several villages near at hand, and the generals, thinking it no longer
dangerous to divide the army, quartered the different divisions among
them according to lot. Polykrates an Athenian, one of the captains in
the division of Xenophon, requested his permission to go at once and
take possession of the village assigned to him, before any of the
inhabitants could escape. Accordingly, running at speed with a few of
the swiftest soldiers, he came upon the village so suddenly as to seize
the head-man with his newly-married daughter, and several young horses
intended as a tribute for the king. This village, as well as the rest,
was found to consist of houses excavated in the ground (as the Armenian
villages are at the present day), spacious within, but with a narrow
mouth like a well, entered by a descending ladder. A separate entrance
was dug for conveniently admitting the cattle. All of them were found
amply stocked with live cattle of every kind, wintered upon hay; as well
as with wheat, barley, vegetables, and a sort of barley-wine or beer in
tubs, with the grains of barley on the surface. Reeds or straws without
any joint in them, were lying near, through which they sucked the
liquid: Xenophon did his utmost to conciliate the head-man (who spoke
Persian, and with whom he communicated through the Perso-Grecian
interpreter of the army), promising him that not one of his relations
should be maltreated, and that he should be fully remunerated if he
would conduct the army safely out of the country, into that of the
Chalybes which he described as being adjacent. By such treatment the
head-man was won over, promised his aid, and even revealed to the Greeks
the subterranean cellars wherein the wine was deposited; while Xenophon,
though he kept him constantly under watch, and placed his youthful son
as a hostage under the care of Episthenes, yet continued to treat him
with studied attention and kindness. For seven days did the fatigued
soldiers remain in these comfortable quarters, refreshing themselves and
regaining strength. They were waited upon by the native youths, with
whom they communicated by means of signs. The uncommon happiness which
all of them enjoyed after their recent sufferings, stands depicted in
the lively details given by Xenophon, who left here his own exhausted
horse, and took young horses in exchange, for himself and the other
officers.
After this week of repose, the army resumed its march through the snow.
The head-man, whose house they had replenished as well as they could,
accompanied Cheirisophus in the van as guide, but was not put in chains
or under guard: his son remained as an hostage with Episthenes, but his
other relations were left unmolested at home. As they marched for three
days, without reaching a village, Cheirisophus began to suspect his
fidelity, and even became so out of humor, though the man affirmed that
there were no villages in the track, as to beat him--yet without the
precaution of putting him afterwards in fetters. The next night,
accordingly, this head-man made his escape; much to the displeasure of
Xenophon, who severely reproached Cheirisophus first for his harshness,
and next for his neglect. This was the only point of difference between
the two (says Xenophon) during the whole march; a fact very honorable to
both, considering the numberless difficulties against which they had to
contend. Episthenes retained the head-man's youthful son, carried him
home in safety, and became much attached to him.
Condemned thus to march without a guide, they could do no better than
march up the course of the river; and thus, from the villages which had
proved so cheering and restorative, they proceeded seven days' march all
through snow, up the river Phasis; a river not verifiable, but certainly
not the same as is commonly known under that name by Grecian
geographers: it was 100 feet in breadth. Two more days' march brought
them from this river to the foot of a range of mountains near a pass
occupied by an armed body of Chalybes, Taochi, and Phasiani.
Observing the enemy in possession of this lofty ground, Cheirisophus
halted until all the army came up, in order that the generals might take
counsel. Here Kleanor began by advising that they should storm the pass
with no greater delay than was necessary to refresh the soldiers. But
Xenophon suggested that it was far better to avoid the loss of life
which must be incurred, and to amuse the enemy by feigned attack, while
a detachment should be sent by stealth at night to ascend the mountain
at another point and turn the position. "However (continued he, turning
to Cheirisophus), stealing a march upon the enemy is more your trade
than mine. For I understand that you the full citizens and peers at
Sparta, practise stealing from your boyhood upward; and that it is held
noway base, but even honorable, to steal such things as the law does not
distinctly forbid. And to the end that you may steal with the greatest
effect, and take pains to do it in secret, the custom is, to flog you if
you are found out. Here then, you have an excellent opportunity of
displaying your training. Take good care that we be not found out in
stealing an occupation of the mountain now before us; for if we _are_
found out, we shall be well beaten."
