Cheirisophus, to Herakleia; near which town they were hospitably
entertained, and gratified with a present of meal, wine, and bullocks,
even greater than they had received at Sinope. It now appeared that
Xenophon had acted wisely in declining the sole command; and also that
Cheirisophus, though elected commander, yet having been very long
absent, was not really of so much importance in the eyes of the soldiers
as Xenophon. In the camp near Herakleia, the soldiers became impatient
that their generals (for the habit of looking upon Xenophon as one of
them still continued) took no measures to procure money for them. The
Achaean Lykon proposed that they should extort a contribution of no less
than 3000 staters[99] of Kyzikus from the inhabitants of Herakleia:
another man immediately outbid this proposition, and proposed that they
should require 10,000 staters[99]--a full month's pay for the army. It
was moved that Cheirisophus and Xenophon should go to the Herakleots as
envoys with this demand. But both of them indignantly refused to be
concerned in so unjust an extortion, from a Grecian city which had just
received the army kindly and sent handsome presents. Accordingly Lykon
with two Arcadian officers undertook the mission, and intimated the
demand, not without threats in case of non-compliance, to the
Herakleots. The latter replied that they would take it into
consideration. But they waited only for the departure of the envoys, and
then immediately closed their gates, manned their walls, and brought in
their outlying property.
The project being thus baffled, Lykon and the rest turned their
displeasure upon Cheirisophus and Xenophon, whom they accused of having
occasioned its miscarriage. And they now began to exclaim that it was
disgraceful to the Arcadians and Achaeans, who formed more than one
numerical half of the army and endured all the toil--to obey as well as
to enrich generals from other Hellenic cities; especially a single
Athenian who furnished no contingent to the army. Here again it is
remarkable that the personal importance of Xenophon caused him to be
still regarded as a general, though the sole command had been vested by
formal vote in Cheirisophus. So vehement was the dissatisfaction, that
all the Arcadian and Achaean soldiers in the army, more than 4500
heavy-armed foot-soldiers in number, renounced the authority of
Cheirisophus, formed themselves into a distinct division, and chose ten
commanders from out of their own numbers. The whole army thus became
divided, into three portions--first the Arcadians and Achaeans: secondly,
1400 heavy-armed foot-soldiers and 700 Thracian light-armed
foot-soldiers, who adhered to Cheirisophus: lastly, 1700 heavy-armed
foot-soldiers, 300 light-armed foot-soldiers, and 40 horsemen (all the
horsemen in the army), attaching themselves to Xenophon; who however was
taking measures to sail away individually from Herakleia and quit the
army altogether, which he would have done had he not been restrained by
unfavorable sacrifices.
The Arcadian division, departing first, in vessels from Herakleia,
landed at Kalpe; an untenanted promontory of the Bithynian or Asiatic
Thrace, midway between Herakleia and Byzantium. From thence they marched
at once into the interior of Bithynia, with the view of surprising the
villages and acquiring plunder. But through rashness and bad management,
they first sustained several partial losses, and ultimately became
surrounded upon an eminence, by a large muster of the native Bithynians
from all the territory around. They were only rescued from destruction
by the unexpected appearance of Xenophon with his division; who had left
Herakleia somewhat later, but heard by accident, during their march, of
the danger of their comrades. The whole army thus became re-assembled at
Kalpe, where the Arcadians and Achaeans, disgusted at the ill-success of
their separate expedition, again established the old union and the old
generals. They chose Neon in place of Cheirisophus, who--afflicted by
the humiliation put upon him, in having been first named sole commander
and next deposed within a week--had fallen sick of a fever and died. The
elder Arcadian captains farther moved a resolution, that if any one
henceforward should propose to separate the army into fractions, he
should be put to death.
The locality of Kalpe was well-suited for the foundation of a colony,
which Xenophon evidently would have been glad to bring about, though he
took no direct measures tending towards it; while the soldiers were so
bent on returning to Greece, and so jealous lest Xenophon should entrap
them into remaining, that they almost shunned the encampment. It so
happened that they were detained there for some days without being able
to march forth even in quest of provisions, because the sacrifices were
not favorable. Xenophon refused to lead them out, against the warning of
the sacrifices--although the army suspected him of a deliberate
manoeuvre for the purpose of detention. Neon however, less scrupulous,
led out a body of 2000 men who chose to follow him, under severe
distress for want of provisions. But being surprised by the native
Bithynians, with the aid of some troops of the Persian satrap
Pharnabazus, he was defeated with the loss of no less than 500 men; a
misfortune which Xenophon regards as the natural retribution for
contempt of the sacrificial warning. The dangerous position of Neon with
the remainder of the detachment was rapidly made known at the camp: upon
which Xenophon, unharnessing a wagon-bullock as the only animal near at
hand, immediately offered sacrifice. On this occasion the victim was at
once favorable; so that he led out without delay the greater part of the
force, to the rescue of the exposed detachment, which was brought back
in safety to the camp. So bold had the enemy become, that in the night
the camp was attacked. The Greeks were obliged on the next day to
retreat into stronger ground, surrounding themselves with a ditch and a
palisade. Fortunately a vessel arrived from Herakleia, bringing to the
camp at Kalpe a supply of barley-meal, cattle, and wine; which restored
the spirits of the army, enabling them to go forth on the ensuing
morning and assume the aggressive against the Bithynians, and the troops
of Pharnabazus. These troops were completely defeated and dispersed, so
that the Greeks returned to their camp at Kalpe in the evening both safe
and masters of the country.
