CHAPTER IV.
THE SUBSEQUENT FORTUNES OF THE TEN THOUSAND, AND
NOTICES OF THE LATER LIFE OF XENOPHON.
"What the Greeks did in their march up the country with Cyrus, and what they underwent in their journey to the Euxine Sea; how they arrived at the Greek city of Trebizond, and how they offered the sacrifices which they had vowed to offer for their safety as soon as they should reach a friendly country, has been related in the preceding part of this narrative." Thus begins the fifth book of the 'Anabasis,' and Xenophon now proceeds to record the proceedings of a council which was held at Trebizond to consider the next steps to be pursued. Wearied as the soldiers were by incessant marching and fighting, they desired to perform the rest of the journey before them on ships, and thus to arrive home as Ulysses was described by Homer to have done—"stretched out in sleep." It was agreed that Cheirisophus should sail away to Byzantium, and persuade Anaxibius, the Lacedæmonian admiral there, to send ships for them.
Cheirisophus having started, foraging-parties of the army went out to plunder the neighbouring villages. The most extensive operation was that undertaken by about half the army under Xenophon against the Drylæ or Drillians, a warlike tribe among the mountains, of whom nothing farther is known. With some difficulty and "not inconsiderable" loss, they took the citadel of these people, and plundered their chief town. As Cheirisophus did not return, and provisions were running short, the Greeks commenced their march by land along the coast, sending the sick and all who were above forty years of age by sea, in a few vessels which they had procured.
In three days they arrived at Cerasus, or Kerasunt, a place which has given its name to that now popular fruit, the cherry, which was first introduced into Europe from Cerasus by the Roman general Lucullus, in the year 73 B.C.[1] Here the soldiers were reviewed under arms, and were found to be reduced in number by the casualties of the retreat to 8600 men. A division was made of the money that had been obtained by the sale of captives. A tenth part was consecrated to Apollo and to Diana of Ephesus, and each man received his share of the remainder. Starting hence, they fought their way through the country of the Mosynæci, whose metropolis they plundered; and then came upon another settlement of the Chalybes, engaged in the manufacture of iron, and apparently peaceable in habits. Without further difficulty they reached Cotyora,[2] a Greek colony from Sinope, and half-way between that place and Trebizond. At this point they had marched in eight months 1860 geographical miles from the plains of Babylon. The Cyreians were not admitted into the town of Cotyora, but they encamped under the walls, and remained here for forty-five days, during which time the thought of remaining altogether appears to have occurred to the minds of some. After all the difficulties they had surmounted, there still lay great obstacles between them and their Grecian fatherland. In the first place, unless they could procure shipping for the force, they would have to pass through the hostile country of Paphlagonia, intersected by four broad rivers—the Thermodon, the Iris, the Halys, and the Parthenius. Negotiations were therefore opened with the people of Sinope to supply them with ships. But, in the mean time, when Xenophon contemplated the brilliant little army still left with him, the idea arose in his mind that it would be a noble thing to employ this force in some enterprise of conquest and colonisation on the Euxine itself. He seems to have thought of attacking and conquering Phasis, or some other non-Hellenic city, and of settling down in the conquered territory with such of the soldiers as might be willing to remain. Patriotically, he thought of the prestige and advantage which would be thus gained for Greece; and personally, he doubtless thought of the position which he might himself hold as founder and ruler of a new Hellenic city, which could hardly fail to become rich, powerful, and important. A trifling obstacle, however, thwarted all his plans. Before communicating them to the soldiers, Xenophon, according to his usual custom, and in accordance with the advice of Socrates, determined to take counsel of the gods. He called on the chief soothsayer of the army, by name Silanus, to offer a sacrifice, and consult the omens as to his project of colonisation. Now it so happened that Silanus was in a different position from all the rest of the army; for while they were all returning with their pockets empty, Silanus had managed to bring safely through the march a sum of 3000 darics (£2600), which Cyrus had given him as a reward for a successful divination.[3] Silanus then was of all things most anxious to get home at once, and to prevent anything which might detain the army and himself with it in Asia Minor. He dared not tell Xenophon that the omens were unfavourable to the main issue, as they were not so, and Xenophon knew all about the rules of divination. But he said that he discerned in the victims some collateral indications of a conspiracy against Xenophon. And he took care to prove the truth of these alleged indications, by prematurely divulging to the army a garbled account of the plans of Xenophon, and thus creating a prejudice against them.
