Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/105

RETREAT OF THE TEN THOUSAND GREEKS. 83 let us maintain order, discipline, and obedience to the commanders; upon which our entire hope of safety depends. Let every man promise to lend his hand to the commanders in punishing any diso- bedient individuals ; and let us thus show the enemy that we have ten thousand persons like Klearchus, instead of that one whom they have so perfidiously seized. Now is the time for action. If any man, however obscure, has anything better to suggest, let him come forward and state it ; for we have all but one object, the common safety." It appears that no one else desired to say a word, and that the speech of Xenophon gave unqualified satisfaction ; for when Chei- risophus put the question, that the meeting should sanction his recommendations, and finally elect the new generals proposed, every man held up his hand. Xenophon then moved that the army should break up immediately, and march to some well- stored villages, rather more than two miles distant; that the march should be in a hollow oblong, with the baggage in the centre ; that Cheirisophus, as a Lacedaemonian, should lead the van ; while Kleanor, and the other senior officers, would command on each flank, and himself with Timasion, as the two youngest of tho generals, would lead the rear-guard. This proposition was at once adopted, and the assembly broke up, proceeding forthwith to destroy, or distribute among one an- other, every man's superfluous baggage, and then to take their morning meal previous to the march. The scene just described is interesting and illustrative in more than one point of view. 1 It exhibits that susceptibility to the influence of persuasive discourse which formed so marked a feature in the Grecian character, a resurrection of the collective body out of the depth of despair, under the exhortation of one who had no established ascendency, nor anything to recommend him, ex- cept his intelligence, his oratorical power, and his community of interest with themselves. Next, it manifests, still more striking- ly, the superiority of Athenian training as compared with that of other parts of Greece. Cheirisophus had not only been before in 1 A very meagre abstract is given by Diodorus, of that which passed after the seizure of the generals (xiv, 27). He does not mention the name of Xenophon on this occasion, nor indeed throughout all his account of the inarch