Latest / Anabasis / 028 - Bk 7 pt 6
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Book seven, Part six of Xenophons and Abasas. This is
- 0:04Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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- 0:13Speaker 1: Anabasis by Xenophon, translated by H. G. Dawkins, Book seven,
- 0:19Speaker 1: Part six, number seven. After this, Sothos removed his camp
- 0:24Speaker 1: to some considerable distance, and the Hellenes took up their
- 0:27Speaker 1: quarters in some villages, selecting those in which they could
- 0:30Speaker 1: best supply their commissariat on the road to the sea. Now,
- 0:35Speaker 1: these particular villages had been given by Cethos to Metisades. Accordingly,
- 0:40Speaker 1: when the latter saw his property in the villages being
- 0:42Speaker 1: expended by the Hellenes, he was not over well pleased,
- 0:46Speaker 1: and taking with him an Odrysian, a powerful person amongst
- 0:50Speaker 1: those who had come down from the interior, and about
- 0:52Speaker 1: thirty mounted troopers, he came and challenged Xenophon to come
- 0:56Speaker 1: forth from the Hellenic coast. He, taking some some of
- 1:00Speaker 1: the officers and others of a character to be relied upon,
- 1:03Speaker 1: came forward. Then Medosades, addressing Xenophon, said you are doing
- 1:08Speaker 1: wrong to pillage our villages. We give you fair warning
- 1:11Speaker 1: I in behalf of Suthos, and this man by my side,
- 1:15Speaker 1: who comes from Medacus, the king up country, to be
- 1:18Speaker 1: gone out of the land. If you refuse, understand we
- 1:21Speaker 1: have no notion of handing it over to you, but
- 1:24Speaker 1: if you injure our country, we will retaliate upon you
- 1:26Speaker 1: as foes. Xenophon, hearing what they had to say, replied,
- 1:31Speaker 1: such language addressed to us by you, of all people,
- 1:34Speaker 1: is hard to answer. Yet for the sake of the
- 1:36Speaker 1: young man with you, I will attempt to do so,
- 1:39Speaker 1: that at least he may learn how different your nature
- 1:41Speaker 1: is from ours. We, he continued, before we were your friends,
- 1:45Speaker 1: had the free run of this country, moving this way
- 1:48Speaker 1: or that as it took our fancy, pillaging and burning,
- 1:51Speaker 1: just as we chose. And you, yourself, Medosades, whenever you
- 1:55Speaker 1: came to us on an embassy, camped with us without
- 1:58Speaker 1: apprehension of any foe. As a tribe, collectively you scarcely
- 2:02Speaker 1: approached the country at all, or if you found yourselves
- 2:05Speaker 1: in it, you bivouacked with your horses, bidded and bridled,
- 2:09Speaker 1: as being in the territory of your superiors. Presently you
- 2:12Speaker 1: made friends with us, and thanks to us by God's help,
- 2:15Speaker 1: you have won this country out of which to day
- 2:18Speaker 1: you seek to drive us, a country which we held
- 2:20Speaker 1: by our own strength, and gave to you no hostile force,
- 2:24Speaker 1: as you well know, was capable of expelling us. It
- 2:27Speaker 1: might have been expected of you personally to speat us
- 2:30Speaker 1: on our way with some gift in return for the
- 2:32Speaker 1: good we did you. Not so, even though our backs
- 2:36Speaker 1: are turned to go, we are too slow in our
- 2:38Speaker 1: movements for you. You will not suffer us to take
- 2:40Speaker 1: up quarters, even if you can help it. And these
- 2:43Speaker 1: words arouse no shame in you, either before the gods
- 2:46Speaker 1: or this Odrysian and whose eyes to day you are
- 2:48Speaker 1: a man of means, though until you cultivated our friendship
- 2:52Speaker 1: you lived a robber's life, as you have told us. However,
- 2:55Speaker 1: why do you address yourself to me? I am no
- 2:58Speaker 1: longer in command. Our generals are the Lacedaemonians to whom
- 3:02Speaker 1: you and yours delivered the army for withdrawal, and that
- 3:05Speaker 1: without even inviting me to attend you most marvelous of men,
- 3:09Speaker 1: so that if I lost their favor when I brought
- 3:11Speaker 1: you the troops, I might now win their gratitude by
- 3:14Speaker 1: restoring them as soon as the Odrysian had heard this statement,
- 3:18Speaker 1: he exclaimed, for my part, Medosades, I sink under the
- 3:22Speaker 1: earth for very shame at what I hear. If I
- 3:24Speaker 1: had known the truth before, I would never have accompanied
- 3:27Speaker 1: you as it is I return at once. Never would
- 3:30Speaker 1: King Medacus applaud me if I drove forth his benefactors
- 3:34Speaker 1: with these words. He mounted his horse and rode away,
- 3:37Speaker 1: and with him the rest of his horsemen except four
- 3:39Speaker 1: or five. But Medosades, still vexed by the pillaging of
- 3:43Speaker 1: the country, urged Xenophon to summon the two Lacedaemonians, and he,
- 3:48Speaker 1: taking the pick of his men, came to Charminius and
- 3:51Speaker 1: Polynichus and informed him that they were summoned by Medosades.