The promulgation of these designs had, at all events, one good result. For the merchants from Sinope and Heraclea, who had come to the camp, being alarmed by the notion of a powerful military force seizing territory, and disturbing relations in their neighbourhood, came forward and agreed to guarantee transports for the mercenaries to the Hellespont, with the additional promise of a liberal scale of pay, to commence from the first new moon after their departure from Cotyora. Timasion and Thorax, two officers who were especially jealous of Xenophon, urged these offers upon the acceptance of the army, while others loudly accused him of underhand manœuvring to cheat the soldiers into remaining against their will. Xenophon at once rose to rebut these charges; and having showed the impossibility of his detaining the army against its will, and the absurdity of supposing that he could aim at doing so, he concluded by saying,[4] "If you had continued as destitute and unprovided as you were just now, I should still have looked out for a resource in the capture of some city which would have enabled such of you as chose to return at once, while the rest might stay behind to enrich themselves. But now there is no longer any necessity, since Heraclea and Sinope are sending transports, and Timasion promises pay to you from the next new moon. Nothing can be better; you will go back safely to Greece, and will receive pay for going thither. I desist at once from my scheme, and call upon all who were favourable to desist also. Only let us all keep together until we are on safe ground, and let the man who lags behind or runs off be condemned as a wrong-doer." This question being put to the vote, every hand was held up in its favour. The last suggestion was a shaft aimed at the soothsayer Silanus, who had decidedly intended to "run off" with his treasure at the earliest opportunity. This indeed he ultimately effected; but for the present the soldiers put down his protestations, threatening him with punishment if he should be found attempting to desert.
Xenophon had satisfied the army with regard to his actions and intentions in the present, but he was shortly afterwards called upon to clear himself of certain charges with regard to the past. It was resolved among the army, during their long halt at Cotyora, that the generals should be called upon to give an account of their conduct during the march, and Xenophon among the rest came in for his share of unfavourable, and not very grateful, review. We have seen how, along the bank of the Tigris, through the passes of Kurdistan, over the uplands of Armenia, throughout the whole march, he was the life and soul of the army. Always fertile in device; always active, ready, and cheerful; equally prompt to counsel others and to meet danger himself—he gradually acquired an ascendancy far beyond that of the other commanders. There seems little doubt that the salvation of the force was greatly due to Xenophon. But now that the troops were comparatively safe on the shore of the Euxine, they forgot, in some instances, the benefit of being commanded, and looked back on the command as a grievance. The following passage is given in full, not only as an account of what now occurred, but as an illustration of Xenophon's mode of procedure in the army; and also as an attempt to convey, as well as a translation can do this, some idea of his style of writing:—
Some also brought accusations against Xenophon, alleging that they had been beaten by him, and charging him with having behaved insolently. On this, Xenophon stood up and called on him who had spoken first to say where he had been beaten. He answered, "Where we were perishing with cold, and when the snow was deepest." Xenophon rejoined, "Come, come; in such severe weather as you mention, when provisions had failed, and we had not wine so much as to smell to,—when many were exhausted with fatigue, and the enemy were close behind,—if at such a time I behaved insolently, I acknowledge that I must be more vicious than an ass, which, they say, is too vicious to feel being tired. Tell us, however, why you were beaten. Did I ask you for anything, and beat you when you would not give it me? Did I ask anything back from you? Was I quarrelling about a love affair? Did I maltreat you in my cups?" As the man said that there was nothing of this kind, Xenophon asked him, Whether he was one of the heavy-armed troops? He answered "No." Whether he was a targeteer? He said he was "not that either, but a free man, who had been sent to drive a mule by his comrades." On this Xenophon recognised him, and asked him, "What! are you the man who was conveying the sick person?" "Ay, by Jupiter, I am," said he, "for you compelled me to do it, and you scattered about the baggage of my comrades." "The scattering," rejoined Xenophon, "was something in this way: I distributed it to others to carry, and ordered them to bring it to me again; and having got it back, I restored it all safe to you as soon as you had produced the man that I gave you in charge. But hear, all of you," he continued, "in what way the affair happened, for it is worth listening to. A man was being left behind because he was able to march no farther. I knew nothing of him, except that he was one of us. And I compelled you, sir, to bring him, that he might not perish; for, if I mistake not, the enemy was pressing upon us." This the complainant acknowledged. "Well, then," said Xenophon, "after I had sent you on, did not I catch you, as I came up with the rearguard, digging a trench to bury the man, when I stopped and commended you? But while we were standing by, the man drew up his leg, and those who were there cried out that he was alive. And you said, 'He may be as much alive as he likes, for I shan't carry him.' On this I struck you, it is quite true, for you seemed to me to have been aware that the man was alive." "Well, then," exclaimed the other, "did he die any the less after I had rendered him up to you?" "Why, we shall all die," said Xenophon; "but is that any reason that we should be buried alive?" Hereupon all the assembly cried out that Xenophon had not beaten the fellow half enough. And this complaint having been disposed of, no others were brought against Xenophon, who then addressed the soldiers, saying, "I acknowledge to have struck many men for breach of discipline—men who were content to owe their preservation to your orderly march and constant fighting, while they themselves left the ranks and ran on before, so as to have an advantage over you in looting. Had we all acted as they did, we should have perished to a man. Sometimes, too, I struck men who were lagging behind with cold and fatigue, or were stopping the way so as to hinder others from getting forward. I struck them with my fist, in order to prevent them from being struck by the lance of the enemy. It is a plain case: if I punished any one for his good, I claim the privilege of parents with their children, masters with their scholars, and surgeons with their patients. In the time of storm the captain must be rough with his men, for the least mistake is fatal. But this is all over now; the calm has come. And since I strike nobody now, when by the favour of the gods I am in good spirits, and am no longer depressed with cold, hunger, and fatigue, and now that I have more wine to drink, you may see that it was at all events not through insolence that I struck any one before. If such things are to be brought up against me, I would ask in common fairness that some of you stand up on the other side and recall a few of the occasions on which I have helped you against the cold, or against the enemy, or when sick, or in distress."
