[Picture: Decorative chapter heading]
Just as Greece was quieted by the end of the Peloponnesian war, the old
King of Persia, Darius Nothus, died, and his eldest son, Artaxerxes
Mnemon, came to the throne. He was the eldest, but his brother Cyrus,
who had been born after his father began to reign, declared that this
gave the best right, and resolved to march from Sardis into Persia to
gain the kingdom for himself by the help of a hired body of Greek
soldiers. Clearchus, a banished Spartan, undertook to get them together,
and he made such descriptions of the wealth they would get in the East,
that 11,000 of the bravest men in Greece came together for the purpose,
and among them Xenophon, the pupil of Socrates, who has written the
history of the expedition, as well as that of the later years of the
Peloponnesian war. Xenophon was a horseman, but most of the troops were
foot soldiers, and they were joined by a great body of Asiatics, raised
by Cyrus himself. They were marched across Syria, crossed the present
river Euphrates at the ford Thapsacus, and at Cunaxa, seven miles from
Babylon, they met the enormous army which Artaxerxes had raised. The
Greeks beat all who met them; but in the meantime Cyrus was killed, and
his whole army broke up and fled, so that the Greeks were left to
themselves in the enemy's country, without provisions, money, or guides.
[Picture: Babylon]
Artaxerxes sent messages pretending to wish to make terms with them and
guide them safely back to their own country, provided they would do no
harm on the way, and they willingly agreed to this, and let themselves be
led where they were told it would be easier to find food for them; but
this was across the great river Tigris, over a bridge of boats; and a few
days after, Clearchus and the other chief officers were invited to the
Persian camp to meet the king, and there seized and made prisoners. A
message came directly after to the Greeks to bid them deliver up their
arms, as they belonged to the Great King, having once belonged to his
slave Cyrus.
To deliver up their arms was the last thing they intended; but their
plight was dreadful--left alone eight months' march by the shortest way
from home, with two great rivers and broad tracts of desert between it
and themselves, and many nations, all hating them, in the inhabited land,
with no guides, no generals, and ten times their number of Persian troops
waiting to fall on them. All were in dismay; hardly a fire was lighted
to cook their supper; each man lay down to rest where he was, yet hardly
anyone could sleep for fear and anxiety, looking for shame, death, or
slavery, and never expecting to see Greece, wife, or children again.
But that night Xenophon made up his mind to do what he could to save his
countrymen. The only hope was in some one taking the lead, and, as the
Greeks had been true to their oaths throughout the whole march, he
believed the gods would help them. So he called the chief of the
officers still remaining together, and put them in mind that they might
still hope. They were so much stronger and braver than the Persians,
that if only they did not lose heart and separate, they could beat off
almost any attack. As to provisions, they would seize them, and the
rivers which they could not cross should be their guides, for they would
track them up into the hills, where they would become shallow. Only
every soldier must swear to assist in keeping up obedience, and then they
would show Artaxerxes that, though he had seized Clearchus, they had ten
thousand as good as he. The army listened, recovered hope and spirit,
swore to all he asked, and one of the most wonderful marches in the world
began. Cheirisophus, the eldest officer, a Spartan, took the command in
the centre; Xenophon, as one of the youngest, was in the rear. They
crossed the Zab, their first barrier, and then went upwards along the
banks of the Tigris. The Persians hovered about them, and always
attacked them every morning. Then the Greeks halted under any shelter
near at hand, and fought them till towards evening. They were sure to
fall back, as they were afraid to sleep near the Greeks, for fear of a
night attack. Then the Greeks marched on for a good distance before
halting to sup and sleep, and were able again to make a little way in the
morning before the enemy attacked them again.
So they went on till they came to the mountains, where dwelt wild tribes
whom the Great King called his subjects, but who did not obey him at all.
However, they were robbers and very fierce, and stood on the steep
heights shooting arrows and rolling down stones, so that the passage
through their land cost the Greeks more men than all their march through
Persia. On they went, through Armenia and over the mountains, generally
having to fight their way, and, when they came very high up, suffering
very much from the cold, and having to make their way through snow and
ice, until at last, when they were climbing up Mount Theche, those behind
heard a shout of joy, and the cry, "The sea, the sea!" rang from rank to
rank. To every Greek the sea was like home, and it seemed to them as if
their troubles were over. They wept and embraced one another, and built
up a pile of stones with a trophy of arms on the top, offering sacrifice
to the gods for having so far brought them safely.
It was, however, only the Black Sea, the Pontus Euxinus, and far to the
eastward; and, though the worst was over, they had still much to undergo
while they were skirting the coast of Asia Minor. When they came to the
first Greek colony--namely, Trapezus, or Trebizond--they had been a full
year marching through an enemy's country; and yet out of the 11,000 who
had fought at Cunaxa there were still 10,000 men safe and well, and they
had saved all the women, slaves, and baggage they had taken with them.
Moreover, though they came from many cities, and both Spartans and
Athenians were among them, there never had been any quarrelling; and the
only time when there had been the least dispute had been when Xenophon
thought Cheirisophus a little too hasty in suspecting a native guide.
Tired out as the soldiers were, they wanted, as soon as they reached the
AEgean Sea, to take ship and sail home; but they had no money, and the
merchant ships would not give them a free passage, even if there had been
ships enough, and Cheirisophus went to Byzantium to try to obtain some,
while the others marched to wait for him at Cerasus, the place whence
were brought the first cherries, which take their name from it. He
failed, however, in getting any, and the Greeks had to make their way on;
but they had much fallen away from the noble spirit they had shown at
first. Any country that did not belong to Greeks they plundered, and
they were growing careless as to whether the places in their way were
Greek or not. Cheirisophus died of a fever, and Xenophon, though grieved
at the change in the spirit of the army, continued for very pity in
command. They hired themselves out to fight the battles of a Thracian
prince, but, when his need of them was over, he dismissed them without
any pay at all, and Xenophon was so poor that he was forced to sell the
good horse that had carried him all the way from Armenia.
However, there was a spirited young king at Sparta, named Agesilaus, who
was just old enough to come forward and take the command, and he was
persuading his fellow-citizens, that now they had become the leading
state in Greece, they ought to go and deliver the remaining Greek
colonies in Asia Minor from the yoke of Persia, as Athens had done by the
Ionians. They therefore decided on taking the remains of the 10,000--now
only 6000--into their pay, and the messengers who came to engage them
bought Xenophon's horse and restored it to him. Xenophon would not,
however, continue with the band after he had conducted it to Pergamus,
where they were to meet the Spartan general who was to take charge of
them. On their way they plundered the house of a rich Persian, and gave
a large share of the spoil to him as a token of gratitude for the wisdom
and constancy that had carried them through so many trials.
It had been his strong sense of religion and trust in the care of the
gods which had borne him up; and the first thing he did was to go and
dedicate his armour and an offering of silver at the temple of Diana at
Ephesus. This temple had grown up round a black stone image, very ugly,
but which was said to have fallen from the sky, and was perhaps a
meteoric stone. A white marble quarry near the city had furnished the
materials for a temple so grand and beautiful that it was esteemed one of
the seven wonders of the world.
After thus paying his vows, Xenophon returned to Athens, whence he had
been absent two years and a-half. He not only wrote the history of this
expedition, but a life of the first great Cyrus of Persia, which was
meant not so much as real history, as a pattern of how kings ought to be
bred up.
[Picture: Greek Armour]