Transcript

020 - Bk 6 pt 1 · Anabasis

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Speaker 1: Book six, Part one of Xenophon's Anabasas. This is a
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Speaker 1: Recording by BG Oxford. Anabasis by Xenophon, translated by H. G. Dawkins,
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Speaker 1: Book six, Part one, number one. After this, whilst waiting,
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Speaker 1: they lived partly on supplies from the market, partly on
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Speaker 1: the fruit of raids into Paphylagonia. The Paphlagonians, on their side,
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Speaker 1: showed much skill in kidnapping stragglers wherever they could lay
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Speaker 1: hands on them, and in the night time tried to
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Speaker 1: do mischief to those whose quarters were at a distance
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Speaker 1: from the camp. The result was that their relations to
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Speaker 1: one another were exceedingly hostile, so much so that Corrilas,
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Speaker 1: who was the chief of Papholagonia at that date, sent
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Speaker 1: ambassadors to the helens bearing horses and fine apparel, and
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Speaker 1: charged with a proposal on the part of Corelas to
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Speaker 1: make terms with the Helens on the principle of mutual
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Speaker 1: forbearance from injuries. The generals replied that they would consult
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Speaker 1: with the army about the matter Meanwhile, they gave them
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Speaker 1: a hospitable reception, to which they invited certain members of
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Speaker 1: the army whose claims were obvious. They sacrificed some of
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Speaker 1: the captive cattle and other sacrificial beasts, and with these
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Speaker 1: they furnished forth a sufficiently festal entertainment, and, reclining on
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Speaker 1: their truckle beds, fell to eating and drinking out of
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Speaker 1: beakers made of horn, which they happened to find in
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Speaker 1: the country. But as soon as the libation was ended
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Speaker 1: and they had sung the hymn, up got first some Thracians,
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Speaker 1: who performed a dance under arms to the sound of
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Speaker 1: a pipe, leaping high into the air with much nimbleness
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Speaker 1: and brandishing their swords, till at last one man struck
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Speaker 1: his fellow, and everyone thought he was really wounded. So
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Speaker 1: skillfully and artistically did he fall, and the Paphylogonians screamed
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Speaker 1: out than he that gave the blow, stripped the other
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Speaker 1: of his arms and marched off, chanting the sitalcas, whilst
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Speaker 1: others of the Thracians bore off the other, who lay
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Speaker 1: as if dead, though he had not received even a scratch.
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Speaker 1: After this, some Onianians and Magnesians got up and fell
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Speaker 1: to dancing the carpea, as it is called under arms.
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Speaker 1: This was the manner of the dance. One man lays
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Speaker 1: aside his arms and proceeds to drive a yoke of oxen,
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Speaker 1: and while he drives, he sows, turning about him frequently
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Speaker 1: as though he were afraid of something. Up comes a
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Speaker 1: cattle lifter, and no sooner does the plowman catch sight
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Speaker 1: of him, afar than he snatches up his arms and
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Speaker 1: confronts him. They fight in front of his teeth, and
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Speaker 1: all in rhythm to the sound of the pipe. At
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Speaker 1: last the robber binds the countryman and drives off the team.
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Speaker 1: Or sometimes the cattle driver binds the robber, and then
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Speaker 1: he puts him under the yoke beside the oxen, with
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Speaker 1: his two hands tied behind his back, and off he drives.
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Speaker 1: After this, a mician came in with a light shield
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Speaker 1: in either hand, and danced, at one time going through
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Speaker 1: a pantomime as if he were dealing with two assailants
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Speaker 1: at once, at another, plying his shields as if to
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Speaker 1: face a single foe. And then again he would whirl
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Speaker 1: about and throw somersaults, keeping the shields in his hands,
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Speaker 1: so that it was a beautiful spectacle. Last of all,
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Speaker 1: he danced the Persian dance, clashing the shields together, crouching
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Speaker 1: down on one knee, and springing up again from the earth.
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Speaker 1: And all this he did in measured time to the
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Speaker 1: sound of the flute. After him, the Mantineans stepped upon
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Speaker 1: the stage, and some other Arcadians all also stood up.