These words produced the desired effect. Many individuals responded to the appeal, "so that," as Xenophon briefly tells us, "it was all right in the end,"—that is to say, that he was not merely acquitted, but stood higher than before in the estimation of the army.
The remaining history of the return of the ten thousand Greeks is a record of the successive triumphs of Xenophon's good sense, governing capacity, and persuasive oratory. And a very difficult task he appears to have had in keeping the army straight, now that it had got into the region of Greek colonies. When the pressure of the Persian cavalry and of hostile mountain tribes was removed, the Cyreian army constantly tended to lose its unity, and resolve itself into sections and individual atoms. Xenophon alone, as Mr Grote points out, possessed a power, not shared by the other generals, of working on the minds of the soldiers collectively, and of keeping up an esprit de corps among them. He owed this to his Athenian education. He always treated every assemblage of the soldiers as an agora, or formal meeting for debate. He thus brought into play the art which he alone in the army appears to have possessed—the art of dealing with and influencing assembled multitudes. His speeches, considered in relation to their object and occasion, are models of oratory. Apparently straightforward and simple, and totally free from all flourishes of rhetoric, they yet are most artistically constructed, so as to say the most effective things in the most effective way. The report of them is so graphically given, that we seem to have the whole scene before our eyes, and to be made interested spectators of transactions that took place twenty-two hundred years before any of us was born. And it must be added that, in these transactions, we find Xenophon always using his powers of influence for good and worthy purposes—for the advantage of the army as a whole, rather than for any isolated objects of self-aggrandisement; and for the prevention equally of base conduct, and of rash and calamitous enterprise.
The Cyreian Greeks, embarking in the ships which had been provided for them, sailed along the Black Sea to Sinope—a name rendered familiar to the present generation by the disastrous episode of the Russian war[5] which occurred there in 1853. At this flourishing Greek seaport, the seat of an ancient Milesian colony, they were hospitably received, and here the soldiers began to feel the absolute necessity of striking some blow which might fill their purses and save them from returning empty-handed to Greece. For the success of such a project they determined that they must have a single commander-in-chief to lead them. Their thoughts at once turned towards Xenophon, and they unanimously deputed their captains to request him to accept the command. Xenophon was in some degree tempted by so flattering a proposal; but, on the other hand, he reflected on the difficulties and precariousness of the position offered to him; and being in doubt, he resolved, as usual, to lay the matter before the gods. "Jupiter the King," to whom he sacrificed, showed nothing but warning and dissuasive omens. So when the army was assembled, and Xenophon had been formally proposed for election as commander, he rose and deprecated such a step on the ground that it would be a slight to Sparta, as the leading state of Greece, if an Athenian should be chosen commander, when a Lacedæmonian general was present. Several speakers opposed this excuse as invalid. But when Xenophon plainly told them that the omens had been unfavourable to his accepting the chief command, they acquiesced, and chose for their chief Cheirisophus the Lacedæmonian, who had commanded the vanguard in the retreat from Persia.
The army now pursued its voyage over waters which were said to have of old borne the Argo, the symbolic precursor of Greek nautical enterprise. They soon arrived at Heraclea, which had been colonised from Megara, a city not far from Athens. Here they were hospitably received by the inhabitants, who sent them out presents of oxen, barley-meal, wine, and other things. The soldiers, however, being still in a discontented and greedy frame of mind, began to debate whether they should continue their journey homewards by sea or by land; and some proposed and actually carried the resolution that they should levy a tribute of £2300 or more upon the city that had received them so kindly. Both Cheirisophus and Xenophon absolutely refused to have anything to do with making such an unjust demand on a friendly Greek city. The soldiers thereupon sent three persons of their own nomination to convey their resolutions to the people of Heraclea. The demands and the threats of these envoys merely had the effect of causing the Heracleans to close their gates and put themselves in a state of defence. The army, thus baffled, broke out into fresh dissensions and insubordination. The Arcadians and Achæans, who made up above half the force, separated themselves from the rest and chose their own generals. And thus the chief command of Cheirisophus came to an end on the sixth or seventh day after he had been chosen. Some two thousand of the troops attached themselves to Xenophon, and the army was broken up into three divisions. Moving still to the west, these three divisions separately (one in ships and two by land) reached Calpe, a harbour in Bithynia, not far from the Bosphorus. Here each of the two other divisions got into trouble in marauding expeditions, and were severally rescued by the division under Xenophon. Here also Cheirisophus died of fever, and Xenophon became virtually, though not nominally, the commander-in-chief. And the soldiers passed a resolution that no one, under pain of death, should again propose to divide the army.