"Why, as for that (replied Cheirisophus), you Athenians also, as I
learn, are capital hands at stealing the public money--and that too in
spite of prodigious peril to the thief: nay, your most powerful men
steal most of all--at least if it be the most powerful men among you who
are raised to official command. So that this is a time for _you_ to
exhibit _your_ training, as well as for me to exhibit mine."
We have here an interchange of raillery between the two Grecian
officers, which is not an uninteresting feature in the history of the
expedition. The remark of Cheirisophus, especially, illustrates that
which I noted in a former chapter as true both of Sparta and Athens--the
readiness to take bribes, so general in individuals clothed with
official power; and the readiness, in official Athenians, to commit such
peculation, in spite of serious risk of punishment. Now this chance of
punishment proceeded altogether from those accusing orators commonly
called demagogues,[67] and from the popular judicature whom they
addressed. The joint working of both greatly abated the evil, yet was
incompetent to suppress it. But according to the pictures commonly
drawn of Athens, we are instructed to believe that the crying public
evil was,--too great a license of accusation, and too much judicial
trial. Assuredly such was not the conception of Cheirisophus; nor shall
we find it borne out by any fair appreciation of the general evidence.
When the peculation of official persons was thus notorious in spite of
serious risks, what would it have become if the door had been barred to
accusing demagogues, and if the numerous popular judges[68] had been
exchanged for a select few judges of the same stamp and class as the
official men themselves?
Enforcing his proposition, Xenophon now informed his colleagues that he
had just captured a few guides, by laying an ambush for certain native
plunderers who beset the rear; and that these guides acquainted him that
the mountain was not inaccessible, but pastured by goats and oxen. He
farther offered himself to take command of the marching detachment. But
this being overruled by Cheirisophus, some of the best among the
captains, Aristonymus, Aristeas, and Nikomachus, volunteered their
services and were accepted. After refreshing the soldiers, the generals
marched with the main army near to the foot of the pass, and there took
up their night-station, making demonstrations of a purpose to storm it
the next morning. But as soon as it was dark, Aristonymus and his
detachment started, and ascending the mountain at another point,
obtained without resistance a high position on the flank of the enemy,
who soon however saw them and despatched a force to keep guard on that
side. At daybreak those two detachments came to conflict on the heights,
in which the Greeks were completely victorious; while Cheirisophus was
marching up the pass to attack the main body. His light troops,
encouraged by seeing this victory of their comrades, hastened on to the
charge faster than their heavy-armed foot-soldiers could follow. But the
enemy were so dispirited by seeing themselves turned, that they fled
with little or no resistance. Though only a few were slain, many threw
away their light shields of wicker or woodwork, which became the prey of
the conquerors.
Thus masters of the pass, the Greeks descended to the level ground on
the other side, where they found themselves in some villages
well-stocked with provisions and comforts; the first in the country of
the Taochi. Probably they halted here some days; for they had seen no
villages, either for rest or for refreshment, during the last nine days'
march, since leaving those Armenian villages in which they had passed a
week so eminently restorative, and which apparently had furnished them
with a stock of provisions for the onward journey. Such halt gave time
to the Taochi to carry up their families and provisions into
inaccessible strongholds, so that the Greeks found no supplies, during
five days' march through the territory. Their provisions were completely
exhausted, when they arrived before one of these strongholds, a rock on
which were seen the families and the cattle of the Taochi; without
houses or fortification, but nearly surrounded by a river, so as to
leave only one narrow ascent, rendered unapproachable by vast rocks
which the defenders hurled or rolled from the summit. By an ingenious
combination of bravery and stratagem, in which some of the captains much
distinguished themselves, the Greeks overcame this difficulty, and took
the height. The scene which then ensued was awful. The Taochian women
seized their children, flung them over the precipice, and then cast
themselves headlong also, followed by the men. Almost every soul thus
perished, very few surviving to become prisoners. An Arcadian captain
named AEneas, seeing one of them in a fine dress about to precipitate
himself with the rest, seized him with a view to prevent it. But the man
in return grasped him firmly, dragged him to the edge of the rock, and
leaped down to the destruction of both. Though scarcely any prisoners
were taken, however, the Greeks obtained abundance of oxen, asses, and
sheep, which fully supplied their wants.