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Speaker 1: They had accoutered themselves in all their warlike finery. They
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Speaker 1: marched with measured tread pipes playing to the tune of
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Speaker 1: the warrior march. The notes of the peon rose lightly,
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Speaker 1: their limbs moved in dance as in solemn procession to
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Speaker 1: the holy gods. The Paphylagonians looked upon it as something
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Speaker 1: truly strange that all these dances should be under arms,
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Speaker 1: and the Micians, seeing their astonishment, persuaded one of the
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Speaker 1: Arcadians who had got a dancing girl to let him
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Speaker 1: introduce her, which he did, after dressing her up magnificently
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Speaker 1: and giving her a light shield. When lithe of limb,
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Speaker 1: she danced the pyrrhic loud clapping followed, and the Paphylagonians
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Speaker 1: asked if these women fought by their side in the battle,
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Speaker 1: to which they answered, to be sure, it was the
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Speaker 1: women who routed the great king and drove him out
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Speaker 1: of camp. So ended the night. But next day the
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Speaker 1: generals introduced the embassy to the arms, and the soldiers
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Speaker 1: passed a resolution in the sense proposed between themselves and
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Speaker 1: the Paphylogonians there was to be a mutual abstinence from injuries.
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Speaker 1: After this, the ambassadors went on their way, and the Helens,
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Speaker 1: as soon as it was thought that sufficient vessels had arrived,
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Speaker 1: went on board ship and voyaged a day and a
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Speaker 1: night with a fair breeze, keeping Paphylogonia on their left,
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Speaker 1: and on the following day, arriving at Synop, they came
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Speaker 1: to moorings in the harbor of Harmene near Sinnop. The Sinopians,
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Speaker 1: though inhabitants of Paphylagonia, are really colonists of the Milesians.
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Speaker 1: They sent gifts of hospitality to the Helens, three thousand
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Speaker 1: measures of barley with fifteen hundred jars of wine. At
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Speaker 1: this place Chirisophus rejoined them with a man of war.
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Speaker 1: The soldiers certainly expected that, having come, he would have
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Speaker 1: brought them something, but he brought them nothing except scept
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Speaker 1: complimentary phrases on the part of Anassebius, the High Admiral,
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Speaker 1: and the rest who sent them their congratulations, coupled with
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Speaker 1: a promise on the part of Anassebius that as soon
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Speaker 1: as they were outside the Usine pay would be forthcoming.
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Speaker 1: At harmony, the army halted five days, and now that
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Speaker 1: they seemed to be so close to hellas the question
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Speaker 1: how they were to reach home not empty handed, presented
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Speaker 1: itself more forcibly to their minds than Heretofore, the conclusion
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Speaker 1: they came to was to appoint a single general, since
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Speaker 1: one man would be better able to handle the troops
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Speaker 1: by night or by day than was possible while the
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Speaker 1: general ship was divided. If secrecy were desirable, it would
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Speaker 1: be easier to keep matters dark, or if again expedition
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Speaker 1: were an object, there would be less risk of arriving
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Speaker 1: a day too late, since mutual explanations would be avoided,
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Speaker 1: and whatever approved itself to the single judgment would at
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Speaker 1: once be carried into effect, whereas previously the generals had
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Speaker 1: done everything in obedience to the opinion of the majority.
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Speaker 1: With these ideas working in their minds, they turned to
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Speaker 1: Xenophon and the officers came to him and told him
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Speaker 1: that this was how the soldiers viewed matters, and each
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Speaker 1: of them, displaying a warmth of kindly feeling, pressed him
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Speaker 1: to accept the office. Xenophon partly would have liked to
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Speaker 1: do so, in the belief that by so doing he
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Speaker 1: would win to himself a higher repute in the esteem
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Speaker 1: of his friends, and that his name would be reported
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Speaker 1: to the city written large, and by some stroke of fortune,
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Speaker 1: he might even be the discoverer of some blessings to
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Speaker 1: the army. Collectively, these and the like considerations elated him.
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Speaker 1: He had a strong desire to hold the supreme command.
