XENOPHON
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1(1-2) |
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1(1-7) |
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7(1-4) |
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(1) Darius and Parysatis had two sons, the elder
Artaxerxes, and the younger Cyrus. When Darius lay sick and suspected the end
of his life, he wished both his sons to be by him.
(2) Now the elder one was, as it happened,
already there; but Cyrus he summoned from the province over which he had made
him Satrap - and he had also appointed him general over all those that muster
in the plain of Castolus. So Cyrus went up, taking with him Tissaphernes as his
friend, and he also took up with him two hundred of his Greeks as hoplites,
with Xenias the Parrhasian as their commander.
(1) All that the Greeks did in their march
up-country together with Cyrus, until the battle, and all that took place after
Cyrus had been killed, when the Greeks went away with Tissaphernes during the
truce, has been made clear in the preceding narrative.
(2) After the generals had been seized and those
of the captains and soldiers who had accompanied them had been put to death,
the Greeks were in the greatest possible perplexity, considering that they were
at the King's gates, that round about them on every side were numbers of tribes
and cities that were hostile to them, that no one would be likely to provide
them a market any longer, that they were not less than a thousand miles away
from Greece, that they had no guide to show them the way, that impassable
rivers were cutting them off in the way of their journey homeward, that even
the natives who had marched up with Cyrus had betrayed them, and that they had
been left alone without a single cavalryman in support; so that it was quite
clear that even if they kept the upper hand, they would kill not a man of them,
while if they were defeated, none of themselves would be left alive.
(3) Reflecting on these things and being
disheartened, few of them towards evening tasted food, few kindled fires, and
many of them did not come to their quarters that night, but they lay down where
each chanced to be, unable to sleep for sorrow and longing for their countries,
their parents, their wives and their children, whom they never expected to see
again. It was in this state of mind that they all went to rest.
(4) Now there was in the army a certain Xenophon,
an Athenian, who was accompanying it neither as a general, nor a captain, nor a
private; but [because] Proxenus, being an old guest-friend, had sent for him
from home. He [Proxenus] had promised him that, if he came, he would make him a
friend of Cyrus, whom he said that he for his part thought better for himself
than his native land.
(5) Xenophon, on reading the letter, consulted
with Socrates the Athenian on the journey. And Socrates, suspecting that to
become a friend of Cyrus might prove in some way a ground of accusation against
him from the state, because Cyrus was believed to have fought zealously on the
same side with the Lacedaimonians against Athens, advised Xenophon to go to
Delphi and consult the god about the journey.
(6) So Xenophon went and asked Apollo to which of
the gods he should sacrifice and pray in order best and most successfully to go
on the journey which he had in mind, and having done well, to return safely.
And in his oracular response Apollo declared to him the gods to whom he had to
sacrifice.
(7) When he came back [from Delphi], he reported
the oracle to Socrates; and upon hearing it Socrates found fault with him
because he had not first put the question whether it would be better for him to
go or to stay, but had himself decided that he must go and then enquired how
best his journey might be accomplished. “However”, he added, “since that is how
you put your question, you must do all that the god commanded.”
(1) Now the people at home deposed these
generals, with the exception of Conon; and in addition to him they appointed
Adeimantus, and Philocles as the third. Of the generals who had taken part in
the sea-fight, Protomachus and Aristogenes did not return to Athens, but when
the [other] six sailed home –
(2) Pericles, Diomedon, Lysias, Aristocrates,
Thrasyllus, and Erasinides – Archidemes, who at that time was the leader of the
democratic party at Athens and took care of the two-obol-fund, imposed a
penalty on Erasinides and accused him in court, declaring that he had in his
possession [a sum of] money from the Hellespont, which belonged to the people;
and he also brought a charge against him concerning his conduct-as-a-general.
And the resolution of the court was to imprison Erasinides.
(3) After this the generals made statements
before the Council both about the naval battle and the violence of the storm.
And when Timocrates said that the others also ought to be imprisoned and
brought before the people, the Council imprisoned them.
(4) After this an assembly was held, in which
both others, and particularly Theramenes, accused the generals, [saying] that
it was right-and-proper that they should render an account of their conduct for
not having picked up the shipwrecked. For as proof that the generals fastened
the blame on no one else, he produced a letter which the generals had sent to
the Council and the people, laying the blame on nothing but the storm.