- 3:55Speaker 1: Probably they, like himself, would be worn to leave the country.
- 3:59Speaker 1: If so, he added, you will be able to recover
- 4:01Speaker 1: the pay which is owing to the army. You can
- 4:03Speaker 1: say to them that the army has requested you to
- 4:06Speaker 1: assist in exacting their pay from Suthus, whether he like
- 4:09Speaker 1: it or not, that they have promised so soon as
- 4:11Speaker 1: they get this cheerfully to follow you, that the demand
- 4:15Speaker 1: seems to you to be only just, and that you
- 4:17Speaker 1: have accordingly promised not to leave until the soldiers have
- 4:20Speaker 1: got their dues. The Lacedaemonians accepted the suggestion. They would
- 4:25Speaker 1: apply these arguments and others the most forcibly they could
- 4:28Speaker 1: hit upon, and with the proper representatives of the army,
- 4:31Speaker 1: they immediately set off. On their arrival, Charminius spoke, if
- 4:37Speaker 1: you have anything to say to us, Medusades, say it,
- 4:39Speaker 1: But if not, we have something to say to you.
- 4:42Speaker 1: And Medosades submissively made answer. I say, said he, and
- 4:46Speaker 1: southos says the same. We think we have a right
- 4:49Speaker 1: to ask that those who have become our friends should
- 4:51Speaker 1: not be ill treated by you. Whatever ill you do
- 4:54Speaker 1: to them, you really do to us, for they are
- 4:56Speaker 1: a part of us, good, replied the Lacedaemonians. And we
- 5:00Speaker 1: intend to go away as soon as those who won
- 5:02Speaker 1: for you, the people and the territory in question, have
- 5:04Speaker 1: got their pay. Failing that, we are coming without further
- 5:07Speaker 1: delay to assist them and to punish certain others who
- 5:10Speaker 1: have broken their oaths and done them wrong. If it
- 5:13Speaker 1: should turn out that you come under this head, when
- 5:15Speaker 1: we come to exact justice, we shall begin with you.
- 5:19Speaker 1: Xenophon added, would you prefer Medosades to leave it to
- 5:22Speaker 1: these people themselves, in whose country we are your friends.
- 5:26Speaker 1: Since this is the designation, you prefer to decide by
- 5:29Speaker 1: ballot which of the two should leave the country you
- 5:32Speaker 1: or we to that proposal, he shook his head, but
- 5:35Speaker 1: he trusted the two Laconians might be induced to go
- 5:37Speaker 1: to Cethos about the pay, adding Sothos, I am sure
- 5:40Speaker 1: will lend a willing year. Or if they could not go,
- 5:44Speaker 1: then he prayed them to send Xenophon with himself, promising
- 5:47Speaker 1: to lend the latter all the aid in his power.
