Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/163

ACCUSATION AGAINST XENOPHON. 141 tried before the newly-constituted tribunal of the lochagts or cap- tains, in case any one had complaint to make against them for past matters ; agreeably to the Athenian habit of subjecting every magistrate to a trial of accountability on laying down his office. In the course of this investigation, Philesius and Xanthikles were fined twenty minae, to make good an assignable deficiency of that amount, in the cargoes of those merchantmen which had been de tained at Trapezus for the transport of the army ; Sophaenetus, who had the general superintendence of this property, but had been negligent in that duty, was fined ten minae. Next, the name of Xenophon was put up, when various persons stood forward to ac- cuse him of having beaten and ill-used them. As commander of the rear-guard, his duty was by far the severest and most difficult, especially during the intense cold and deep snow ; since the sick and wounded, as well as the laggards and plunderers, all fell under his inspection. One man especially was loud in complaints against him, and Xenophon questioned him, as to the details of his case, before the assembled army. It turned out that he had given him blows, because the man, having been intrusted with the task of carrying a sick soldier, was about to evade the duty by burying the dying man alive. 1 This interesting debate (given in the Anabasis at length) ended by full approbation, on the part of the army, of Xenophon's conduct, accompanied with regret that he had not handled the man yet more severely. The statements of Xenophon himself give us a vivid idea of the internal discipline of the army, even as managed by a discreet and well-tempered officer. " I acknowledge (said he to the soldiers) to have struck many men for disorderly conduct ; men who were content to owe then* preservation to your orderly march and constant fighting, while they themselves ran about to plun- der and enrich themselves at your cost. Had we all acted as they did, we should have perished to a man. Sometimes, too, I struck In the distribution of chapters as made by the editors, chapter the eighth is made to begin at the second Moff, which seems to me not convenient for comprehending the full sense. I think that the second edo!-e, as well as the first, is connected with the words irapatvow rof SevoQuvroc, and ought to be included not only in the same chapter wit them, but also in the san?f lentence, without an intervening full st^p. 1 Xen. Anab. v, 8, 3-12.