Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/231

DERKYLLIDAS. 20S Xenophon, after a few months of residence at Athens, accompa- nied him to Asia, and resumed the command of his old comrades.' Derkyllidas was a man of so much resource and cunning, as tc have acquired the surname of Sisyphus. 2 He had served through- out all the concluding years of the war, and had been harmost at Abydus during the naval command of Lysander, who condemned him, on the complaint of Pharnabazus, to the disgrace of public exposure with his shield on his arm ; 3 this was (I presume) a dis- grai 8, because an officer of rank always had his shield carried for him by an attendant, except in the actual encounter of battle. Having never forgiven Pharnabazus for thus dishonoring him, Derkyllidas now took advantage of a misunderstanding between that satrap and Tissaphernes, to make a truce with the latter, and conduct his army, eight thousand strong, into the territory of th& former. 4 The mountainous region of Ida generally known as the Troad, inhabited by a population of JEolic Greeks (who had gradually Hellenized the indigenous inhabitants), and therefore known as the JEolis of Pharnabazus, was laid open to him by a recent event, important in itself as well as instructive to read. The entire Persian empire was parcelled into so many satrapies ; each satrap being bound to send a fixed amount of annual tribute, and to hold a certain amount of military force ready, for the court at Susa. Provided he was punctual hi fulfilling these obligations, little inquiry was made as to his other proceedings, unless hi the rare case of his maltreating some individual Persian of high rank. In like manner, it appears, each satrapy was divided into sub- satrapies or districts ; each of these held by a deputy, who paid to the satrap a fixed tribute and maintained for him a certain mili- tary force, having liberty to govern in other respects as he 1 There is no positive testimony to this ; yet such is my belief, as I have stated at the close of the last chapter. It is certain that Xenophon was serving under Agesilaus in Asia three years after this time ; the only mat- ter left for conjecture is, at what precise moment he went out the second time. The marked improvement in the Cyreian soldiers, is one reason for the statement in the text ; another reason is, the great detail with which the military operations of Deikyllidas are described, rendering it probabla that the narrative is from an eye-witness. 2 Xen. Hellen. iii, 1, 8; Ephorus, ap, Athenas. xi, p. 5 DO. 1 Xen. Hellen. iii, 1, 9. taTad?) TTJV aairifa %uv, 4 Xen. Hellen. iii, 1, 10; iii, 2, 28. VOL. IX. 140C.