- 5:49Speaker 1: And finally he begged them not to burn the villages. Accordingly,
- 5:53Speaker 1: they sent Xenophon, and with him a serviceable staff. Being arrived,
- 5:57Speaker 1: he addressed Sothos, thus, doth this. I am here to
- 6:01Speaker 1: advance no claims, but to show you, if I can,
- 6:04Speaker 1: how unjust it was on your part to be angered
- 6:06Speaker 1: with me, because I zealously demanded of you on behalf
- 6:09Speaker 1: of the soldiers which you promised them. According to my belief,
- 6:13Speaker 1: it was no less to your interest to deliver it
- 6:15Speaker 1: up than it was to theirs to receive it. I
- 6:18Speaker 1: cannot forget that, next to the gods, it was they
- 6:21Speaker 1: who raised you up to a conspicuous eminence when they
- 6:24Speaker 1: made you king of large territory in many men, a
- 6:26Speaker 1: position in which you cannot escape notice whether you do
- 6:29Speaker 1: good or do evil. For a man so circumstanced, I
- 6:33Speaker 1: regarded it as a great thing that he should avoid
- 6:35Speaker 1: the suspicion, even of ungrateful parting with his benefactors. It
- 6:39Speaker 1: was a great thing I thought, that you should be
- 6:41Speaker 1: well spoken of by six thousand human beings. But the
- 6:44Speaker 1: greatest thing of all, that you should in no wise
- 6:47Speaker 1: disgredit the sincerity of your own word. For what of
- 6:50Speaker 1: the man who cannot be trusted? I see that the
- 6:53Speaker 1: words of his mouth are but vain words, powerless and unhonored.
- 6:57Speaker 1: But with him who is seen to regard truth, the
- 7:00Speaker 1: case is otherwise. He can achieve by his words what
- 7:04Speaker 1: another achieves by force. If he seeks to bring the
- 7:07Speaker 1: foolish to their senses, his very frown, I perceive, has
- 7:10Speaker 1: a more sobering effect than the chastisement inflicted by another.
- 7:14Speaker 1: Or in negotiations, the very promises of such an one
- 7:18Speaker 1: are of equal weight with the gifts of another. Try
- 7:21Speaker 1: and recall to mind, in your own case, what advance
- 7:24Speaker 1: of money you made to us to purchase our alliance.
- 7:27Speaker 1: You know you did not advance one penny. It was
- 7:30Speaker 1: simply confidence in the sincerity of your word which incited
- 7:33Speaker 1: all these men to assist you in your campaign, and
- 7:36Speaker 1: so to acquire for you an empire worth many times
- 7:39Speaker 1: more than thirty talents, which is all they now claim
- 7:42Speaker 1: to receive. Here, then, first of all goes the credit
- 7:45Speaker 1: which one for you your kingdom sold for so mean
- 7:47Speaker 1: a sum. Let me remind you of the great importance
- 7:51Speaker 1: which you then attached to the acquisition of your present conquests.
- 7:55Speaker 1: I am certain that to achieve what stands achieved to day,
- 7:58Speaker 1: you would willingly have forgone the game of fifty times
- 8:00Speaker 1: that paltry sum. To me, it seems that to lose
- 8:03Speaker 1: your present fortune were a more serious loss than never
- 8:06Speaker 1: to have won it, Since surely it is harder to
- 8:09Speaker 1: be poor after being so rich than never to have
- 8:11Speaker 1: tasted wealth at all, and more painful to sink to
- 8:14Speaker 1: the level of a subject being a king than never
- 8:17Speaker 1: to have worn a crown. You cannot forget that your
- 8:20Speaker 1: present vassals were not persuaded to become your subjects out
- 8:23Speaker 1: of love for you, but by sheer force, and but
- 8:26Speaker 1: for some restraining dread, they would endeavor to be free
- 8:28Speaker 1: again tomorrow? And how do you propose to stimulate their
- 8:32Speaker 1: sense of awe and keep them in good behavior towards you?
