under the great monarchy of the Odrysian[109] Thracians; so formidable
in the early years of the Peloponnesian war. But political commotions
had robbed him of his principality over three Thracian tribes; which it
was now the ambition of Seuthes to recover, by the aid of the Cyreian
army. He offered to each soldier one stater of Kyzikus (or nearly the
same as that which they originally received from Cyrus) as pay per
month; twice as much to each captain--four times as much to each of the
generals. In case they should incur the enmity of the Lacedaemonians by
joining him, he guaranteed to them all the right of settlement and
fraternal protection in his territory. To each of the generals, over and
above pay, he engaged to assign a fort on the sea-coast, with a lot of
land around it, and oxen for cultivation. And to Xenophon in particular,
he offered the possession of Bisanthe, his best point on the coast. "I
will also (he added, addressing Xenophon) give you my daughter in
marriage; and if you have any daughter, I will buy her from you in
marriage according to the custom of Thrace." Seuthes farther engaged
never on any occasion to lead them more than seven days' journey from
the sea, at farthest.
Sec. 20. The army enters the service of Seuthes.
These offers were as liberal as the army could possibly expect; and
Xenophon himself, mistrusting the Lacedaemonians as well as mistrusted by
them, seems to have looked forward to the acquisition of a Thracian
coast-fortress and territory (such as Miltiades, Alkibiades, and other
Athenian leaders had obtained before him) as a valuable refuge in case
of need. But even if the promise had been less favorable, the Cyreians
had no alternative; for they had not even present supplies--still less
any means of subsistence throughout the winter; while departure by sea
was rendered impossible by the Lacedaemonians. On the next day, Seuthes
was introduced by Xenophon and the other generals to the army, who
accepted his offers and concluded the bargain.
They remained for two months in his service, engaged in warfare against
various Thracian tribes, whom they enabled him to conquer and despoil;
so that at the end of that period, he was in possession of an extensive
dominion, a large native force, and a considerable tribute. Though the
suffering from cold was extreme, during these two months of full winter
and amidst the snowy mountains of Thrace, the army were nevertheless
enabled by their expeditions along with Seuthes to procure plentiful
subsistence; which they could hardly have done in any other manner. But
the pay which he had offered was never liquidated; at least, in requital
of their two months of service, they received pay only for twenty days
and a little more. And Xenophon himself, far from obtaining fulfilment
of those splendid promises which Seuthes had made to him personally,
seems not even to have received his pay as one of the generals. For him,
the result was singularly unhappy; since he forfeited the goodwill of
Seuthes by importunate demand and complaint for the purpose of obtaining
the pay due to the soldiers; while they on their side, imputing to his
connivance the non-fulfilment of the promise, became thus in part
alienated from him. Much of his mischief was brought about by the
treacherous intrigues and calumny of a corrupt Greek from Maroneia,
named Herakleides; who acted as minister and treasurer to Seuthes.
Want of space compels me to omit the narrative given by Xenophon, both
of the relations of the army with Seuthes, and of the warfare carried on
against the hostile Thracian tribes--interesting as it is from the
juxtaposition of Greek and Thracian manners. It seems to have been
composed by Xenophon under feelings of acute personal disappointment,
and probably in refutation of calumnies against himself as if he had
wronged the army. Hence we may trace in it a tone of exaggerated
querulousness, and complaint that the soldiers were ungrateful to him.
It is true that a portion of the army, under the belief that he had been
richly rewarded by Seuthes while they had not obtained their stipulated
pay, expressed virulent sentiments and falsehoods against him. Until
such suspicions were refuted, it is no wonder that the army were
alienated; but they were perfectly willing to hear both sides--and
Xenophon triumphantly disproved the accusation. That in the end, their
feelings towards him were those of esteem and favor, stands confessed in
his own words, proving that the ingratitude of which he complains was
the feeling of some indeed, but not of all.
