Here Xenophon built a temple to Artemis, and planted around it a grove of many kinds of fruit-trees; and in the temple he placed an altar, and an image of the goddess. The temple was like the temple at Ephesus, only far smaller, and the image was like the image at Ephesus, but instead of being made of gold, it was of cypress-wood. Lastly he set up a column near the temple, and on it this inscription:--‘This place is sacred to Artemis. He who lives here and enjoys the fruits of the ground must every year offer the tenth part of the produce to the goddess, and out of the residue keep the temple in repair. Should he neglect this duty, the goddess will remember it against him.’ [Illustration: ARTEMIS.] The first guardian of the temple was Xenophon himself. In this beautiful place he settled down on retiring from the cares of public life, and here he spent many happy years with his wife and two brave sons, living to the age of ninety. Every year he made a feast in the name of the goddess, and invited to it all the people of the neighbourhood. Booths were erected for the reception of the guests, and they were feasted on the produce of the sacred ground,--on barley and wheaten bread, flesh of the flocks and herds, game caught in the chase by Xenophon and his sons, wines and sweetmeats. In his old age Xenophon had the grief of losing one of his dearly loved sons, who fell in battle. The news was brought to him as he was standing, crowned with a garland, before the image of the goddess, about to offer a sacrifice. On hearing it he put off the garland, the emblem of joy and gladness; but when he was told his son had fallen in fair fight, after a brave resistance, he put on the garland again, and ended the sacrifice, saying, ‘I knew that my child was mortal.’ It was no doubt in this pleasant retreat that Xenophon composed the writings that have been handed down to us as a record of the events which he saw with his own eyes, and in which he took an honourable and distinguished part. Among them all there are no more graphic or more interesting pages than those which describe the doings and sufferings of the brave Ten Thousand.[16] [16] For further particulars of the life of Xenophon, see the detailed study prefixed by Mr. Dakyns to his translation of the works of Xenophon. PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON Transcriber’s Notes Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed. Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.