They now entered into the territory of the Chalybes, which they were
seven days in passing through. These were the bravest warriors whom they
had seen in Asia. Their equipment was a spear of fifteen cubits long,
with only one end pointed--a helmet, greaves,[69] stuffed corselet, with
a kilt or dependent flaps--a short sword which they employed to cut off
the head of a slain enemy, displaying the head in sight of their
surviving enemies with triumphant dance and song. They carried no
shield; perhaps because the excessive length of the spear required the
constant employment of both hands--yet they did not shrink from meeting
the Greeks occasionally in regular, stand-up fight. As they had carried
off all their provisions into hill-forts, the Greeks could obtain no
supplies, but lived all the time upon the cattle which they had acquired
from the Taochi. After seven days of march and combat--the Chalybes
perpetually attacking their rear--they reached the river Harpasus (400
feet broad), where they passed into the territory of the Skythini. It
rather seems that the territory of the Chalybes was mountainous; that of
the Skythini was level, and contained villages, wherein they remained
three days, refreshing themselves, and stocking themselves with
provisions.
Sec. 9. The Greeks come in sight of the Black Sea.
Four days of additional march brought them to a sight, the like of which
they had not seen since Opis and Sittake on the Tigris in Babylonia--a
large and flourishing city called Gymnias; an indication of the
neighborhood of the sea, of commerce, and of civilization. The chief of
this city received them in a friendly manner, and furnished them with a
guide, who engaged to conduct them, after five days' march, to a hill
from whence they would have a view of the sea. This was by no means
their nearest way to the sea, for the chief of Gymnias wished to send
them through the territory of some neighbors to whom he was hostile;
which territory, as soon as they reached it, the guide desired them to
burn and destroy. However, the promise was kept, and on the fifth day,
marching still apparently through the territory of the Skythini, they
reached the summit of a mountain called Theches, from whence the Euxine
Sea was visible.
An animated shout from the soldiers who formed the van-guard testified
the impressive effect of this long-deferred spectacle, assuring, as it
seemed to do, their safety and their return home. To Xenophon and to the
rear-guard--engaged in repelling the attack of natives who had come
forward to revenge the plunder of their territory--the shout was
unintelligible. They at first imagined that the natives had commenced
attack in front as well as in the rear, and that the van-guard was
engaged in battle. But every moment the shout became louder, as fresh
men came to the summit and gave vent to their feelings; so that Xenophon
grew anxious, and galloped up to the van with his handful of cavalry to
see what had happened. As he approached, the voice of the overjoyed
crowd was heard distinctly crying out _Thalatta! Thalatta!_ (The sea!
the sea!), and congratulating each other in ecstasy. The main body, the
rear-guard, the baggage-soldiers driving up their horses and cattle
before them, became all excited by the sound, and hurried up breathless
to the summit. The whole army, officers and soldiers, were thus
assembled, manifesting their joyous emotions by tears, embraces, and
outpourings of enthusiastic sympathy. With spontaneous impulse they
heaped up stones to decorate the spot by a monument and commemorative
trophy; putting on the stones such homely offerings as their means
afforded--sticks, hides, and a few of the wicker shields just taken from
the natives. To the guide, who had performed his engagement of bringing
them in five days within sight of the sea, their gratitude was
unbounded. They presented him with a horse, a silver bowl, a Persian
costume, and ten darics[70] in money; besides several of the soldiers'
rings, which he especially asked for. Thus loaded with presents, he left
them, having first shown them a village wherein they could find
quarters--as well as the road which they were to take through the
territory of the Makrones.
When they reached the river which divided the land of the Makrones from
that of the Skythini, they perceived the former assembled in arms on
the opposite side to resist their passage. The river not being fordable,
they cut down some neighboring trees to provide the means of crossing.
While these Makrones were shouting and encouraging each other aloud, a
light-armed foot-soldier in the Grecian army came to Xenophon, saying
that he knew their language, and that he believed this to be his
country. He had been a slave at Athens, exported from home during his
boyhood--he had then made his escape (probably during the Peloponnesian
War, to the garrison of Dekeleia), and afterwards taken military
service. By this fortunate accident, the generals were enabled to open
negotiations with the Makrones, and to assure them that the army would
do them no harm, desiring nothing more than a free passage and a market
to buy provisions. The Makrones, on receiving such assurances in their
own language from a countryman, exchanged pledges of friendship with the
Greeks, assisted them to pass the river, and furnished the best market
in their power during the three days' march across their territory.