- 8:35Speaker 1: Shall they see our soldiers so disposed towards you that
- 8:38Speaker 1: a word on your part would suffice to keep them now,
- 8:41Speaker 1: or if necessary, would bring them back again tomorrow, While others,
- 8:45Speaker 1: hearing from us a hundred stories in your presence, hasten
- 8:47Speaker 1: to present themselves at your desire, or will you drive
- 8:51Speaker 1: them to conclude adversely, that through mistrust of what has
- 8:54Speaker 1: happened now, no second set of soldiers will come to
- 8:57Speaker 1: help you. For even these troops of ours are more
- 8:59Speaker 1: than friends than yours. And indeed it was not because
- 9:03Speaker 1: they fell short of us in numbers that they became
- 9:05Speaker 1: your subjects, but from the lack of proper leaders. There
- 9:08Speaker 1: is a danger therefore now lest they should choose as
- 9:11Speaker 1: their protectors some of us who regard ourselves as wronged
- 9:14Speaker 1: by you, or even better men than us, the Lacedaemonians themselves,
- 9:18Speaker 1: supposing our soldiers undertake to serve with more enthusiasm if
- 9:22Speaker 1: the debt you owe to them be first exacted and
- 9:25Speaker 1: the Lacedaemonians who need their services consent to this request.
- 9:29Speaker 1: It is plain at any rate that the Thracians now
- 9:32Speaker 1: prostrate at your feet would display far more enthusiasm in
- 9:35Speaker 1: attacking than in assisting you, for your mastery means their
- 9:38Speaker 1: slavery and your defeat their liberty. Again, the country is
- 9:42Speaker 1: now yours, and from this time forward you have to
- 9:45Speaker 1: make provision for what is yours, and how will you
- 9:48Speaker 1: best secure it an immunity from ill. Either these soldiers
- 9:52Speaker 1: receive their dues and go, leaving the legacy of peace behind,
- 9:55Speaker 1: or they stay and occupy an enemy's country, whilst you endeavor,
- 9:59Speaker 1: by ai of a still larger army to open a
- 10:02Speaker 1: new campaign and turn them out. And your new troops
- 10:04Speaker 1: will also need provisions or again which will be the
- 10:08Speaker 1: greater drain on your purse to pay off your present debt,
- 10:11Speaker 1: or with that still owing to bid for more troops
- 10:14Speaker 1: and of a better quality heraclets. As he used to
- 10:18Speaker 1: prove me finds the some excessive, But surely it is
- 10:21Speaker 1: a far less serious thing for you to take and
- 10:23Speaker 1: pay it back to day than it would have been
- 10:25Speaker 1: to pay the tithe of it before we came to you.
- 10:28Speaker 1: Since the limit between less and more is no fixed number,
- 10:31Speaker 1: but depends on the relative capacity of payer and recipient.
- 10:35Speaker 1: And your yearly income is now larger than the whole
- 10:37Speaker 1: property which you possessed in earlier days. Well southus For myself,
- 10:42Speaker 1: these remarks are the expression of a friendly forethought for
- 10:44Speaker 1: a friend. They are expressed in the double hope that
- 10:48Speaker 1: you may show yourself worthy of the good things which
- 10:50Speaker 1: the Gods have given you, and that my reputation may
- 10:52Speaker 1: not be ruined with the army. For I must assure
- 10:56Speaker 1: you that to day, if I wished to injure a foe,
- 10:58Speaker 1: I could not do so with this army. Nor again,
- 11:01Speaker 1: if I wished to come and help you, could I
- 11:03Speaker 1: be competent to the task. Such is the disposition of
- 11:06Speaker 1: the troops toward me. And yet I call you to witness,
- 11:10Speaker 1: along with the gods who knew that never have I
- 11:12Speaker 1: received anything from you on account of the soldiers. Never
- 11:16Speaker 1: to this day have I, to my private gain, asked
- 11:19Speaker 1: for what was theirs, nor even claimed the promises which
- 11:22Speaker 1: were made to myself. And I swear to you, not
- 11:24Speaker 1: even had you proposed to pay me my dues, would
- 11:27Speaker 1: I have accepted them unless the soldiers also had been
- 11:30Speaker 1: going to receive theirs too. How could I How shameful
- 11:34Speaker 1: it would have been in me to have so secured
- 11:36Speaker 1: my own interests whilst I disregarded the disastrous state of theirs,
- 11:40Speaker 1: I being so honored by them. Of course, to the
- 11:43Speaker 1: mind of heraclets, this is all silly talk, since the
- 11:46Speaker 1: one great object is to keep money by whatever means.