At Kalpe they remained some time awaiting the arrival of Kleander from
Byzantium, who was said to be about to bring vessels for their
transport. They were now abundantly provided with supplies, not merely
from the undisturbed plunder of the neighboring villages, but also from
the visits of traders who came with cargoes. Indeed the impression--that
they were preparing, at the instance of Xenophon, to found a new city at
Kalpe--became so strong that several of the neighboring native villages
sent envoys to ask on what terms alliance would be granted to them. At
length Kleander came, but with two triremes only.
Kleander was the Lacedaemonian governor of Byzantium. His appearance
opens to us a new phase in the eventful history of this gallant army, as
well as an insight into the state of the Grecian world under the
Lacedaemonian empire. He came attended by the Lacedaemonian Dexippus, who
had served in the Cyreian army until their arrival at Trapezus, and who
had there been entrusted with an armed vessel for the purpose of
detaining transports to convey the troops home but had abused the
confidence reposed in him, by running away with the ship to Byzantium.
It so happened that at the moment when Kleander arrived, the whole army
was out on a marauding excursion. Orders had already been promulgated,
that whatever was captured by every one when the whole army was out,
should be brought in and dealt with as public property; though on days
when the army was collectively at rest, any soldier might go out
individually and take to himself whatever he could pillage. On the day
when Kleander arrived, and found the whole army out, some soldiers were
just coming back with a lot of sheep which they had seized. By right,
the sheep ought to have been handed into the public store. But these
soldiers, desirous to appropriate them wrongfully, addressed themselves
to Dexippus, and promised him a portion if he would enable them to
retain the rest. Accordingly the latter interfered, drove away those who
claimed the sheep as public property, and denounced them as thieves to
Kleander; who desired him to bring them before him. Dexippus arrested
one of them, a soldier belonging to the company of one of the best
friends of Xenophon--the Arcadian Agasias. The latter took the man under
his protection; while the soldiers around incensed not less at the past
than at the present conduct of Dexippus, broke out into violent
manifestations, called him a traitor, and pelted him with stones. Such
was their wrath, that not Dexippus alone, but the crew of the triremes
also, and even Kleander himself fled, in alarm; in spite of the
intervention of Xenophon, and the other generals, who on the one hand
explained to Kleander, that it was an established army-order which these
soldiers were seeking to enforce--and on the other hand controlled the
mutineers. But the Lacedaemonian governor was so incensed as well by his
own fright as by the calumnies of Dexippus, that he threatened to sail
away at once, and proclaim the Cyreian army enemies to Sparta, so that
every Hellenic city should be interdicted from giving them reception. It
was in vain that the generals, well knowing the formidable consequences
of such an interdict, entreated him to relent. He would consent only on
condition that the soldiers who had begun to throw stones as well as
Agasias the interfering officer, should be delivered up to him. This
latter demand was especially insisted upon by Dexippus, who hating
Xenophon, had already tried to prejudice Anaxibius against him, and
believed that Agasias had acted by his order.
The situation now became extremely critical; since the soldiers would
not easily be brought to surrender their comrades--who had a perfectly
righteous cause, though they had supported it by undue violence--to the
vengeance of a traitor like Dexippus. When the army was convened in
assembly, several of them went so far as to treat the menace of Kleander
with contempt. But Xenophon took pains to set them right upon this
point. "Soldiers (said he) it will be no slight misfortune if Kleander
shall depart as he threatens to do, in his present temper toward us. We
are here close upon the cities of Greece: now the Lacedaemonians are the
imperial power in Greece, and not merely their authorized officers, but
even each one of their individual citizens, can accomplish what he
pleases in the various cities. If then Kleander begins by shutting us
out from Byzantium, and next enjoins the Lacedaemonian governors in the
other cities[100] to do the same, proclaiming us lawless and disobedient
to Sparta--if, besides, the same representation should be conveyed to
the Lacedaemonian admiral of the fleet, Anaxibius--we shall be hard
pressed either to remain or to sail away; for the Lacedaemonians are at
present masters both on land and at sea. We must not, for the sake of
any one or two men, suffer the whole army to be excluded from Greece. We
must obey whatever the Lacedaemonians command, especially as our cities,
to which we respectively belong, now obey them. As to what concerns
myself, I understand that Dexippus has told Kleander that Agasias would
never have taken such a step except by my orders. Now, if Agasias
himself states this, I am ready to exonerate both him and all of you,
and to give myself up to any extremity of punishment. I maintain too
that any other man whom Kleander arraigns ought in like manner to give
himself up for trial, in order that you collectively may be discharged
from the imputation. It will be hard indeed, if just as we are reaching
Greece, we should not only be debarred from the praise and honor which
we anticipated, but should be degraded even below the level of others,
and shut out from the Grecian cities."