Xenophon evidently set eyes of affection upon the harbour of Calpe. He describes with enthusiasm its convenient situation under a lofty rock, its copious supply of water, the abundant timber in its neighbourhood, and the fertility of the surrounding country—producing, as he twice observes, "everything except olives," which, as a Greek, he seems particularly to have missed. The belief that he wanted to colonise the place was very strong in the army, and the soldiers, as a protest, refused to encamp upon the very spot which Xenophon says "would have been the natural site for a city." To explain this conduct of theirs, he mentions that the majority of Greeks in the army were not absolutely poor men, but (what we should call) gentlemen, who had joined the expedition from a regard to Cyrus, or under the idea that brilliant fortunes might be made in his service. Many of them had families at home, and they now wanted to get back.
The natives of the surrounding country had the same impression that a new city was to be formed, and after Xenophon had given them a little taste of Greek prowess, in a sharp skirmish with some Bithynian troops assisted by some cavalry belonging to the Persian satrap, they sent in proposals of alliance. Traders along the coast, also, willingly put in to secure the custom of the supposed settlers. And the omens for departure, whenever a sacrifice was made, were, or seemed to Xenophon, extremely unfavourable. The army thus rested many days at Calpe, whence they did a good deal of plundering.
And now a new character appeared on the scene. This was Cleander, the Lacedæmonian governor of Byzantium (now Constantinople), to whom communications had been sent, and who now came with two ships. The circumstances of his arrival were unfortunate, for the army was out on raid, and when they came back some of the men got embroiled with one of Cleander's followers. This man was really acting unjustly, by endeavouring to prevent part of the plunder from being conducted to the public store. In the dispute he was roughly treated by Agasias, a friend of Xenophon's, and was pelted with stones by some soldiers. This gave rise to what we should call "a grave complication;" for the powerful Cleander himself was frightened by the excited soldiery, and he threatened, when Xenophon had restored order, to sail away and to proclaim the Cyreian army enemies to Sparta, and interdicted from reception in any Grecian city. The effective eloquence and perfect tact of Xenophon were now in requisition; and by the use of these, on the one hand, he persuaded the soldiers to make absolute submission; and, on the other hand, he mollified Cleander, and induced him, not only to pass over what had occurred, but to accept the command of the army, for the purpose of conducting them back to Greece. Unfortunately, however, the omens were for three days unfavourable, and Cleander, though expressing the greatest friendship for the Cyreian force, declared that evidently the gods would not allow him to do more for them than to prepare for them a good reception at Byzantium when they should arrive there; and he accordingly sailed away. The army shortly afterwards started by land, and after a six days' march, having done a good stroke of looting on the way, they arrived at Chrysopolis, which answers to the modern Scutari, the Asiatic suburb of Constantinople, well known as the seat of our hospitals during the Crimean war.
The Cyreian soldiers were now on the threshold of their fatherland, but actual return seemed still as hard for them as it had been for the much-wandering Ulysses. The concluding pages of Xenophon's narrative represent them as bandied about by Persian satraps, Lacedæmonian officials, and Thracian chiefs, all equally unscrupulous in conduct. The interest of such details consists in the picture of the times which they give us. We see the total want of "solidarity" among the Greek states. Sparta, indeed, appears as all-powerful, but quite devoid of kindred feeling towards Greeks as Greeks. No welcome as to countrymen is extended to the Greek force who, with such unparalleled bravery and skill, had just cut their way out of the depths of the Persian empire. They are regarded with cold selfishness or suspicion as tools to be used, or an infliction to be dreaded. We see, then, that principle of self-seeking isolation at work in Greece which made her the prey of Macedonia, and afterwards of Rome. And those acquainted with India will be aware that it is the same principle which has split up a vast homogeneous population, and has given over to the rule of England an empire extending from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin.
While the Greeks were at Chrysopolis, Cleander ceased to be the first man in Byzantium; for Anaxibius, the High Admiral of Sparta, happened to come there, and was, of course, superior to the local governor. The first intrigue against the Greek army was managed by Pharnabazus, the Persian satrap in their neighbourhood, who made interest with Anaxibius to remove them out of his country. Anaxibius, willing to gratify an Oriental magnate, made no scruple in inviting the Greeks over to Byzantium, under promise of pay for the troops. When he had got them there he gave them no pay, but simply ordered them to pack up and march home by the Chersonese. The soldiers were naturally excited at this treatment, and they were within an ace of sacking the town of Byzantium. Xenophon required all his oratory to dissuade them from such a step, which would have infallibly reduced them all to the position of hopeless outlaws. The attention of the army was now diverted by the offers of a Theban adventurer, who proposed to engage them for a filibustering expedition. As, however, it turned out that he was unable to provision them, the negotiations broke down, and the army took up its quarters in some Thracian villages, not far from Byzantium. A good many of the soldiers disbanded; some sold their arms to pay their passage home; others joined the people in the neighbouring towns.