- 11:49Speaker 1: That is not my tenet sethis. I believe that no
- 11:53Speaker 1: fairer or brighter jewel can be given to a man,
- 11:55Speaker 1: and most of all a prince, than the threefold grace
- 11:58Speaker 1: of valor, justice, and generosity. He that possesses these is
- 12:02Speaker 1: rich in the multitude of friends which surround him, rich
- 12:05Speaker 1: also in the desire of others to be included in
- 12:07Speaker 1: their number. While he prospers, he is surrounded by those
- 12:11Speaker 1: who will rejoice with him in his joy, or if
- 12:14Speaker 1: misfortune overtake him, he has no lack of sympathizers to
- 12:17Speaker 1: give him help. However, if you have failed to learn
- 12:21Speaker 1: from my deeds that I was heart and soul your friend,
- 12:24Speaker 1: if my words are powerless to reveal the fact to day,
- 12:27Speaker 1: I would at least direct your attention to what the
- 12:29Speaker 1: soldiers said. You were standing by and heard what those
- 12:32Speaker 1: who sought to blame me said, they accused me to
- 12:35Speaker 1: the Lacedaemonians, And the point of their indictment was that
- 12:38Speaker 1: I set greater store by yourself than by the Lacedaemonians.
- 12:42Speaker 1: But as regards themselves, the charge was that I took
- 12:44Speaker 1: more pains to secure the success of your interest than
- 12:47Speaker 1: their own. They suggested that I had actually taken gifts
- 12:50Speaker 1: from you. Was it do you suppose because they detected
- 12:53Speaker 1: some ill will in me towards you, that they made
- 12:55Speaker 1: the allegation. Was it not rather that they had noticed
- 12:59Speaker 1: my abundant zeal on your behalf. All men believe, I
- 13:02Speaker 1: think that a fund of kindly feelings is due to
- 13:05Speaker 1: him from whom we accept gifts. But what is your behavior?
- 13:09Speaker 1: Before I had ministered to you in any way or
- 13:11Speaker 1: done you a single service? You welcomed me kindly with
- 13:14Speaker 1: your eyes, your voice, your hospitality, and you could not
- 13:18Speaker 1: sate yourself with promises of all the fine things that
- 13:20Speaker 1: were to follow. But having once achieved your object and
- 13:24Speaker 1: become the great man, you are now as great indeed
- 13:26Speaker 1: as I could make you. You can stand by and
- 13:29Speaker 1: see me degraded among my own soldiers. Well, time will
- 13:32Speaker 1: teach you that I fully believe to pay whatever seems
- 13:36Speaker 1: to you right. And even without the lessons of that teacher,
- 13:39Speaker 1: you will hardly care to see those who have spent
- 13:41Speaker 1: themselves in benefiting you become your accusers only when you
- 13:45Speaker 1: do pay your debt. I beg of you to use
- 13:47Speaker 1: your best endeavor to write me with the soldiers, leave
- 13:50Speaker 1: me at least where you found me, That is all
- 13:52Speaker 1: I asked. After listening to this appeal, Southos called down
- 13:56Speaker 1: curses on him whose fault it was that the debt
- 13:59Speaker 1: had not long long ago been paid, and if the
- 14:01Speaker 1: general suspicion was correct, this was heracles for myself, said Sythos.
