25. Those whom he saw given to perjury and injustice, he feared as men well armed; but sought to practise on those who were pious and observant of truth, as imbeciles. 26. As another might take a pride in religion, and truth, and justice, so Menon took a pride in being able to deceive, in devising falsehoods, in sneering at friends; and thought the man who was guileless was to be regarded as deficient in knowledge of the world. He believed that he must conciliate those, in whose friendship he wished to stand first, by calumniating such as already held the chief place in their favour. 27. The soldiers he tried to render obedient to him by being an accomplice in their dishonesty. He expected to be honoured and courted, by showing that he had the power and the will to inflict the greatest injuries. When any one deserted him, he spoke of it as a favour on his own part that, while he made use of his services, he did not work his destruction. 28. As to such parts of his history as are little known, I might, if I were to speak of them, say something untrue of him; but those which every one knows, are these. While yet in the prime of youth he obtained, at the hands of Aristippus, the command of his corps of mercenaries. He was also, in his prime, most intimate with Ariæus, though a Barbarian, as Ariæus delighted in beautiful youths. He himself, too, while yet a beardless youth, made a favourite of Tharypas, who had arrived at manhood. 29. When his fellow-officers were put to death, because they had served with Cyrus against the king, he, though he had done the same, was not put to death with them; but after the death of the other generals, he died under a punishment inflicted by the king, not like Clearchus and the other commanders, who were beheaded (which appears to be the speediest kind of death); but after living a year in torture, like a malefactor, he is said at length to have met his end. 30. Agias the Arcadian and Socrates the Achæan were also put to death. These no one ever derided as wanting courage in battle, or blamed for their conduct towards their friends. They were both about five and thirty years of age. [Footnote 115: Τῶν δὲ συνόντων, κ. τ. λ.] By a species of attraction for τοῖς δὲ συνοῦσι πᾶσιν, ὡς καταγελῶν αὐτῶν, ἀεὶ διελέγετο. _Kühner_.] BOOK III. CHAPTER I. Dejection of the Greeks. How Xenophon was led to join in Cyrus's expedition. His dream, and reflections. He rouses the captains of the division that Proxenus had commanded, and exhorts them to take measures for their safety. Apollonides deprived of his captaincy. A general meeting of the surviving generals and captains, at which Xenophon persuades them to choose new commanders in the room of those that they had lost. Xenophon is one of those elected.