of the animals they sacrificed, in order that from their appearance they
might learn the will of the gods; and next, that they might gain a
knowledge of coming events.
In all important undertakings these signs were carefully consulted,
before any decisive action was taken.
[5] =Hellenic=: pertaining to the Hellenes, or Greeks; Grecian.
[6] =Array=: disposition of forces with reference to defence or attack.
[7] =Herald=: here used apparently in the sense of a public crier.
[8] This seems to have been a standing military jest, to make the
soldiers laugh at their past panic.
[9] =Talent=: about 57 pounds avoirdupois; or, taking silver at its
present value, about $1250.
[10] =Phalanx=: a body of troops in compact array, with their shields
joined and their pikes or spears crossing each other, so as to present a
firm, unbroken front to the foe.
[11] =Irrigation=: during the long dry summer the crops in this region
would have perished from drought if the fields had not been watered.
This was done by a system of canals, in which the supply of water, drawn
from the overflow of the Tigris and Euphrates during the spring floods,
was stored up to be used when needed. So abundant was the growth of
grain on this rich soil that Herodotus did not dare state the amount for
fear that he would be thought guilty of exaggeration.
[12] =Corn=: any kind of grain used for food.
[13] =Satrap=: the governor of a Persian province.
[14] =Cyreian Greeks=: those Greeks who had engaged in the expedition of
Cyrus in his attempt to seize the throne of Persia. See Introduction.
[15] =Covenant=: a solemn agreement or treaty which both parties bound
themselves to keep by oath, calling on their respective gods to punish
them if they violated the compact.
[16] =Convention=: treaty or agreement.
[17] See note on p. 38.
[18] =Tribute=: this was an annual tax so heavy and so cruelly extorted
that it kept the great body of the people in a state little better than
that of slavery.
[19] =Cyreian Persians=: those Persians who had espoused the cause of
Cyrus in his attempt to seize the throne.
[20] =Amnesty=: pardon.
[21] =Strike our tents=: take down our tents.
[22] =Barbarians=: the Greeks called all foreigners "barbarians." This
word, however, did not generally express contempt, or necessarily imply
lack of civilization, but was used to designate those who spoke another
language than Greek.
[23] =Ionia=: see note on p. 21.
[24] =Wall of Media=: a wall supposed to have extended from the
Euphrates to the Tigris. It cannot now be traced with certainty.
[25] =Bitumen=: mineral pitch or asphalt. It is now much used for
cement, for making pavements, and for covering flat roofs.
[26] =Pontoons=: light framework or floats on which a platform or
roadway is laid for a temporary bridge. Boats or canoes, placed side by
side, and covered with planks, are not infrequently so used.
[27] =Inflated skins=: bags or vessels made of the skins of sheep and
other animals. They are quite commonly used in the East for carrying
wine and other liquids. When inflated they are also employed as above
mentioned.
[28] =Mysians and Pisidians=: see note on p. 35.
[29] =Ionia=: the central part of the western coast of Asia Minor. Here,
at a very early period, flourishing Greek colonies were planted, and
Ionia became celebrated for its art, its literature, and its cities,
such as Ephesus and Miletus. But the country could not maintain its
independence against the Eastern kings, and was at this period tributary
to Persia. If the Ten Thousand could reach Ionia they would be among
fellow-countrymen and friends, and within easy sail of all parts of
Greece.
[30] =Tiara=: a flexible cap worn by the Persians. The king alone had
the right to wear it erect and high, as a badge of royal authority. Some
suppose that when Tissaphernes says that though he cannot openly place
the high tiara on his head, but shall wear it on his heart (feeling like
a king if not looking like one), that he purposely uses the language
"the better to blind Klearchus," and make him think that if the Greeks
will aid him with their arms, he will revolt and aspire to become king
in fact.
[31] =Philhellenic=: Greek-loving.
[32] =Miletus=: a city of Ionia, subject in a measure to Athens,
revolted in 412 B.C. The next year the Lacedaemonians, or Spartans, who
were the enemies of Athens, sent over a fleet to aid the people of
Miletus. Tissaphernes, the Persian satrap, desiring to see the power of
Athens completely overthrown, promised to pay the Spartan soldiers (of
whom Klearchus was one), but afterwards made up his mind not to do so,
and left them to fight at their own expense.
[33] =Arcadian=: an inhabitant of Arcadia, a district of the
Peloponnesian peninsula, Greece.