- 14:06Speaker 1: For myself, said Soythus, I never had any idea of
- 14:09Speaker 1: robbing you of your just dues. I will repay, then,
- 14:13Speaker 1: Xenophon rejoined, since you are minded to pay, I only
- 14:17Speaker 1: ask that you will do so through me, and will
- 14:19Speaker 1: not suffer me on your account to hold a different
- 14:21Speaker 1: position in the army from what I held when we
- 14:23Speaker 1: joined you. He replied, as far as that goes, so
- 14:27Speaker 1: far from holding a less honored position among your own
- 14:30Speaker 1: men on my account, if you will stay with me,
- 14:32Speaker 1: keeping only a thousand heavy infantry. I will deliver to
- 14:36Speaker 1: you the fortified places and everything I promised. The other answered,
- 14:40Speaker 1: on these terms, I may not accept them. Only let
- 14:43Speaker 1: us go free. Nay, but I know, said Scythus, that
- 14:46Speaker 1: it is safer for you to bide with me than
- 14:48Speaker 1: to go away. Then, Xenophon, again for your forethought. I
- 14:52Speaker 1: thank you. But I may not stay somewhere. I may
- 14:55Speaker 1: rise to honor, and that be sure shall redound to
- 14:58Speaker 1: your gain. Also thereupon Soethus spoke of silver. I have
- 15:02Speaker 1: but little, that little, however, I give you one talent,
- 15:06Speaker 1: But abiviz, I can give you six hundred head, and
- 15:09Speaker 1: of sheep four thousand, and of slaves six score. These
- 15:13Speaker 1: take and the hostages besides who wronged you, and begone.
- 15:16Speaker 1: Xenophon laughed and said, but supposing these altogether do not
- 15:20Speaker 1: amount to the pay for whom is the talent? Shall
- 15:22Speaker 1: I say? It is a little dangerous for myself, is
- 15:25Speaker 1: it not? I think I had better be on the
- 15:28Speaker 1: lookout for stones. When I returned. You heard the threats.
- 15:32Speaker 1: So for the moment he stayed there. But the next
- 15:34Speaker 1: day Soythus gave up to them what he had promised,
- 15:37Speaker 1: and sent an escort to drive the cattle. The soldiers
- 15:40Speaker 1: at first maintained that Xenophon had gone up to take
- 15:42Speaker 1: his abode with Cethus and to receive what he had
- 15:45Speaker 1: been promised. So when they saw him they were pleased
- 15:48Speaker 1: and ran to meet him. And Xenophon, seeing Charmenis and Pollinichus, said,
- 15:53Speaker 1: thanks to your intervention, this much has been saved for
- 15:56Speaker 1: the army. My duty is to deliver this fraction over
- 15:59Speaker 1: to your keeping. Do you divide and distribute it to
- 16:02Speaker 1: the soldiers. Accordingly, they took the property and appointed official
- 16:06Speaker 1: vendors of the booty, and in the end incurred considerable blame.
- 16:10Speaker 1: Xenophon held aloof In fact, it was no secret that
- 16:13Speaker 1: he was making his preparations to return home, for as
- 16:17Speaker 1: yet the vote of banishment had not been passed at Athens.
- 16:20Speaker 1: But the authorities in the camp came to him and
- 16:22Speaker 1: begged him not to go away until he had conducted
- 16:25Speaker 1: the army to its destination and handed it over at
- 16:28Speaker 1: Thibron number eight. From this place they sailed across to Lampsacus,
- 16:33Speaker 1: and here Xenophon was met by Euclides, the soothsayer of Felician,
- 16:38Speaker 1: the son of Cleagorus, who painted the dreams in the Lyceum,
- 16:42Speaker 1: Euclides congratulated Xenophon upon his safe return and asked him
- 16:47Speaker 1: how much gold he had got, and Xenophon had to confess,
- 16:51Speaker 1: upon my word, I shall barely have enough to get
- 16:53Speaker 1: home unless I sell my horse and what I have
- 16:55Speaker 1: got about my person. The other could not credit the statement. Now,
- 17:00Speaker 1: when the lamp Siscenes sent gifts of hospitality to Xenophon,
- 17:04Speaker 1: and he was sacrificing to Apollo, he requested the presence
- 17:07Speaker 1: of Euclides, and the latter, seeing the victims, said, now,
- 17:12Speaker 1: I believe what you said about having no money, but
- 17:14Speaker 1: I am certain, he continued, if it were ever to come,
- 17:17Speaker 1: there is an obstacle in the way. If nothing else,
- 17:20Speaker 1: you are that obstacle yourself. Xenophon admitted the force of
- 17:24Speaker 1: that remark. Then the other, Zeus Melichios, is an obstacle
- 17:28Speaker 1: to you, I am sure, adding in another tone of voice.