It is hard to say however what would have been the fate of this gallant
army, when Seuthes, having obtained from their arms in two months all
that he desired, had become only anxious to send them off without
pay--had they not been extricated by a change of interest and policy on
the part of all-powerful Sparta. The Lacedaemonians had just declared war
against Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus; sending Thimbron into Asia to
commence military operations. They then became extremely anxious to
transport the Cyreians across to Asia, which their governor Aristarchus
had hitherto prohibited--and to take them into permanent pay; for which
purpose two Lacedaemonians, Charminus and Polynikus, were commissioned by
Thimbron to offer to the army the same pay as he had promised, though
not paid, by Seuthes; and as had been originally paid by Cyrus. Seuthes
and Herakleides, eager to hasten the departure of the soldiers,
endeavored to take credit with the Lacedaemonians for assisting their
views. Joyfully did the army accept this offer, though complaining
loudly of the fraud practised upon them by Seuthes; which Charminus, at
the instance of Xenophon, vainly pressed the Thracian prince to redress.
He even sent Xenophon to demand the arrear of pay in the name of the
Lacedaemonians, which afforded to the Athenian an opportunity of
administering a severe lecture to Seuthes. But the latter was not found
so accessible to the workings of eloquence as the Cyreian assembled
soldiers. Nor did Xenophon obtain anything beyond a miserable dividend
upon the sum due:--together with evil expressions towards himself
personally--an invitation to remain in his service with 1000 heavy-armed
soldiers instead of going to Asia with the army--and renewed promises,
not likely now to find much credit, of a fort and a grant of lands.
Sec. 21. Xenophon crosses over with the army to Asia.
When the army, now reduced by losses and dispersions, to 6000 men, was
prepared to cross into Asia, Xenophon was desirous of going back to
Athens, but was persuaded to remain with them until the junction with
Thimbron. He was at this time so poor, having scarcely enough to pay for
his journey home, that he was obliged to sell his horse at Lampsakus,
the Asiatic town where the army landed. Here he found Eukleides, a
Phliasian[110] prophet with whom he had been wont to hold intercourse
and offer sacrifice at Athens. This man, having asked Xenophon how much
he had acquired in the expedition, could not believe him when he
affirmed his poverty. But when they proceeded to offer sacrifice
together, from some animals sent by the Lampsakenes as a present to
Xenophon, Eukleides had no sooner inspected the entrails of the victims,
than he told Xenophon that he fully credited the statement. "I see (he
said) that even if money shall be ever on its way to come to you, you
yourself will be a hindrance to it, even if there be no other (here
Xenophon acquiesced): Zeus (the Gracious[111]) is the real bar. Have you
ever sacrificed to him, with entire burnt-offerings, as we used to do
together at Athens?" "Never (replied Xenophon), throughout the whole
march." "Do so now, then (said Eukleides), and it will be for your
advantage." The next day, on reaching Ophrynium, Xenophon obeyed the
injunction; sacrificing little pigs entire to Zeus the Gracious, as was
the custom at Athens during the public festival called Diasia.[112] And
on the very same day he felt the beneficial effects of the proceeding;
for Biton and another envoy came from the Lacedaemonians with an advance
of pay to the army, and dispositions so favorable to himself, that they
bought back for him his horse, which he had just sold at Lampsakus for
fifty darics. This was equivalent to giving him more than one year's pay
in hand (the pay which he would have received as general being four
darics per month, or four times that of the soldier), at a time when he
was known to be on the point of departure, and therefore would not stay
to earn it. The shortcomings of Seuthes were now made up with immense
interest, so that Xenophon became better off than any man in the army;
though he himself slurs over the magnitude of the present, by
representing it as a delicate compliment to restore to him a favorite
horse.
Thus gratefully and instantaneously did Zeus the Gracious respond to the
sacrifice which Xenophon, after a long omission, had been admonished by
Eukleides to offer. And doubtless Xenophon was more than ever confirmed
in the belief, which manifests itself throughout all his writings, that
sacrifice not only indicates, by the interior aspect of the immolated
victims, the tenor of coming events--but also, according as it is
rendered to the right god and at the right season, determines his will,
and therefore the course of events, for dispensations favorable or
unfavorable.
But the favors of Zeus the Gracious, though begun, were not yet ended.
Xenophon conducted the army through the Troad,[113] and across Mount
Ida, to Antandrus; from thence along the coast of Lydia, through the
plain of Thebe and the town Adramyttium, leaving Atarneus on the right
hand, to Pergamus[114] in Mysia; a hill town overhanging the river and
plain of Kaikus. This district was occupied by the descendants of the
Eretrian[115] Gongylus, who, having been banished, for embracing the
cause of the Persians when Xerxes invaded Greece, had been rewarded
(like the Spartan king Demaratus) with this sort of principality under
the Persian empire. His descendant, another Gongylus, now occupied
Pergamus, with his wife Hellas and his sons Gorgion and Gongylus.
