Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/158

136 HISTORY OF GREECE. and the Herakleots felt at their ease. They sent the transport vessels, but withheld the money which they had promised to Ti- masion and Thorax. Hence these officers were exposed to dishonor and peril ; for, having positively engaged to find pay for the army, they were now unable to keep their word. So keen were their apprehensions, that they came to Xenophon and told him that they had altered their views, and that they now thought it best to employ the newly-arrived transports in conveying the army, not to Greece, but against the town and territory of Phasia at the eastern extremity of the Euxine. 1 Xenophon replied, that they might convene the soldiers and make the proposition, if they chose ; but that he would have nothing to say to it. To make the very proposition themselves, for which they had so much inveighed against Xenophon, was impossible without some preparation ; so that each of them began individually to sound his captains, and get the scheme suggested by them. During this interval, the soldiery obtained information of the manoeuvre, much to their discontent and indignation ; of which Neon (the lieutenant of the absent Chei- risophus) took advantage, to throw the whole blame upon Xeno- phon ; alleging that it was he who had converted the other officers to his original project, and that he intended as soon as the soldiers were on shipboard, to convey them fraudulently to Phasis instead of to Greece. There was something so plausible in this glaring falsehood, which represented Xenophon as the author of the re- newed project, once his own, and something so improbable in the fact that the other officers should spontaneously have renounced their own strong opinions to take up his, that we can hardly be surprised at the ready credence which Neon's calumny found among the army. Their exasperation against Xenophon became so intense, that they collected in fierce groups ; and there was even a fear that they would break out into mutinous violence, as they had before done against the magistrates of Kerasus. Well knowing the danger of such spontaneous and informal as- semblages, and the importance of the habitual solemnities of convo cation and arrangement, to ensure either discussion or legitimate 1 Xen. Anab. v, 6, 36. I may here note that this Phasis in the Euxine means the town of thai name, not the river.