- 17:31Speaker 1: Have you tried sacrificing to that god as I was
- 17:34Speaker 1: wont to sacrifice and offer whole burnt offerings for you
- 17:36Speaker 1: at home? Xenophon replied that since he had been abroad,
- 17:40Speaker 1: he had not sacrificed to that god. Accordingly, Euclides counseled
- 17:45Speaker 1: him to sacrifice in the old customary way. He was
- 17:48Speaker 1: sure that his fortune would improve. The next day, Xenophon
- 17:52Speaker 1: went on to Orphinium and sacrificed, offering a holocaust of
- 17:55Speaker 1: swine after the custom of his family, and the signs
- 17:59Speaker 1: which he obtained were fait. That very day Baian and
- 18:02Speaker 1: Nascliades arrived, laden with gifts for the army. These two
- 18:06Speaker 1: were hospitably entertained by Xenophon, and were kind enough to
- 18:10Speaker 1: repurchase the horse he had sold in Lampsacus for fifty derecks.
- 18:13Speaker 1: Suspecting that he had parted with it out of need,
- 18:16Speaker 1: and hearing that he was fond of the beast, they
- 18:18Speaker 1: restored it to him, refusing to be remunerated. From that place,
- 18:22Speaker 1: they marched through the troad and crossing Mount Ida, arrived
- 18:26Speaker 1: at Antendras, and then pushed along the sea board of
- 18:29Speaker 1: Mysia to the plain of thebe thence they made their
- 18:32Speaker 1: way through Adramytium and Certonus, by Artinius, coming into the
- 18:37Speaker 1: plain of the Caicus, and so reached Pergamus and Misia.
- 18:41Speaker 1: Here Xenophon was hospitably entertained at the house of Hellas
- 18:45Speaker 1: the wife of Gongylis the Eritrean, the mother of Gorgian
- 18:49Speaker 1: and Goungilis. From her he learned that Asidates, a Persian notable,
- 18:54Speaker 1: was in the plain. If you take thirty men and
- 18:57Speaker 1: go by night, you will take him prisoner. She said, life, children, money,
- 19:01Speaker 1: and all of money he has a store, and to
- 19:04Speaker 1: show them the way to these treasures, she sent her
- 19:06Speaker 1: own cousin and Daphnagorus, whom she set great store by
- 19:10Speaker 1: so then Xenophon, with these two to assist, did sacrifice,
- 19:14Speaker 1: and Bassius and Elion, the soothsayer in attendants, said that
- 19:18Speaker 1: the victims were as promising as could be, and the
- 19:20Speaker 1: great man would be an easy prey. Accordingly, after dinner
- 19:24Speaker 1: he set off, taking with him the officers who had
- 19:27Speaker 1: been his staunchest friends and confidants throughout, as he wished
- 19:30Speaker 1: to do them a good turn. A number of others came,
- 19:33Speaker 1: thrusting themselves on their company, to the number of six hundred,
- 19:37Speaker 1: but the officers repelled them. They had no notion of
- 19:40Speaker 1: sharing their portion of the spoil, they said, just as
- 19:42Speaker 1: though the property lay already at their feet. About midnight
- 19:46Speaker 1: they arrived the slaves occupying the precincts of the tower,
- 19:50Speaker 1: with the mass of goods and chattels slipped through their fingers,
- 19:53Speaker 1: their sole anxiety being to capture Asidates and his belongings,
- 19:57Speaker 1: so they brought their batteries to bear, but failing to
- 20:00Speaker 1: take the tower by assault. Since it was high and
- 20:03Speaker 1: solid and well supplied with ramparts, besides having a large
- 20:06Speaker 1: body of warlike defenders, they endeavored to undermine it. The
- 20:10Speaker 1: wall was eight clay bricks thick, but by daybreak the
- 20:13Speaker 1: passage was effected in the wall undermined. At the first
- 20:17Speaker 1: gleam of light through the aperture, one of the defendants
- 20:19Speaker 1: inside with a large ox spit smote right through the
- 20:22Speaker 1: thigh of the man nearest the hull, and the rest
- 20:25Speaker 1: discharged their arrows so hotly that it was dangerous to
- 20:27Speaker 1: come anywhere near the passage, and what with their shouting
- 20:30Speaker 1: and kindling of beacon fires, a relief party at length arrived,
- 20:34Speaker 1: consisting of Etibelius at the head of his force, and
- 20:38Speaker 1: a body of a Syrian heavy infantry from Comania and
- 20:41Speaker 1: some Hyrcanian cavalry, the latter also being mercenaries of the king.