[34] =Democrat and philosopher=: Xenophon (431?-355 B.C.) belonged to
that party in Athens that maintained the principle of government "of the
people, by the people, and for the people," in opposition to the party
that, like the Spartans, believed that all political power should be
monopolized by a favored few. Xenophon was also the disciple and friend
of Socrates the philosopher, of whom some account will be given later
on.
[35] =Oneirus=: the god of dreams and messenger of Zeus (Jupiter),
father of gods and men, sometimes called Zeus the Preserver, Saviour, or
Deliverer.
[36] =Zeus=: see note above on Oneirus.
[37] =Boeotian dialect=: the inhabitants of the Greek province of
Boeotia were considered by the Athenians to be a dull and unprogressive
people. They spoke a broad, coarse dialect.
[38] =Cashier=: to dismiss from service.
[39] =Ears bored=: this was an Eastern (Lydian) custom, which the Greeks
despised as only befitting slaves, since with them it was a mark of
servitude. Agasias intimates that Apollonides either had been a slave or
at least ought to be one.
[40] =Kilikia= (also spelled Cilicia): Asia Minor.
[41] =Sneeze=: any sudden, involuntary outburst, like sneezing, was
considered a sign of the divine will for good or evil. As it occurred
here just as Xenophon pronounced the auspicious word "preservation," it
was regarded as a favorable omen sent by Zeus himself. The accustomed
invocation was like the old English custom of crying "God bless you"
when one sneezed.
[42] =Paean=: war-song, song of triumph; originally addressed to the god
Apollo.
[43] =Mysians and Pisidians=: rude tribes inhabiting mountainous
districts of Asia Minor, and maintaining their independence in spite of
the efforts of the Persian kings to subjugate them.
[44] =Lotos-eaters=: the lotos is a date-like fruit, fabled by Homer in
the "Odyssey" to be so delicious and possessed of such marvellous
properties that those who once tasted it forgot home and friends and
wished only to remain where they might continue to eat it forever. See
"Odyssey," Book IX., and compare Tennyson's poem of the "Lotos-Eaters."
[45] =Achaeans=: inhabitants of Achaia, in the Peloponnesian peninsula.
[46] =Peloponnesians=: inhabitants of the Greek peninsula of the
Peloponnesus (or so-called Island of Pelops), now known as the Morea.
They were considered the best soldiers in Greece. Sparta, the rival and
enemy of Athens, was the ruling city of this district.
[47] =Athenian catastrophe=: in 415 B.C. the Athenians sent out a
powerful expedition to conquer Syracuse in Sicily. They met with a
disastrous defeat, both by land and sea, many thousands being taken
captive and sold as slaves. Alkibiades, an Athenian who had taken refuge
in Sparta, now urged the Spartans to attack Athens, their old rival and
enemy. His vehement eloquence was eventually successful.
[48] =Perikles=: leader of the party of the people in Athens, and for a
long time governor of the city; he was perhaps the greatest statesman
that Greece produced.
[49] =The war=: the Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C. This was a desperate
struggle for supremacy between the two chief powers of Greece, Sparta
and Athens. The Spartans were a rough, military people, despising all
intellectual culture and maintaining a narrow and tyrannical form of
government from which the body of the people was wholly excluded. The
Athenians, on the contrary, wished to maintain a republic in which all
citizens should take part; they represented the highest civilization of
Greece, and were in one sense the schoolmasters of the world.
[50] =Sophists=: a class of philosophers or teachers who gave
instruction in rhetoric and the art of disputation. They went about from
city to city, and, contrary to the general custom of Greek philosophers,
took fees from their pupils. "What the Sophists, among other things
conducive to success in life, really taught the people, was the art of
conducting their own cases before the great citizen-juries, where every
man was forced to be his own advocate." [See Myers's "Outlines of
Ancient History."]
[51] =Javelin=: a light spear.
[52] =Carbines=: short muskets, or rifles.
[53] =Rhodian=: pertaining to the island of Rhodes, off the southwest
coast of Asia Minor.
[54] =Nineveh=: "an exceeding great city" (Jonah iii. 3), larger, says
Strabo, than Babylon, having walls with 1500 towers 200 feet high.
(Diodorus.)
[55] =Cuirass=: defensive armor, covering the body from the neck to the
girdle.
[56] =Sacrificed=: not only to propitiate the gods, but to obtain omens
or signs for their future guidance.
