The First Four Books of Xenophon's AnabasisXenophon
History
The First Four Books of Xenophon's Anabasis
Xenophon
Cyrus, the Younger, approximately 423 B.C.-401 B.C.; Iran -- History -- To 640
[Footnote 33: Καπηλεῖα.] Καπηλεῖον is often used in the sense of _a
tavern_; sometimes in a more general sense, as _any kind of shop_. We
may suppose that all those remained behind who had anything to sell,
with the hope of getting profit.]
CHAPTER III.
Cyrus is forced to stay twenty days at Tarsus by a mutiny of the
Greek soldiers, who, suspecting that they were led against the
king, refuse to go farther, and offer violence to Clearchus, who
endeavours to force them to proceed. But being told by Cyrus that
the expedition is directed against Abrocomas, and promised an
increase of pay, they agree to continue their march.
1. Here Cyrus and the army remained twenty days; for the soldiers
refused to proceed farther, as they now began to suspect that they were
marching against the king, and said that they had not been hired for
this purpose. Clearchus, first of all, endeavoured to compel his
soldiers to proceed; but, as soon as he began to advance, they pelted
him and his baggage-cattle with stones. 2. Clearchus, indeed, on this
occasion, had a narrow escape of being stoned to death. At length, when
he saw that he should not be able to proceed by force, he called a
meeting of his soldiers; and at first, standing before them, he
continued for some time to shed tears, while they, looking on, were
struck with wonder, and remained silent. He then addressed them to this
effect:
3. "Wonder not, soldiers, that I feel distressed at the present
occurrences; for Cyrus engaged himself to me by ties of hospitality, and
honoured me, when I was an exile from my country, both with other marks
of esteem, and by presenting me with ten thousand darics. On receiving
this money, I did not treasure it up for my own use, or squander it in
luxury, but spent it upon you. 4. First of all, I made war upon the
Thracians, and, in the cause of Greece, and with your assistance, took
vengeance upon them by expelling them from the Chersonesus, when they
would have taken the country from its Grecian colonists. When Cyrus
summoned me, I set out to join him, taking you with me, that if he had
need of my aid, I might do him service in return for the benefits that I
had received from him. 5. But since you are unwilling to accompany him
on this expedition, I am under the obligation, either, by deserting you,
to preserve the friendship of Cyrus, or, by proving false to him, to
adhere to you. Whether I shall do right, I do not know; but I shall give
you the preference, and will undergo with you whatever may be necessary.
Nor shall any one ever say, that, after leading Greeks into a country of
Barbarians, I deserted the Greeks, and adopted, in preference, the
friendship of the Barbarians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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