- 20:46Speaker 1: There were eighty of them, and another detachment of light troops,
- 20:49Speaker 1: about eight hundred and more from Parthenium, and more again
- 20:53Speaker 1: from Apollonia and the neighboring places, also cavalry. It was
- 20:58Speaker 1: now time to consider how they were to beat a retree. So,
- 21:01Speaker 1: seizing all the cattle and sheep to be had with
- 21:03Speaker 1: the slaves, they put them within a hollow square, and
- 21:06Speaker 1: proceeded to drive them off, Not that they had a
- 21:08Speaker 1: thought to give to the spoils now, but for precaution's sake,
- 21:12Speaker 1: and for fear lest if they left the goods and
- 21:14Speaker 1: chattels behind and made off, the retreat would rapidly degenerate
- 21:18Speaker 1: into a stampede, the enemy growing bolder as the troops
- 21:21Speaker 1: lost heart for the present. Then they retired, as if
- 21:24Speaker 1: they meant to do battle for the spoils. As soon
- 21:27Speaker 1: as Goungilis espied how few the Hellenes were and how
- 21:29Speaker 1: large the attacking party out, he came himself, in spite
- 21:33Speaker 1: of his mother, with his private force, wishing to share
- 21:36Speaker 1: in the action. Another too, joined in the rescue procles
- 21:40Speaker 1: from Halisarna and Tuthrenia, a descendant of Demeratus. By this time,
- 21:45Speaker 1: Xenophon and his men were being sore pressed by the
- 21:48Speaker 1: arows and slingstones, though they marched in a curve as
- 21:51Speaker 1: to keep their shields facing the missiles, and even so
- 21:54Speaker 1: barely crossed the river Carcassus. Nearly half of them wounded.
- 21:59Speaker 1: Here it was that agay Pius the Stamphylian, the captain,
- 22:02Speaker 1: received his wound while keeping up a steady and flagging
- 22:05Speaker 1: fight against the enemy from beginning to end. And so
- 22:08Speaker 1: they reached home in safety, with about two hundred captives
- 22:11Speaker 1: and sheep enough for sacrifices. The next day, Xenophon sacrificed
- 22:16Speaker 1: and led out the whole army under the cover of night,
- 22:18Speaker 1: intending to pierce far into the heart of Lydia, with
- 22:21Speaker 1: a view to lulling to sleep the enemy's alarm at
- 22:23Speaker 1: his proximity, and so in fact to put him off
- 22:26Speaker 1: his guard. But asidates, hearing that Xenophon had again sacrificed
- 22:30Speaker 1: with the intention of another attack and was approaching with
- 22:33Speaker 1: his whole army, left his tower and took up quarters
- 22:36Speaker 1: in some villages lying under the town of Parthenium. Here
- 22:39Speaker 1: Xenophon's party fell in with him and took him prisoner,
- 22:42Speaker 1: with his wife, his children, his horses, and all that
- 22:45Speaker 1: he had, and so the promise of the earlier victims
- 22:48Speaker 1: was literally fulfilled. After that they returned again to Pergamus,
- 22:53Speaker 1: and here Xenophon might well thank God with a warm
- 22:55Speaker 1: heart for the Laconians, the officers, the other generals, and
- 22:59Speaker 1: the soul as a body united to give him the
- 23:02Speaker 1: pick of horses and cattle teams and the rest, so
- 23:05Speaker 1: that he was now in a position himself to do
- 23:07Speaker 1: another a good turn. Meanwhile, Fabrin arrived and received the troops,
- 23:12Speaker 1: which he incorporated with the rest of his Salonic forces,
- 23:15Speaker 1: and so proceeded to prosecute a war against his Aphernes
- 23:18Speaker 1: and Farnabasis. End of Boot seven, End of Xenophons and Abases,
- 23:24Speaker 1: translated by H. G. Dawkins