[57] =Cubit=: a measure of length; the distance from the elbow to the
end of the middle finger, or about eighteen inches.
[58] =Corselet=: armor covering the front of the upper part of the body.
[59] =Reins=: the small of the back, or the kidneys.
[60] =Burial=: the Greeks believed that so long as the corpse remained
unburied the spirit would roam about restlessly in the dreary
under-world or common abode of departed souls.
[61] =Kretan=: or Cretan (from Crete).
[62] =Augury=: omen or sign.
[63] =Libations=: wine or liquor poured out on the ground or on a victim
in honor of the gods.
[64] =Bivouac= (biv-wak'): an encampment without tents or shelter, or
one in which the whole army is on guard against surprise; here, the
former is probably meant.
[65] =Sesame=: an Eastern plant from whose seeds an oil is obtained,
which is used for food and other purposes.
[66] =Boreas=: the god of the north wind.
[67] =Demagogues=: leaders of the people, popular orators. (The word now
means those who mislead the people or who pretend to be interested in
public affairs and reforms merely to gain their own ends.) In Greece
these orators usually addressed assemblies or bodies of citizens who
acted as judges.
[68] =Judges= (dicasts): these sometimes, as in the case of the trial of
Socrates, numbered five and six hundred persons, who acted as judge and
jury combined.
[69] =Greaves=: armor for the front of the lower part of the leg.
[70] =Daric=: a Persian gold coin worth about $5.00.
[71] =Herakles= (Hercules): the exploits of this god in his numerous
encounters with wild beasts and robbers led to his worship on perilous
journeys.
[72] =The altar=: probably that where they had been sacrificing.
[73] Xenophon.
[74] =Mercenaries=: hired soldiers.
[75] =Milesians=: inhabitants of Miletus, Asia Minor.
[76] =Megarian=: pertaining to Megara, a district of Greece northwest of
Athens. It was famous for its commerce.
[77] =Thunny fishery=: the thunny, or tunny, a large fish abundant in
the Mediterranean and highly esteemed both for food and for the oil
which it yields.
[78] =Thurian=: an inhabitant of Thurii, a city of Lower Italy, founded
by a colony from Athens.
[79] =Odysseus=: as Homer in the "Odyssey" represents Odysseus, or
Ulysses, to have done.
[80] =Byzantium=: the modern Constantinople.
[81] =Merchant ships=: small, one-masted vessels, not larger than our
fishing-smacks.
[82] =Kerasus=: this place is the native home of the cherry, and the
origin of its name. The fruit was introduced into Italy from Kerasus
about 70 B.C., and thence to England, France, and other countries
conquered by the Romans.
[83] =Targeteers=: troops carrying a light target, or shield.
[84] =Turrets= (or small towers): the name of the
people--Mosynoeki--means the "tower-dwellers."
[85] =Paphlagonian horse=: meaning the Paphlagonian cavalry.
[86] =Hellas=: Greece.
[87] "The gods (says Euripides, in the Sokratic vein) have given us
wisdom to understand and appropriate to ourselves the ordinary comforts
of life: in obscure or unintelligible cases we are enabled to inform
ourselves by looking at the blaze of the fire, or by consulting prophets
who understand the livers of sacrificial victims and the flight of
birds. When they have thus furnished so excellent a provision for life,
who but spoilt children can be discontented and ask for more? Yet still
human prudence, full of self-conceit, will struggle to be more powerful,
and will presume itself to be wiser, than the gods."
It will be observed that this constant outpouring of special
revelations, through prophets, omens, &c., was (in view of these
Sokratic thinkers) an essential part of divine government; indispensable
to satisfy their ideas of the benevolence of the gods; since rational
and scientific prediction was so habitually at fault and unable to
fathom the phenomena of the future. (Grote.)
[88] =Traverse=: thwart.
[89] Though Xenophon accounted sacrifice to be an essential preliminary
to any action of dubious result, and placed great faith in the
indications which the victims offered, as signs of the future purposes
of the gods,--he nevertheless had very little confidence in the
professional prophets. He thought them quite capable of gross deceit.
(Grote.) Thus Silanus (see p. 92) pretends to find some unfavorable
indications in sacrifices which supported Xenophon.
[90] =Phasis=: on the Euxine; means the town of that name, not the
river. (Grote.)
[91] =Minae=: the Mina was about one pound by weight of silver, or $20.
Twenty minae would be therefore $400.
[92] =Pipe=: a fife or flute-like instrument.
