Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/109

TREACHERY OF MITIIRIDATES. 87 which a_ aspiring youth was compelled to set before himself as an aim, in the democracy of Athens, and which the sophists as well as the democratical institutions, both of them so hardly depreciated, helped and encouraged him to acquire. It was this tripartite ac- complishment, the exclusive possession of which, in spite of con- stant jealousy on the part of Boeotian officers and comrades of Proxenus, 1 elevated Xenophon into the most ascendent person of the Cyreian army, from the present moment until the tune when it broke up, as will be seen in the subsequent history. I think it the more necessary to notice this fact, that the ac- complishments whereby Xenophon leaped on a sudden into such extraordinary ascendency, and rendered such eminent service to his army, were accomplishments belonging in an especial manner to the Athenian democracy and education, because Xenophon himself has throughout his writings treated Athens not merely without the attachment of a citizen, but with feelings more like the positive antipathy of an exile. His sympathies are all in fa- vor of the perpetual drill, the mechanical obedience, the secret government proceedings, the narrow and prescribed range of ideas, the silent and deferential demeanor, the methodical, though tardy, action of Sparta. Whatever may be the justice of his prefer- ence, certain it is, that the qualities whereby he was himself enabled to contribute so much both to the rescue of the Cyreian army, and to his own reputation, were Athenian far more than Spartan. While the Grecian army, after sanctioning the propositions of Xenophon, were taking their morning meal before they commenced their march, Mithridates, one of the Persians previously attached to Cyrus, appeared with a few horsemen on a mission of pre- tended friendship. But it was soon found out that his purposes were treacherous, and that he came merely to seduce individual vovf v 0' kudarov Sr]7i.ovg eaopevovf olf uv irpdrTuaiv, OVTU In describing the duties of a Hipparch or commander of the cavalry, Xenophon also insists upon the importance of persuasive speech, as a meani of keeping up the active obedience of the sol Hers Etf ye wv TO evmi* &eiC elvai roiif up^ofj-evovf, nsya fj,ev KOI r<) "kiyu 6i6uaneiv, o ja aycnW ev i h Ty nei&apxelv, etc. (Xen. Mag. E<^ i, 24). 1 See Xenoph. Anab. v, 6, 25.