Xenophon was here received with great hospitality. Hellas acquainted
him, that a powerful Persian, named Asidates, was now dwelling, with his
wife, family, and property, in a tower not far off on the plain; and
that a sudden night march, with 300 men, would suffice for the capture
of this valuable booty, to which her own cousin should guide him.
Accordingly, having sacrificed and ascertained that the victims were
favorable, Xenophon communicated his plan after the evening meal to
those captains who had been most attached to him throughout the
expedition, wishing to make them partners in the profit. As soon as it
became known, many volunteers, to the number of 600, pressed to be
allowed to join. But the captains repelled them, declining to take more
than 300, in order that the booty might afford an ampler dividend to
each partner.
Beginning their march in the evening, Xenophon and his detachment of 300
reached about midnight the tower of Asidates. It was large, lofty,
thickly built, and contained a considerable garrison. It served for
protection to his cattle and cultivating slaves around, like a baronial
castle in the Middle Ages; but the assailants neglected this outlying
plunder, in order to be more sure of taking the castle itself. Its walls
however were found much stronger than was expected; and although a
breach was made by force about daybreak, yet so vigorous was the defence
of the garrison, that no entrance could be effected. Signals and shouts
of every kind were made by Asidates to procure aid from the Persian
forces in the neighborhood; numbers of whom soon began to arrive, so
that Xenophon and his company were obliged to retreat. And their retreat
was at last only accomplished, after severe suffering and wounds to
nearly half of them, through the aid of Gongylus with his forces from
Pergamus, and of Prokles (the descendant of Demaratus) from Halisarna, a
little farther off seaward.
Though his first enterprise thus miscarried, Xenophon soon laid plans
for a second, employing the whole army; and succeeded in bringing
Asidates prisoner to Pergamus, with his wife, children, horses, and all
his personal property. Thus (says he, anxious above all things for the
credit of sacrificial prophecy) the "previous sacrifices (those which
had promised favorably before the first unsuccessful attempt) now came
true." The persons of this family were doubtless redeemed by their
Persian friends for a large ransom; which, together with the booty
brought in, made up a prodigious total to be divided.
In making the division, a general tribute of sympathy and admiration was
paid to Xenophon, in which all the army--generals, captains, and
soldiers--and the Lacedaemonians besides--unanimously concurred. Like
Agamemnon at Troy, he was allowed to select for himself the picked lots
of horses, mules, oxen, and other items of booty; insomuch that he
became possessor of a share valuable enough to enrich him at once, in
addition to the fifty darics which he had before received. "Here then
Xenophon (to use his own language) had no reason to complain of the god"
(Zeus the Gracious). We may add--what he himself ought to have added,
considering the accusations which he had before put forth--that neither
had he any reason to complain of the ingratitude of the army.
Sec. 22. Xenophon takes leave of the army. Conclusion.
As soon as Thimbron arrived with his own forces, and the Cyreians became
a part of his army, Xenophon took his leave of them. Having deposited in
the temple at Ephesus[116] that portion which had been confided to him
as general, of the tenth set apart by the army at Kerasus for the
Ephesian Artemis, he seems to have executed his intention of returning
to Athens. He must have arrived there, after an absence of about two
years and a half, within a few weeks, at farthest, after the death of
his friend and preceptor Sokrates,[117] whose trial and condemnation
have been recorded in my last volume. That melancholy event certainly
occurred during his absence from Athens; but whether it had come to his
knowledge before he reached the city, we do not know. How much grief and
indignation it excited in his mind, we may see by his collection of
memoranda respecting the life and conversations of Sokrates, known by
the name of Memorabilia, and probably put together shortly after his
arrival.