After this speech from the philo-Laconian[101] Xenophon--so significant
a testimony of the unmeasured ascendency and interference of the
Lacedaemonians throughout Greece--Agasias rose, and proclaimed, that what
he had done was neither under the orders, nor with the privity, of
Xenophon; that he had acted on a personal impulse of wrath, at seeing
his own honest and innocent soldier dragged away by the traitor
Dexippus; but that he now willingly gave himself up as a victim, to
avert from the army the displeasure of the Lacedaemonians. This generous
self-sacrifice, which at the moment promised nothing less than a fatal
result to Agasias, was accepted by the army: and the generals conducted
both him and the soldier whom he had rescued, as prisoners to Kleander.
Presenting himself as the responsible party, Agasias at the same time
explained to Kleander the infamous behavior of Dexippus to the army, and
said that towards no one else would he have acted in the same manner;
while the soldier whom he had rescued, and who was given up at the same
time, also affirmed that he had interfered merely to prevent Dexippus
and some others from overruling, for their own individual benefit, a
proclaimed order of the entire army. Kleander, having observed that if
Dexippus had done what was affirmed, he would be the last to defend him,
but that no one ought to have been stoned without trial--desired that
the persons surrendered might be left for his consideration, and at the
same time retracted his expressions of displeasure as regarded all the
others.
The generals then retired, leaving Kleander in possession of the
prisoners, and on the point of taking his dinner. But they retired with
mournful feelings, and Xenophon presently convened the army to propose
that a general deputation should be sent to Kleander to implore his
lenity towards their two comrades. This being cordially adopted,
Xenophon, at the head of a deputation comprising Drakontius the Spartan
as well as the chief officers, addressed an earnest appeal to Kleander,
representing that his honor had been satisfied with the unconditional
surrender of the two persons required; that the army, deeply concerned
for two meritorious comrades, entreated him now to show mercy and spare
their lives; that they promised him in return the most explicit
obedience, and entreated him to take the command of them, in order that
he might have personal cognizance of their exact discipline, and compare
their worth with that of Dexippus. Kleander was not merely soothed, but
completely won over, by this address; and said in reply that the conduct
of the generals belied altogether the representations made to him
(doubtless by Dexippus), that they were seeking to alienate the army
from the Lacedaemonians. He not only restored the two men in his power,
but also accepted the command of the army, and promised to conduct them
back into Greece.
The prospects of the army appeared thus greatly improved; the more so,
as Kleander, on entering upon his new functions as commander, found the
soldiers so cheerful and orderly, that he was highly gratified, and
exchanged personal tokens of friendship and hospitality with Xenophon.
But when sacrifices came to be offered, for beginning the march
homeward, the signs were so unpropitious, for three successive days,
that Kleander could not bring himself to brave such auguries at the
outset of his career. Accordingly, he told the generals, that the gods
plainly forbade him, and reserved it for them, to conduct the army into
Greece; that he should therefore sail back to Byzantium, and would
receive the army in the best way he could, when they reached the
Bosphorus. After an interchange of presents with the soldiers, he then
departed with his two triremes.
The favorable sentiment now established in the bosom of Kleander will be
found very serviceable hereafter to the Cyreians at Byzantium; but they
had cause for deeply regretting the unpropitious sacrifices which had
deterred him from assuming the actual command at Kalpe. In the request
preferred to him by them that he would march as their commander to the
Bosphorus, we may recognize a scheme, and a very well-contrived scheme,
of Xenophon; who had before desired to leave the army at Herakleia, and
who saw plainly that the difficulties of a commander, unless he were a
Lacedaemonian of station and influence, would increase with every step of
their approach to Greece. Had Kleander accepted the command, the
soldiers would have been better treated, while Xenophon himself might
either have remained as his adviser, or might have gone home. He would
probably have chosen the latter course.
Sec. 16. The army crosses the Bosphorus to Byzantium; false promises of
Anaxibius and their results.