Xenophon in the meanwhile had taken leave of the army, having induced Anaxibius to give him a passage home. They sailed together, but before they had got out of the Sea of Marmora they were met by one Aristarchus, who was on his way to replace Cleander as governor of Byzantium, and who brought news that Anaxibius himself had been superseded. Anaxibius, wishing to do a last good turn to Pharnabazus, advised Aristarchus, when he had got to his government, to seize and sell for slaves as many of the Cyreian soldiers as he could lay hands on. Aristarchus, acting on this hint, appears actually to have sold four hundred of them whom he found in Byzantium—one of the most atrocious little acts in all history! And Anaxibius, being naturally anxious to get some reward for his zeal from Pharnabazus, sent to him; but the satrap, who had in the mean time learned that Anaxibius was no longer in power, promptly gave him the cold shoulder, and would have no communications with him.
The disappointed selfishness of Anaxibius now took a new direction, and he became as anxious to plant a thorn in the side of the Persian magnate as he had hitherto been to serve him. He called Xenophon, and "ordered" him by all means to sail back to the army, to keep it together and collect the scattered men, and bring over the force without delay into Asia. Xenophon does not tell us what were his own reflections upon this commission. Perhaps he could not have got home against the wishes of Anaxibius. Perhaps the feeling of old companionship with the army was strong upon him. He speaks as if he had at once accepted the task imposed upon him. In a ship, furnished by the ex-admiral, he crossed again to Thrace, and arrived among the army, by whom he was gladly welcomed. He got the men down to Perinthus, a port on the Sea of Marmora, and began to collect ships for their conveyance. But Aristarchus, the new governor of Byzantium, acting, as Anaxibius had before done, in the interest of Pharnabazus, now interposed, and threatened "to drown any man who should be found on the sea." And while the harassed Greeks were thus again arrested in their movements, there came to them fresh overtures from Seuthes, a neighbouring chief of Thrace, who had before made several attempts to get the Cyreian contingent into his pay.
The omens of sacrifice appeared to Xenophon to favour the entertaining of these overtures. He therefore went to Seuthes, whom he found living in a guarded castle, and who told him that he required the troops for the recovery of his hereditary rights as prince of the Odrysians, of which rights he had been forcibly deprived, and driven to lead the life of a marauding chief. He offered pay of one stater (about £1, 2s. 6d.) per month for each soldier, with double for the captains, and four times as much for each general. He promised, in addition, lands, yokes of oxen, and a walled town to reside in. To Xenophon he offered his daughter and a town to himself. He further undertook never to lead the Greeks more than seven days' march from the sea.
Upon the faith of these promises the Greeks entered the service of Seuthes, and were entertained by him with a barbaric feast, at which some ludicrous incidents occurred; and after which a Thracian entered bringing a white horse, and, taking a horn full of wine, said, "I drink to you, O Seuthes! and present you with this horse, on which you will pursue your enemies." Another, in similar fashion, offered a young slave; another some vestments, and so on. When Xenophon saw that some complimentary offering was expected from himself, and as the wine-horn was presented to him for this very purpose, he stood up boldly, and, taking the horn, said, "I present you, O Seuthes, myself and my comrades, to be your faithful friends, and to recover your dominions for you." The pledge and offering were well received, and the feast ended merrily. After all had well drunk, and the Greeks were thinking of retiring to their lines for the night, Seuthes proposed that they should at once strike a blow. So, though it was the depth of winter, they started at midnight, and, having crossed a mountain covered with snow, they came down next day on villages which they plundered and burnt. The booty was sent away to be sold at Perinthus, to provide pay for the troops. Afterwards they marched into the country called the Delta of Thrace, above Byzantium. The Greeks had a good deal of fighting, and suffered severely from the frost, not being so warmly clad as the natives of the country. When the first month was up, presents were offered to the generals (Xenophon, however, declined to take anything); and twenty days', instead of a month's, pay, was given to the troops. This naturally caused discontent, and gave rise to a quarrel between Xenophon and Heraclides, the paymaster of Seuthes, who tried as much as possible to damage Xenophon with his master. He even endeavoured to get the other Greek generals to say that they could lead the army just as well as Xenophon. But it is a remarkable proof of the confidence which Xenophon's conduct had gradually inspired, that Timasion and other generals who had before been jealous of him, now said that nothing would induce them to serve without him.
This testimony of his brother officers must have been particularly gratifying to Xenophon, for the men, who were less discerning, and whose minds were warped by anger at their pay being continually withheld, yielded to all sorts of suspicions against Xenophon, who, they thought, must have been privately enriched by Seuthes. His position in the army was therefore, for the time, particularly uncomfortable, and he seems to have felt it very much. The service of the Greeks with Seuthes continued for two months, during which time they took and plundered villages far and wide, even as far up as Salmydessus, a seaport on the Euxine; and, in short, they brought the whole country into subjection to Seuthes. By the addition of men from the conquered tribes to his army, he had by this time a force twice as numerous as the Greeks, whom he now only wished to get rid of without the necessity of paying them.