That he was again in Asia three years afterwards, on military service
under the Lacedaemonian king Agesilaus, is a fact attested by himself;
but at what precise moment he quitted Athens for his second visit to
Asia, we are left to conjecture. I incline to believe that he did not
remain many months at home, but that he went out again in the next
spring to rejoin the Cyreians in Asia--became again their commander--and
served for two years under the Spartan general Derkyllidas before the
arrival of Agesilaus. Such military service would doubtless be very much
to his taste; while a residence at Athens, then subject and quiescent,
would probably be distasteful to him; both from the habits of command
which he had contracted during the previous two years, and from feelings
arising out of the death of Sokrates. After a certain interval of
repose, he would be disposed to enter again upon the war against his old
enemy Tissaphernes; and his service went on when Agesilaus arrived to
take the command.
But during the two years after this latter event, Athens became a party
to the war against Sparta, and entered into conjunction with the king of
Persia as well as with the Thebans and others; while Xenophon,
continuing his service as commander of the Cyreians, and accompanying
Agesilaus from Asia back into Greece, became engaged against the
Athenian troops and their Boeotian allies at the bloody battle of
Koroneia. Under these circumstances, we cannot wonder that the Athenians
passed sentence of banishment against him;[118] not because he had
originally taken part in aid of Cyrus against Artaxerxes--nor because
his political sentiments were unfriendly to democracy, as has been
sometimes erroneously affirmed--but because he was now openly in arms,
and in conspicuous command, against his own country. Having thus become
an exile, Xenophon was allowed by the Lacedaemonians to settle at
Skillus, one of the villages of Triphylia, near Olympia in Peloponnesus,
which they had recently emancipated from the Eleians. At one of the
ensuing Olympic festivals,[119] Megabyzus, the superintendent of the
temple of Artemis at Ephesus, came over as a spectator; bringing with
him the money which Xenophon had dedicated therein to the Ephesian
Artemis. This money Xenophon invested in the purchase of lands at
Skillus, to be consecrated in permanence to the goddess; having
previously consulted her by sacrifice to ascertain her approval of the
site contemplated, which site was recommended to him by its resemblance
in certain points to that of the Ephesian temple. Thus, there was near
each of them a river called by the same name Selinus, having in it fish
and a shelly bottom. Xenophon constructed a chapel, an altar, and a
statue of the goddess made of cypress-wood: all exact copies, on a
reduced scale, of the temple and golden statue at Ephesus. A column
placed near them was inscribed with the following words--"This spot is
sacred to Artemis. Whoever possesses the property and gathers its
fruits, must sacrifice to her the tenth every year, and keep the chapel
in repair out of the remainder. Should any one omit this duty, the
goddess herself will take the omission in hand."
Immediately near the chapel was an orchard of every description of
fruit-trees, while the estate around comprised an extensive range of
meadow, woodland, and mountain--with the still loftier mountain called
Pholoe adjoining. There was thus abundant pasture for horses, oxen,
sheep, and also excellent hunting-ground near, for deer and other game;
advantages not to be found near the Artemision[120] at Ephesus. Residing
hard by on his own property, allotted to him by the Lacedaemonians,
Xenophon superintended this estate as steward for the goddess; looking
perhaps to the sanctity of her name for protection from disturbance by
the Eleians, who viewed with a jealous eye the Lacedaemonians at Skillus,
and protested against the peace and convention promoted by Athens after
the battle of Leuktra, because it recognized that place, along with the
townships of Triphylia, as having the right of self-government. Every
year he made a splendid sacrifice, from the tenth of all the fruits of
the property; to which solemnity not only all the Skilluntines, but also
all the neighboring villages, were invited. Booths were erected for the
visitors, to whom the goddess furnished (this is the language of
Xenophon) an ample dinner of barley-meal, wheaten loaves, meat, game,
and sweetmeats; the game being provided by a general hunt, which the
sons of Xenophon conducted, and in which all the neighbors took part if
they chose. The produce of the estate, saving this tithe or tenth and
subject to the obligation of keeping the holy building in repair, was
enjoyed by Xenophon himself. He had a keen relish for both hunting and
horsemanship, and was among the first authors, so far as we know, who
ever made these pursuits, with the management of horses and dogs, the
subject of rational study and description.