The army now reached the borders of the Kolchians, who were found in
hostile array, occupying the summit of a considerable mountain which
formed their frontier. Here Xenophon, having marshalled the soldiers for
attack, with each company of 100 men in single file, instead of marching
up the hill in phalanx, or continuous front with only a scanty
depth--addressed to them the following pithy encouragement--"Now,
fellow-soldiers, these enemies before us are the only impediment that
keeps us away from reaching the point at which we have been so long
aiming. We must even eat them raw, if in any way we can do so."
Eighty of these formidable companies of heavy-armed foot-soldiers, each
in single file, now began to ascend the hill; the light-armed
foot-soldiers and bowmen being partly distributed among them, partly
placed on the flanks. Cheirisophus and Xenophon, each commanding on one
wing, spread their light-armed foot-soldiers in such a way as to
outflank the Kolchians, who accordingly weakened their centre in order
to strengthen their wings. Hence the Arcadian light-armed foot-soldiers
and heavy-armed foot-soldiers in the Greek centre were enabled to attack
and disperse the centre with little resistance; and all the Kolchians
presently fled, leaving the Greeks in possession of their camp, as well
as of several well-stocked villages in their rear. Amidst these villages
the army remained to refresh themselves for several days. It was here
that they tasted the grateful, but unwholesome honey, which this region
still continues to produce--unaware of its peculiar properties. Those
soldiers who ate little of it were like men greatly intoxicated with
wine; those who ate much, were seized with the most violent vomiting and
diarrhoea, lying down like madmen in a state of delirium. From this
terrible distemper some recovered on the ensuing day, others two or
three days afterwards. It does not appear that any one actually died.
Two more days' march brought them to the sea, at the Greek maritime city
of Trapezus or Trebizond, founded by the inhabitants of Sinope on the
coast of the Kolchian territory. Here the Trapezuntines received them
with kindness and hospitality, sending them presents of bullocks,
barley-meal, and wine. Taking up their quarters in some Kolchian
villages near the town, they now enjoyed, for the first time since
leaving Tarsus, a safe and undisturbed repose during thirty days, and
were enabled to recover in some degree from the severe hardships which
they had undergone. While the Trapezuntines brought produce for sale
into the camp, the Greeks provided the means of purchasing it by
predatory incursions against the Kolchians on the hills. Those Kolchians
who dwelt under the hills and on the plain were in a state of
semi-dependence upon Trapezus; so that the Trapezuntines mediated on
their behalf and prevailed on the Greeks to leave them unmolested, on
condition of a contribution of bullocks.
These bullocks enabled the Greeks to discharge the vow which they had
made, on the proposition of Xenophon, to Zeus the Preserver, during that
moment of dismay and despair which succeeded immediately on the massacre
of their generals by Tissaphernes. To Zeus the Preserver, to
Herakles[71] the Conductor, and to various other gods, they offered an
abundant sacrifice on their mountain camp overhanging the sea; and after
the festival ensuing, the skins of the victims were given as prizes to
competitors in running, wrestling, boxing, and other contests. The
superintendence of such festival games, so fully accordant with Grecian
usage and highly interesting to the army, was committed to a Spartan
named Drakontius; a man whose destiny recalls that of Patroklus and
other Homeric heroes--for he had been exiled as a boy, having
unintentionally killed another boy with a short sword. Various
departures from Grecian customs however were admitted. The matches took
place on the steep and stony hill-side overhanging the sea, instead of
on a smooth plain; and the numerous hard falls of the competitors
afforded increased interest to the by-standers. The captive non-Hellenic
boys were admitted to run for the prize, since otherwise a boy-race
could not have been obtained. ["Horses also ran; and they had to gallop
down the steep, and, turning round in the sea, to come up again to the
altar.[72] In the descent, many rolled down; but in the ascent, against
the exceedingly steep ground, the horses could scarcely get up at a
walking pace. There was consequently great shouting, and laughter, and
cheering from the people."[73]] Lastly, the animation of the scene, as
well as the ardor of the competitors, was much enhanced by the number of
the women present.