Under the command of their own officers, the Cyreians now marched from
Kalpe across Bithynia to Chrysopolis (in the territory of Chalkedon on
the Asiatic edge of the Bosphorus, immediately opposite to
Byzantium,[102] as Scutari now is to Constantinople), where they
remained seven days, turning into money the slaves and plunder which
they had collected. Unhappily for them, the Lacedaemonian admiral
Anaxibius was now at Byzantium, so that their friend Kleander was under
his superior command. And Pharnabazus, the Persian satrap of the
northwestern regions of Asia Minor, becoming much alarmed lest they
should invade his satrapy, despatched a private message to Anaxibius;
whom he prevailed upon, by promise of large presents, to transport the
army forthwith across to the European side of the Bosphorus.
Accordingly, Anaxibius, sending for the generals and the captains across
to Byzantium, invited the army to cross, and gave them his assurance
that as soon as the soldiers should be in Europe, he would provide pay
for them. The other officers told him that they would return with this
message and take the sense of the army; but Xenophon on his own account
said that he should not return; that he should now retire from the army,
and sail away from Byzantium. It was only on the pressing instance of
Anaxibius that he was induced to go back to Chrysopolis and conduct the
army across; on the understanding that he should depart immediately
afterwards.
Here at Byzantium, he received his first communication from the Thracian
prince Seuthes; who sent Medosades to offer him a reward if he would
bring the army across. Xenophon replied that the army would cross; that
no reward from Seuthes was needful to bring about that movement; but
that he himself was about to depart, leaving the command in other hands.
In point of fact, the whole army crossed with little delay, landed in
Europe, and found themselves within the walls of Byzantium. Xenophon,
who had come along with them, paid a visit shortly afterwards to his
friend the governor Kleander, and took leave of him as about to depart
immediately. But Kleander told him that he must not think of departing
until the army was out of the city, and that he would be held
responsible if they stayed. In truth Kleander was very uneasy so long as
the soldiers were within the walls, and was well aware that it might be
no easy matter to induce them to go away. For Anaxibius had practised a
gross fraud in promising them pay, which he had neither the ability nor
the inclination to provide. Without handing to them either pay or even
means of purchasing supplies, he issued orders that they must go forth
with arms and baggage, and muster outside of the gates, there to be
numbered for an immediate march; any one who stayed behind being held as
punishable. This proclamation was alike unexpected and offensive to the
soldiers, who felt that they had been deluded, and were very backward in
obeying. Hence Kleander, while urgent with Xenophon to defer his
departure until he had conducted the army outside of the walls,
added--"Go forth as if you were about to march along with them; when you
are once outside, you may depart as soon as you please;" Xenophon
replied that this matter must be settled with Anaxibius, to whom
accordingly both of them went, and who repeated the same directions, in
a manner yet more peremptory. Though it was plain to Xenophon that he
was here making himself a sort of instrument to the fraud which
Anaxibius had practised upon the army, yet he had no choice but to obey.
Accordingly, he as well as the other generals put themselves at the head
of the troops, who followed, however reluctantly, and arrived most of
them outside of the gates. Eteonikus (a Lacedaemonian officer of
consideration, noticed more than once in preceding Grecian history)
commanding at the gate, stood close to it in person; in order that when
all the Cyreians had gone forth, he might immediately shut it and fasten
it with the bar.
Anaxibius knew well what he was doing. He fully anticipated that the
communication of the final orders would occasion an outbreak among the
Cyreians, and was anxious to defer it until they were outside. But when
there remained only the rearmost companies still in the inside and on
their march, all the rest having got out--he thought the danger was
over, and summoned to him the generals and captains, all of whom were
probably near the gates superintending the march through. It seems that
Xenophon, having given notice that he intended to depart, did not answer
to this summons as one of the generals, but remained outside among the
soldiers. "Take what supplies you want (said Anaxibius) from the
neighboring Thracian villages, which are well furnished with wheat,
barley, and other necessaries. After thus providing yourselves, march
forward to the Chersonesus,[103] and there Kyniskus will give you pay."
This was the first distinct intimation given by Anaxibius that he did
not intend to perform his promise of finding pay for the soldiers. Who
Kyniskus was we do not know, nor was he probably known to the Cyreians;
but the march here enjoined was at least 150 miles, and might be much
longer. The route was not indicated, and the generals had to inquire
from Anaxibius whether they were to go by what was called the Holy
Mountain (that is, by the shorter line, skirting the northern coast of
the Propontis), or by a more inland and circuitous road through
Thrace;--also whether they were to regard the Thracian prince, Seuthes,
as a friend or an enemy.
Sec. 17. Mutiny of the army in leaving Byzantium.