[93] =Carpaean dance=: perhaps because one of the dancers represented a
sower of grain (from _karpos_, fruit), or possibly from _karpos_, wrist,
the wrists of one being bound.
[94] =Mysian=: from Mysia, Asia Minor.
[95] =Pyrrhic dance=: a kind of dance accompanied with every gesture of
the body used in giving and avoiding blows.
[96] This appears to have been said jocosely in reference to the Persian
King.
[97] Xenophon.
[98] =Trireme=: a war-vessel propelled by three ranks of rowers placed
one above the other.
[99] =Three thousand staters=: about $11,500; ten thousand staters would
be in round numbers about $38,000. The stater was a Greek gold coin; its
value is usually given at about $5.00, but Grote here makes it
considerably less.
[100] =Cities=: cities then were generally built with walls and gates,
so that it was easy to exclude any whom they did not wish should enter.
[101] =Philo-Laconian=: Sparta-loving (Sparta being in the district of
Laconia). Compare what is said of Xenophon on p. 41.
[102] =Byzantium=: this city (the modern Constantinople) was founded by
a Greek colony B.C. 657. It had a mixed population, and was at this time
under the rule of a Lacedaemonian or Spartan governor.
[103] =The Chersonesus= (the peninsula): a peninsula of Southern Thrace,
opposite Asia Minor, having numerous Greek cities, and noted for its
abundance of grain, much of which was exported to Athens.
[104] =Thrakion=: probably an open space or square near the Thracian
Gate of the city.
[105] =The Great King=: the King of Persia.
[106] =Delta=: so named because it resembled the Greek capital letter
Delta, [Greek: D], corresponding to the English D; hence a
triangular-shaped piece of land.
[107] =Propontis= (now, the Sea of Marmora): between Asia and Europe.
[108] =Billeted upon the citizens=: assigned them quarters among the
citizens, who were thus bound to provide for them.
[109] =Odrysian=: from Odrysae, a numerous and powerful people of Thrace.
[110] =Phliasian=: from Phlius, a city of Peloponnesus
[111] It appears that the epithet (the Gracious) is here applied to Zeus
in the same conciliatory sense as the denomination _Eumenides_ (Well or
Kindly-disposed) to the avenging goddesses. Zeus is conceived as having
actually inflicted, or being in a disposition to inflict, evil: the
sacrifice to him under this surname represents a sentiment of fear, and
is one of atonement, expiation, or purification, destined to avert his
displeasure; but the surname itself is to be interpreted so as to
designate, not the actual disposition of Zeus (or of other gods), but
that disposition which the sacrifice is intended to bring about in him.
(Grote.)
[112] =Diasia=: a Greek festival, celebrated in honor of Zeus (Jupiter)
the Gracious.
[113] =Troad=: the plain around Troy, the scene of the famous Trojan
war, celebrated in Homer's Iliad.
[114] =Pergamus=: a city noted for its library of over 200,000
manuscript rolls, which were eventually removed to Alexandria, Egypt.
Parchment, a name derived from this place, was invented here.
[115] =Eretrian=: pertaining to Eretria, a city of Ionia, Asia Minor.
[116] =Temple of Ephesus=: sacred to the goddess Artemis, or Diana, twin
sister of Apollo. This temple ranked among the Seven Wonders of the
world. It was held so sacred that it was used as a "safe-deposit" for
treasures, which were secure here against robbery or war. See the
interesting reference to it in Acts xix. 24-41.
[117] =Sokrates=: the philosopher and moralist, and the friend and
instructor of Xenophon, had publicly taught, in the streets of Athens,
for thirty years. His method was to convince people how little they
really knew, by asking a series of searching questions which eventually
led those whom he interrogated to confess their ignorance. "He taught
that it is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong; and that the gods
wished men to know them, not by beliefs and observances, but by doing
good." This teaching, which was misunderstood by many, together with the
dislike--not to say hatred--which such a "cross-examining missionary"
would inevitably excite, caused his trial for impiety or rejection of
the popular deities. He was then over seventy. When asked whether he had
prepared his defence, he replied "that his whole life had been a
preparation, since he had spent it in studying what was right and
endeavoring to do it." Condemned by the judges to drink poison, he spent
the last hours of his life conversing with his friends on the
immortality of the soul. Xenophon has left an entertaining and valuable
sketch of his beloved master.
[118] =Banished=: Xenophon was banished for attachment to Sparta against
his country--Athens. (Grote.)
