Ahout midnight they arrived. The slaves occupying the precincts of the
tower, with the mass of goods and chattles, slipped through their
fingers, their sole anxiety being to capture Asidates and his
belongings. So they brought their batteries to bear, but failing to
take the tower by assault (since it was high and solid, and well
supplied with ramparts, besides having a large body of warlike
defenders), they endeavoured to undermine it. The wall was eight clay
bricks thick, but by daybreak the passage was effected and the wall
undermined. At the first cleam of light through the aperture, one of 14
the defendants inside, with a large ox-spit, smote right through the
thigh of the man nearest the hole, and the rest discharged their
arrows so hotly that it was dangerous to come anywhere near the
passage; and what with their shouting and kindling of beacon fires, a
relief party at length arrived, consisting of Itabelius at the head of
his force, and a body of Assyrian heavy infantry from Comania, and
some Hyrcanian cavalry[6], the latter also being mercenaries of the
king. There were eighty of them, and another detachment of light
troops, about eight hundred, and more from Parthenium, and more again
from Apollonia and the neighbouring places, also cavalry.
[6] The Hyrcanian cavalry play an important part in the "Cyropaedeia."
They are the Scirites of the Assyrian army who came over to Cyrus
after the first battle. Their country is the fertile land touching
the south-eastern corner of the Caspian. Cf. "Cyrop." IV. ii. 8,
where the author (or an editor) appends a note on the present
status of the Hyrcanians.
It was now high time to consider how they were to beat a retreat. So
seizing all the cattle and sheep to be had, with the slaves, they put
them within a hollow square and proceed to drive them off. Not that
they had a thought to give to the spoils now, but for precaution's
sake and for fear lest if they left the goods and chattels behind and
made off, the retreat would rapidly degenerate into a stampede, the
enemy growing bolder as the troops lost heart. For the present then
they retired as if they meant to do battle for the spoils. As soon as
Gongylus espied how few the Hellenes were and how large the attacking
party, out he came himself, in spite of his mother, with his private
force, wishing to share in the action. Another too joined in the
rescue--Procles, from Halisarna and Teuthrania, a descendant of
Damaratus. By this time Xenophon and his men were being sore pressed
by the arrows and slingstones, though they marched in a curve so as to
keep their shields facing the missles, and even so, barely crossed the
river Carcasus, nearly half of them wounded. Here it was that Agasias
the Stymphalian, the captain, received his wound, while keeping up a
steady unflagging fight against the enemy from beginning to end. And
so they reached home in safety with about two hundred captives, and
sheep enough for sacrifices.
The next day Xenophon sacrificed and led out the whole army under the 20
cover of night, intending to pierce far into the heart of Lydia with a
view to lulling to sleep the enemy's alarm at his proxmity, and so in
fact to put him off his guard. But Asidates, hearing that Xenophon had
again sacrificed with the intention of another attack, and was
approaching with his whole army, left his tower and took up quarters
in some villages lying under the town of Parthenium. Here Xenophon's
party fell in with him, and took him prisoner, with his wife, his
children, his horses, and all that he had; and so the promise of the
earlier victims was literally fulfilled. After that they returned
again to Pergamus, and here Xenophon might well thank God with a warm
heart, for the Laconians, the officers, the other generals, and the
soldiers as a body united to give him the pick of horses and cattle
teams, and the rest; so that he was now in a position himself to do
another a good turn.
Meanwhile Thibron arrived and received the troops which he
incorporated with the rest of his Hellenic forces, and so proceeded to
prosecute a war against Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus[7].
[7] The MSS. add: "The following is a list of the governors of the
several territories of the king which were traversed by us during
the expedition: Artimas, governor of Lydia; Artacamas, of Phrygia;
Mithridates, of Lycaonia and Cappadocia; Syennesis, of Cilicia;
Dernes, of Phoenicia and Arabia; Belesys, of Syria and Assyria;
Rhoparas, of Babylon; Arbacus, of Media; Tiribazus, of the
Phasians and Hesperites. Then some independent tribes--the
Carduchians or Kurds, and Chalybes, and Chaldaeans, and Macrones,
and Colchians, and Mossynoecians, and Coetians, and Tibarenians.
Then Corylas, the governor of Paphlagonia; Pharnabazus, of the
Bithynians; Seuthes, of the European Thracians. The entire
journey, ascent and descent, consisted of two hundred and fifteen
stages = one thousand one hundred and fifty-five parasangs =
thirty-four thousand six hundred and fifty stades. Computed in
time, the length of ascent and descent together amounted to one
year and three months." The annotator apparently computes the
distance from Ephesus to Cotyora.
Back to Full Books
|