The circumstances which immediately followed were indeed well
calculated to augment it. For it was resolved, on the proposition of
Xenophon himself[231] that the generals themselves should be tried
before the newly-constituted tribunal of the lochages or captains,
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 Xanthiklês were fined twenty
minæ, to make good an assignable deficiency of that amount, in the
cargoes of those merchantmen which had been detained at Trapezus
for the transport of the army; Sophænetus, who had the general
superintendence of this property, but had been negligent in that
duty, was fined ten minæ. Next, the name of Xenophon was put up, when
various persons stood forward to accuse 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.[232] 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.
[231] Xen. Anab. v, 7, 35.
Παραινοῦντος δὲ Ξενοφῶντος, καὶ τῶν μάντεων συμβουλευόντων, ἔδοξε
καὶ καθᾶραι τὸ στράτευμα· καὶ ἐγένετο καθαρμός· ἔδοξε δὲ καὶ τοὺς
στρατηγοὺς δίκην ὑποσχεῖν τοῦ παρεληλυθότος χρόνου.
In the distribution of chapters as made by the editors, chapter
the eighth is made to begin at the second ἔδοξε, which seems to
me not convenient for comprehending the full sense. I think that
the second ἔδοξε, as well as the first, is connected with the
words παραινοῦντος Ξενοφῶντος, and ought to be included not only
in the same chapter with them, but also in the same sentence,
without an intervening full stop.
[232] Xen. Anab. v, 8, 3-12.
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