A change in Greek politics, at this juncture, afforded the Cyreians an escape from their difficulties. The Lacedæmonians had just declared war against the Persian satraps, Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus, and had sent their general, Thimbron, into Asia to commence military operations. They then became extremely anxious to avail themselves of the remnant of the ten thousand Greeks, and, instead of forbidding, to urge them to cross over to Asia. Two Spartan envoys, Charminus and Polynicus, arrived at the Greek camp with a commission from Thimbron to offer the army the same pay as had been promised, though not paid, by Seuthes. These commissioners were hospitably received by Seuthes, who saw in them a means of ridding himself of the army which he had made his catspaw, and wanted no longer. In private audience, the envoys asked his opinion of Xenophon, and Seuthes replied, "He is not a bad fellow on the whole, but he is a soldier's friend, and that hurts his interests." Xenophon appears to have had great satisfaction in recording this little certificate to the disinterestedness of his conduct.
The soldiers on hearing the offers of Thimbron joyfully closed with them, but still complained bitterly of the way in which they had been cheated by Seuthes. Charminus, acknowledging the justice of their complaint, himself made a representation on the subject to the Thracian chief, but without effect. As a last appeal, he even sent Xenophon to demand the arrears of pay in the name of the Lacedæmonians. This "afforded the Athenian an opportunity of administering a severe lecture to Seuthes. But the latter was found less accessible than the Cyreian assembled soldiers to the workings of eloquence: nor did Xenophon obtain anything beyond a miserable dividend upon the sum due—together with civil expressions towards himself personally; an invitation to remain, with a thousand men, instead of going to Asia with the army; and renewed promises, not likely now to find much credit, of a fort and a grant of lands."[6]
But the troubles of Xenophon were now over, and a run of good-luck for himself closes his account of the Expedition of Cyrus. He would have gone straight to Athens, but the soldiers, who were now on the best terms with him, begged him not to leave them till they should be handed over to Thimbron. They all crossed the sea of Marmora to Lampsacus, celebrated for its wine. Here Xenophon met an old acquaintance, one Euclides, a soothsayer, who asked him how much gold he had. Xenophon replied, that so far from having anything, he was just going to sell his horse to pay his travelling expenses. The soothsayer, on inspection of the victims, said that evidently Xenophon had spoken the truth, but "had he sufficiently propitiated Jupiter the Gracious?" Xenophon admitted that he had not sacrificed to this deity, whom he seemed to think it natural to regard as quite distinct from Jupiter the King, to whom he had made frequent offerings. He at once repaired the deficiency, and the very same day the Lacedæmonian paymasters, hearing that he had sold a favourite horse, repurchased it for him at the price of about £55.
Marching through the Troas, they arrived at Pergamus, famous for its library of 200,000 volumes, afterwards transferred to Alexandria; for the invention of parchment (the name of which is derived from Pergamena); for its painting and architecture; and for being the seat of one of the Seven Churches of Asia. Here Xenophon was hospitably entertained by a Greek lady, who told him of a prize awaiting him in the person of one Asidates, a wealthy Persian, who resided in the neighbourhood. Finding the omens favourable, Xenophon set out after supper, taking only a select party of his friends, in order not to have to divide the booty among too many. But the country-house of the Persian was strongly fortified, and resisted the night attack. And at daybreak various troops in the pay of the Great King came to the rescue, and it was as much as the Greeks could do to fight their way back to their lines, with some slaves and cattle enclosed in a hollow square. The next day the unfortunate Asidates attempted to move off with his family and his goods, but Xenophon came down upon him with the whole Cyreian force, and carried him off with all that he possessed. Xenophon now exultingly says that "he had no complaint against Jupiter the Gracious." For the army placed at his disposal the pick of the spoil, so that he was "now even in a position to serve a friend."
This is the last incident recorded in the 'Anabasis.' To some it has appeared as a blot upon the character of Xenophon, but it might be remembered first, that the Greeks were actually at war with the Persians at this time; secondly, that the international morality of the day gave a general sanction to acts of the kind, when "barbarians" and not Greeks were the victims.
Under the above circumstances the parting of Xenophon from the army whose perils and vicissitudes of fortune he had shared for exactly two years (from March 401 B.C. to March 399 B.C.) must have been on both sides cordial and pleasant. The ten thousand Greeks had been reduced by casualties and dispersion to six thousand; and of this force Thimbron, coming to Pergamus, took the command. The Cyreian contingent now lost its distinctive existence. It was merged in the army which, under Thimbron, and afterwards under the far abler Dercylidas who superseded him, carried on a successful campaign against the Persian satraps, and secured for a time the independence of the Greek cities in Asia Minor. Doubtless many of the old comrades of Xenophon returned, like himself, enriched to their homes. And doubtless many a Greek fireside during many a winter time was enlivened by tales of the Expedition of Cyrus and the Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks.