Sec. 10. The Greek cities on the Black Sea; their feelings toward the Ten
Thousand.
We now commence a third act in the history of this memorable body of
men. After having followed them from Sardis to Kunaxa as mercenaries[74]
to procure the throne for Cyrus--then from Kunaxa to Trapezus as men
anxious only for escape, and purchasing their safety by marvellous
bravery, endurance, and organization--we shall now track their
proceedings among the Greek colonies on the Euxine and at the Bosphorus
of Thrace, succeeded by their struggles against the meanness of the
Thracian prince Seuthes, as well as against the treachery and arbitrary
harshness of the Lacedaemonian commanders Anaxibius and Aristarchus.
Trapezus, now Trebizond, where the army had recently found repose, was a
colony from Sinope, as were also Kerasus and Kotyora farther westward;
each of them receiving a governor from the mother-city, and paying to
her an annual tribute. All these three cities were planted on the narrow
strip of land dividing the Euxine from the elevated mountain range
which so closely borders on its southern coast. At Sinope itself, the
land stretches out into a defensible peninsula, with a secure harbor,
and a large breadth of adjacent fertile soil. So tempting a site invited
the Milesians,[75] even before the year 600 B.C., to plant a colony
there, and enabled Sinope to attain much prosperity and power. Farther
westward, not more than a long day's journey for a rowing vessel from
Byzantium, was situated the Megarian[76] colony of Herakleia, in the
territory of the Mariandyni.
The native tenants of this line of coast, upon which the Greek settlers
intruded themselves (reckoning from the westward), were the Bythynian
Thracians, the Mariandyni, the Paphlagonians, the Tibareni, Chalybes,
Mosynoeki, Drilae, and Kolchians. Here as elsewhere, these natives found
the Greek seaports useful, in giving a new value to inland produce, and
in furnishing the great men with ornaments and luxuries to which they
would otherwise have had no access. The citizens of Herakleia had
reduced into dependence a considerable portion of the neighboring
Mariandyni, and held them in a relation resembling that of the natives
of Esthonia and Lavonia to the German colonies in the Baltic. Some of
the Kolchian villages were also subject in the same manner to the
Trapezuntines; and Sinope doubtless possessed a similar inland dominion
of greater or less extent. But the principal wealth of this important
city arose from her navy and maritime commerce; from the rich thunny
fishery[77] attached to her promontory; from the olives in her
immediate neighborhood, which was a cultivation not indigenous, but only
naturalized by the Greeks on the seaboard; from the varied produce of
the interior, comprising abundant herds of cattle, mines of silver,
iron, and copper, in the neighboring mountains, wood for ship-building,
as well as for house-furniture, and native slaves. The case was similar
with the three colonies of Sinope, more to the eastward--Kotyora,
Kerasus, and Trapezus; except that the mountains which border on the
Euxine, gradually approaching nearer and nearer to the shore, left to
each of them a more confined strip of cultivable land. For these cities
the time had not yet arrived to be conquered and absorbed by the inland
monarchies around them, as Miletus and the cities on the western coast
of Asia Minor had been. The Paphlagonians were at this time the only
native people in those regions who formed a considerable aggregated
force, under a prince named Korylas; a prince tributary to Persia, yet
half independent--since he had disobeyed the summons of Artaxerxes to
come up and help in repelling Cyrus--and now on terms of established
alliance with Sinope, though not without secret designs, which he wanted
only force to execute, against that city. The other native tribes to the
eastward were mountaineers both ruder and more divided; warlike on their
own heights, but little capable of any aggressive combinations.
Though we are told that Perikles had once despatched a detachment of
Athenian colonists to Sinope, and had expelled from thence the despot
Timesilaus,--yet neither that city nor any of her neighbors appear to
have taken part in the Peloponnesian war, either for or against Athens;
nor were they among the number of tributaries to Persia. They doubtless
were acquainted with the upward march of Cyrus, which had disturbed all
Asia; and probably were not ignorant of the perils and critical state of
his Grecian army. But it was with a feeling of mingled surprise,
admiration, and alarm, that they saw that army descend from the
mountainous region, hitherto only recognized as the abode of Kolchians,
Makrones, and other analogous tribes, among whom was perched the mining
city of Gymnias.