[119] =Olympic festivals=: the greatest of the religious festivals among
the Greeks. It was held at Olympia every four years in honor of Zeus
(Olympian Jove), and was celebrated by games and contests lasting
several weeks. All Greece sent delegations to attend and take part in
the festival.
[120] =Artemision=: the temple of Artemis or Diana.
[121] =Temple of Olympia=: the magnificent temple of Zeus (Olympian
Jove). It contained a colossal statue of the god, seated, and holding
the globe and the sceptre as emblems of his power. The work was by the
celebrated sculptor Phidias, and was carved in gold and ivory.
[122] =Knight=: originally one of an upper class of citizens ranking
second in point of wealth and political power.
[123] Alexander the Great encouraged his soldiers before the battle of
Issus by referring to the bravery of the Greeks in the "Retreat of the
Ten Thousand."
[124] =Anabasis= (The March Up-country): the name given by Xenophon to
his account of the expedition of Cyrus the younger in his march from the
shore of the Mediterranean against the King of Persia at Babylon. The
narrative of the "Retreat of the Ten Thousand" forms part of the
"Anabasis." Strictly speaking, this portion of the work should be called
the Katabasis, or "The March Down"; that is, from Babylonia to the Black
Sea.
SKETCH OF NAPOLEON.
(INTRODUCTORY TO THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW.)
Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio, Corsica (then recently ceded to
France), in 1769. He was of Italian descent, and up to the age of ten
could speak no French. In 1779 he was sent to the military school of
Brienne, in France, and there began his education for the army. As a
lieutenant of artillery he did good service in behalf of the French
revolutionary government at the siege of Toulon, which had revolted in
1793.
Two years later that government was threatened by the rising of the
people of Paris, headed by the National Guard. General Barras gave
Napoleon an opportunity of showing his military skill in defence of the
authorities, and the young officer, with his well-directed volleys of
grape-shot, speedily quelled the insurrection. From that time Napoleon's
name became familiar to the French people.
In 1796 he married Madame Josephine Beauharnais, a West Indian lady,
whose husband had been guillotined during the Revolution. About the same
time Napoleon received the command of the French army of Italy, and with
his successful Italian campaign against Austria his reputation as a
general began.
From that date until his final abdication in 1815, he was almost
constantly engaged in active war, or in preparations for it. During that
period of twenty years he fought nearly the whole of Europe; and up to
his fatal Russian campaign in 1812, he was victorious in every great
battle which he personally directed in the open field. This constant
success inspired him with the belief that he was invincible. As one of
his friends said, "He appeared like a man walking in a halo of glory";
and as an eminent statesman declared, "France gave herself to him,
absorbed herself in him, and seemed, at one time, no longer to think,
except through him." From a simple artillery officer Napoleon had risen
to be the greatest military commander in the world. His adopted country
had placed him at the head of the government, and ended by making him
Emperor. By his conquests he had enlarged France so that his imperial
dominions extended to the Baltic on the north, and beyond Rome on the
southeast.
To increase his glory and strengthen his power, he established a circle
of dependent thrones and principalities, occupied by his brothers and
his favorites, who were bound to obey his will and extend his sway.
Of all the nations of Europe, England alone had been able to withstand
him; and in 1812 London, Moscow, and St. Petersburg were the only
leading capitals whose streets his triumphant armies had not entered.
It was when he was at the apparent summit of his power that Napoleon
divorced his faithful Josephine, in order that he might marry the
Princess Maria Louisa, daughter of the emperor of Austria. His object
was to found a reigning family allied by blood with one of the oldest
and proudest dynasties of Europe. In this, as in all other things, he
seemed to accomplish his purpose, for from this union a son was born
who, under the title of the "King of Rome," promised to perpetuate his
father's name and power.
Having secured an heir to his crown Napoleon now determined to
rigorously carry out his "continental policy" of humbling England by
shutting out her trade from every port of Europe. If this could be done
effectually, as he believed was possible, he might hope to starve his
old enemy into submission.
The attempt to accomplish this design was the chief cause of the
campaign against Russia, and of Napoleon's ultimate downfall. The Czar,
contrary to the provisions of the treaty of Tilsit, made in 1807, was
now opposed to continuing the blockade which excluded English commerce
from the Baltic. Not only did the Russian sovereign refuse to yield on
this point, but he went so far as to form an alliance with Sweden, in
order to resist the French Emperor's demands more effectually.