Xenophon's return to Athens must have taken place within a few weeks of the death of his master Socrates. He appears to have diligently collected particulars of the accusation, trial, and death of the sage, and to have added them to his former notes of the conversations of Socrates. But it appears probable that he did not bring out his 'Recollections' till a later period of his own life, when he had settled down to literary pursuits. "Within three years he had again quitted his home, and was serving under the Lacedæmonian king Agesilaus in the still protracted war against the Persians in Asia Minor. But now a fresh shuffle of the political cards in Greece took place; for the Athenians, together with the Thebans and others, formed an alliance with the King of Persia; and thus Xenophon, by continuing to hold command under Agesilaus, was in the position of bearing arms against his country. He accompanied Agesilaus in his invasion of northern Greece, and was present with him at the bloody battle of Coroneia (B.C. 394), where the Athenians and their Theban allies were vanquished. For this he was treated as the enemy of his country, and a decree of banishment was passed against him.
The Lacedæmonians, however, did not fail to provide him with a home. They allotted him a residence at Scillus,[7] a village about two miles from Olympia, where the great games were held every fifth year. This circumstance alone must have made the situation agreeable to a man like Xenophon. It was as if a yeoman of sporting tendencies were to receive a present of a farm at Epsom. And the Olympic games were something more than equal to the "Derby;" for they implied a periodical meeting (under terms of truce if it was war-time) of all the great wits and intellects, and all the leading characters, both literary and political, from the different states of Greece. There was excellent hunting in the neighbourhood of Scillus;—not fox-hunting on horseback, but hunting of the boar and the antelope on foot with spears, and of the hare with dogs and nets. In this congenial spot Xenophon settled down, probably in the forty-second year of his age, after his few years' campaigning, to a life of literature and field-sports. "He spent his time henceforth," says his biographer, "in hunting, and feasting his friends, and writing his histories." And ere long he had in Scillus a charming souvenir of his adventures with the Cyreian army. To explain this it must be mentioned that when the Greek army reached the Euxine in their retreat, they sold the prisoners whom they had taken in various skirmishes by the way, and divided the proceeds. The tenth part of the money realised was set apart to be dedicated to Apollo and to Diana of Ephesus, and each general was intrusted with a portion of this sum to take charge of. It seems probable that Xenophon was forced, by the exigencies of the subsequent march, to spend the portion which had been intrusted to him. But when he returned to Athens, enriched with the ransom of Asidates, he caused an offering to Apollo to be made, and to be inscribed with his own name and that of his friend Proxenus, and this he sent to Delphi. Afterwards, when serving with Agesilaus in Asia, he replaced the amount which was due to the goddess Diana, and handed it over for safe keeping to Megabyzus, the warden of her temple at Ephesus. He stipulated that if he should fall in the campaign, Megabyzus was to devote the money to an offering in the Ephesian temple, but otherwise to restore it to him.
When Xenophon had taken up his abode at Scillus, Megabyzus came over on one occasion to see the Olympic games, and he brought with him the deposit and restored it. Xenophon invested the money in lands to be devoted in permanence to the goddess. Not only had Diana signified her approval of the site by omens in sacrifice, but also there appeared be a peculiar appropriateness in the domain selected. In the first place, it was an excellent hunting-ground, and therefore suitable for the divine huntress; and also, by a strange coincidence, there was a stream running through it called Selinus, which was also the name of a stream running close to the temple of Diana at Ephesus. "In both rivers," adds Xenophon—speaking somewhat after the manner of Fluellen—"there are fish and cockles." Here he caused a temple and altar to be raised, and a statue of the goddess in cypress wood to be set up—exact copies, though on a reduced scale, of the world-famous temple and altar and golden statue at Ephesus. And he appointed an annual festival to be held, which was attended by men and women of the surrounding country, who pitched tents on the sacred ground, and were "supplied by the goddess herself with barley-meal, bread, wine, sweetmeats, and a share of the victims offered from the sacred pastures, and of those caught in hunting; for the sons of Xenophon and of the other inhabitants always made a hunt against the festival, and such of the men as wished hunted with them; and there were caught, partly on the sacred lands and partly on Mount Pholoe, boars and antelopes and deer."
The picture presented to us by Xenophon of his life at Scillus is quite idyllic, and thoroughly Greek. A certain phase of religion predominates over the whole, but it is the bright, picturesque, and easy religion common among the Aryan races, which is so different from Semitic earnestness, and which consists in doing, under the name of divine authority, what men would have been most inclined to do without it. Hunting for the glory of Diana, cultivating his farm, writing his books, and living in social intercourse with all comers,—these elements made up the existence of Xenophon at Scillus, during the best years of his long life.
Beyond it"—
he lived in retirement from contemporary politics, and yet was always supplied with information as to their progress, of which he must have taken careful notes for his future history.
It is not quite certain whether he was permitted to end his days in this charming retreat. One account says, that after the defeat of his Lacedæmonian patrons at the battle of Leuctra, B.C. 371, he was forced to abandon it, and that he retired to Corinth. Another account declares that he was only subjected to a lawsuit, but that he retained his lands, and died at Scillus. However this may be, Athens became reconciled to Sparta, and the sentence of banishment against Xenophon was revoked. His two sons, Gryllus and Diodorus, fought amongst the Athenian knights in the cavalry action which formed the prelude to the battle of Mantinea, B.C. 362; in which battle Gryllus was slain, after manifesting distinguished bravery. Xenophon must have been about sixty-nine years old at this time. They say that he was performing a sacrifice, with a garland on his head, which he took off when the news was brought to him that "his son had fallen," but when the messenger added "nobly," he replaced it; and he would not weep, for he said, "I knew that my son was mortal." This is the last anecdote which is recorded of Xenophon "the wise." But he appears to have lived long afterwards, and to have attained his ninetieth year.