Such was the use to which Xenophon applied the tithe voted by the army
at Kerasus to the Ephesian Artemis; the other tithe, voted at the same
time to Apollo, he dedicated at Delphi in the treasure-chamber of the
Athenians, inscribing upon the offering his own name and that of
Proxenus. His residence being only at a distance of a little more than
two miles from the great temple of Olympia,[121] he was enabled to enjoy
society with every variety of Greeks--and to obtain copious information
about Grecian politics, chiefly from philo-Laconian informants, and with
the Lacedaemonian point of view predominant in his own mind; while he had
also leisure for the composition of his various works. The interesting
description which he himself gives of his residence at Skillus implies a
state of things not present and continuing, but past and gone; other
testimonies too, though confused and contradictory, seem to show that
the Lacedaemonian settlement at Skillus lasted no longer than the power
of Lacedaemon was adequate to maintain it. During the misfortunes which
befell that city after the battle of Leuktra (371 B.C.), Xenophon, with
his family and his fellow-settlers, was expelled by the Eleians, and is
then said to have found shelter at Corinth. But as Athens soon came to
be not only at peace, but in intimate alliance, with Sparta--the
sentence of banishment against Xenophon was revoked; so that the latter
part of his life was again passed in the enjoyment of his birthright as
an Athenian citizen and Knight.[122] Two of his sons, Gryllus and
Diodorus, fought among the Athenian horsemen at the cavalry combat which
preceded the battle of Mantineia, where the former was slain, after
manifesting distinguished bravery; while his grandson Xenophon became in
the next generation the subject of a pleading before the Athenian court
of justice, composed by the orator Deinarchus.
On bringing this accomplished and eminent leader to the close of that
arduous retreat which he had conducted with so much honor, I have
thought it necessary to anticipate a little on the future in order to
take a glance at his subsequent destiny. To his exile (in this point of
view not less useful than that of Thucydides) we probably owe many of
those compositions from which so much of our knowledge of Grecian
affairs is derived. But to the contemporary world, the retreat, which
Xenophon so successfully conducted, afforded a far more impressive
lesson than any of his literary compositions. It taught in the most
striking manner the impotence of the Persian land-force, manifested not
less in the generals than in the soldiers. It proved that the Persian
leaders were unfit for any systematic operations, even under the
greatest possible advantages, against a small number of disciplined
warriors resolutely bent on resistance; that they were too stupid and
reckless even to obstruct the passage of rivers, or destroy roads, or
cut off supplies. It more than confirmed the contemptuous language
applied to them by Cyrus himself, before the battle of Kunaxa; when he
proclaimed that he envied the Greeks their freedom, and that he was
ashamed of the worthlessness of his own countrymen. Against such perfect
weakness and disorganization, nothing prevented the success of the
Greeks along with Cyrus, except his own paroxysm of fraternal antipathy.
And we shall perceive hereafter the military and political leaders of
Greece--Agesilaus, Jason of Pherae, and others down to Philip and
Alexander[123]--firmly persuaded that with a tolerably numerous and
well-appointed Grecian force, combined with exemption from Grecian
enemies, they could succeed in overthrowing or dismembering the Persian
empire. This conviction, so important in the subsequent history of
Greece, takes its date from the retreat of the Ten Thousand. We shall
indeed find Persia exercising an important influence, for two
generations to come--and at the peace of Antalkidas an influence
stronger than ever--over the destinies of Greece. But this will be seen
to arise from the treason of Sparta, the chief of the Hellenic world,
who abandons the Asiatic Greeks, and even arms herself with the name and
the force of Persia, for purposes of aggrandizement and dominion to
herself. Persia is strong by being enabled to employ Hellenic strength
against the Hellenic cause; by lending money or a fleet to one side or
the other of the Grecian parties, and thus becoming artificially
strengthened against both. But the Xenophontic Anabasis[124] betrays her
real weakness against any vigorous attack; while it at the same time
exemplifies the discipline, the endurance, the power of self-action and
adaptation, the susceptibility of influence from speech and discussion,
the combination of the reflecting obedience of citizens with the
mechanical regularity of soldiers--which confer such immortal
distinction on the Hellenic character. The importance of this expedition
and retreat, as an illustration of the Hellenic qualities and
excellence, will justify the large space which has been devoted to it in
this History.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] =Kunaxa=: see Introduction.
[3] =Heralds=: officers who proclaimed war or peace, challenged to
battle, and were bearers of messages from the commander-in-chief or
king; here, messengers.