Time has been very lenient with the works of Xenophon. We possess all the books ascribed to him by Diogenes Laertius. They are as follows:—'Hellenica,' 'Anabasis,'[8] 'Cyropædeia,' 'Recollections of Socrates,' 'Apology of Socrates,' 'Agesilaus,' 'The Constitution of Athens,' 'The Constitution of Sparta,' 'Hiero,' 'The Banquet,' 'On the Athenian Revenues,' 'On Domestic Economy,' 'Hipparchicus,' 'On Horsemanship,' 'On Hunting.' A glance at this list will show what a wide and varied field is covered by the writings of Xenophon, and what a rich mine they constitute of information relative to events, great men, ideas, arts, and manners in Greece at the end of the fifth and through the first half of the fourth century B.C. In our present aperçu of Xenophon, it will be impossible for us to attempt to give the contents of the 'Hellenica,' which is a contemporary record of affairs in Greece from the year 411 to the year 362, B.C. To do so would be to epitomise Greek history, which is not the object of this little book. Readers wishing to follow out that part of the subject, can best do so by consulting Mr Grote's great work (vols. ix. and x.), or they will find a summary and criticism (perhaps rather too severe) of the 'Hellenica' of Xenophon in Colonel Mure's 'Critical History of the Language and Literature of Ancient Greece,' vol. v. p. 265-323. The remaining works in the above list all more or less come within our scope, as bringing this ancient Greek writer and his times directly before us. In the 'Anabasis,' which we have already epitomised, we have a narrative from personal observation comparable in some respects to the 'Commentaries' of Cæsar, or Mr Kinglake's 'Invasion of the Crimea.' In the 'Cyropædeia' (or 'Education of Cyrus') we have the earliest specimen extant of a historical romance. In the 'Memorabilia' (or 'Recollections'), Xenophon plays the part of a Boswell, and gives us the actual conversations of his master Socrates. The 'Agesilaus' is the embodiment of the "hero-worship" of Xenophon for his admired patron the King of Sparta. The Constitutions of Athens and Sparta are perhaps the oldest remaining specimens of the political tract or pamphlet. The 'Hiero' is a disquisition, in the form of dialogue, on the characteristics of despotic government. 'The Banquet' is a description, real or imaginary, of a "fast" supper-party at Athens, and of the conduct and discourse thereat of the wise and moral Socrates. 'The Revenues of Athens' contains some of Xenophon's ideas on finance and political economy. The 'Domestic Economy' treats, in two dialogues, of farm and household management. The 'Hipparchicus,' or 'Cavalry Officer's Manual,' contains suggestions by an experienced tactician for the improvement of the cavalry arm of the Athenian service. The 'Horsemanship' is a treatise on choosing, keeping, and sitting the horse. In the 'Hunting' Xenophon appears somewhat in the character of an Izaak Walton, and describes enthusiastically his favourite sport.
- ↑ "The cherry is said to have been introduced into Britain one hundred and twenty years afterwards; but some suppose that the cherries introduced by the Romans into Britain were lost, and they were reintroduced in the time of Henry VIII. by Richard Haines, the fruiterer of that monarch. The Romans extended the cultivation of the cherry to eight varieties. In the British gardens are upwards of forty sorts."—Mr Ainsworth's 'Travels in the Track of the Ten Thousand Greeks.'
- ↑ No traces of this town can be found at the present day.
- ↑ See above, p. 20.
- ↑ Abridged by Mr Grote, History of Greece, vol. ix. p. 184.
- ↑ See Mr Kinglake's Invasion of the Crimea, vol. i. p. 373.
- ↑ Mr Grote's History of Greece, vol. ix. p. 234, 235.
- ↑ The description of his residence at Scillus is given by Xenophon himself (Anabasis, v. 3).
- ↑ It is curious that in the 'Hellenica' (iii. 1, 2) Xenophon says that "the history of the expedition of Cyrus, and of the return of the Greeks in safety to the sea, has been written by Themistogenes the Syracusan." This passage has given rise to two theories to account for the statement it contains. One is, that Themistogenes, as well as Xenophon, had written an account of the expedition of Cyrus—that the inferior work was eclipsed and forgotten, but that Xenophon, through modesty, mentioned that account instead of his own. The other theory is suggested by Plutarch, namely, that Xenophon, haying a double interest in the 'Anabasis,' as author and as actor in the military events described, preferred his reputation in the latter capacity to the fame which he might get as an author; and, therefore, to gain full credence for the somewhat self-glorifying history, attributed it to another hand. The second theory seems the more probable. At all events, the ancients unanimously regarded the 'Anabasis' as the work of Xenophon, and not even German criticism has thrown any doubt on this belief.