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Speaker 1: But then again, as he turned the matter over, the
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Speaker 1: conviction deepened in his mind that the issue of the
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Speaker 1: future is to every man uncertain, and hence there was
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Speaker 1: a risk of perhaps losing such reputation as he had
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Speaker 1: already acquired. He was in sore straits, and not knowing
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Speaker 1: how to decide, it seemed best to him to lay
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Speaker 1: the matter before Heaven. Accordingly, he led two victims to
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Speaker 1: the altar and made sacrifice to Zeus the King, for
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Speaker 1: it was he and no other who had been named
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Speaker 1: by the oracle at Delphi, and his belief was that
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Speaker 1: the vision which he had beheld when he first essayed
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Speaker 1: to undertake the joint administration of the army, was sent
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Speaker 1: to him by that God. He also recalled to mind
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Speaker 1: a circumstance which befell him still earlier, when setting out
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Speaker 1: from Ephesus to associate himself with Cyrus. How an eagle
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Speaker 1: screamed on his right hand from the east, and still
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Speaker 1: remained perched, And the soothsayer who was escorting him said
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Speaker 1: that it was a great and royal omen, indicating glory
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Speaker 1: and yet suffering, for the punier race of birds only
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Speaker 1: attack the eagle when seated. Yet he added, it bodes
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Speaker 1: not gain in money, for the eagle seizes his food
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Speaker 1: not when seated, but on the wing. Thus Xenophon sacrificed,
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Speaker 1: and the god, as plainly as might be, gave him
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Speaker 1: a sign neither to demand the generalship, nor if chosen
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Speaker 1: to accept the office. And that was how the matter
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Speaker 1: stood when the army met, and the proposal to elect
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Speaker 1: a single leader was unanimous. After this resolution was passed,
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Speaker 1: they proposed Xenophon for election, and when it seemed quite
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Speaker 1: evident that they would elect him, if he put the
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Speaker 1: question to the vote, He got up and spoke as follows, Sirs,
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Speaker 1: I am but mortal and must needs be happy to
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Speaker 1: be honored by you. I thank you and am grateful,
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Speaker 1: and my prayer is that the Gods may grant me
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Speaker 1: to be an instant of blessing to you. Still when
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Speaker 1: I consider it closer, Thus, in the presence of a
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Speaker 1: Lacedaemonian to be preferred by you as general seems to
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Speaker 1: me but ill conducive either to your interests or to mine,
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Speaker 1: since you will the less readily obtain from them hereafter
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Speaker 1: anything you may need. While for myself I look upon
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Speaker 1: acceptance as even somewhat dangerous. I do not see and
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Speaker 1: know with what persistence these Lacedaemonians prosecuted the war till
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Speaker 1: finally they forced our state to acknowledge the leadership of
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Speaker 1: lacedaemon This confession, once extorted from their antagonists, they ceased
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Speaker 1: warring at once, and the siege of the city was
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Speaker 1: at an end. If with these facts before my eyes,
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Speaker 1: I seem to be doing all I can to neutralize
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Speaker 1: their high self esteem, I cannot escape the reflection that
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Speaker 1: personally I may be taught wisdom by a painful process,
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Speaker 1: but with your own idea that under a siege general
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Speaker 1: there will be less factiousness than when there were many
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Speaker 1: be assured that in choosing some other than me, you
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Speaker 1: will not find me factious. I hold that whosoever sets
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Speaker 1: up factious opposition to his leader factiously opposes his own safety.
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Speaker 1: While if you determined to choose me, I should not
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Speaker 1: be surprised were that choice to entail upon you and
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Speaker 1: me the resentment of other people. After those remarks on
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Speaker 1: Xenophon's part, many more got up, one after another, insisting
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Speaker 1: on the propriety of his undertaking the command. One of them,
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Speaker 1: Agasias the Stimphalion, said, it was really ridiculous if things
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Speaker 1: had come to this pass, that the Lacedaemonians are to
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Speaker 1: fly into a rage because a number of friends have
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Speaker 1: met together to dinner and omitted to choose a Lacedaemonian
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Speaker 1: to sit at the head of the table. Really, if
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Speaker 1: that is how matters stand, said he, I do not
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Speaker 1: see what right we have to be officers, even we
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Speaker 1: who are only Arcadians. That sally brought down the plaudits
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Speaker 1: of the assembly, and Xenophon, seeing that something more was needed,
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Speaker 1: stepped forward again and spoke, pardon, sirs, he said, let
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Speaker 1: me make a clean breast of it. I swear to
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Speaker 1: you by all the gods and goddesses verily, and indeed
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Speaker 1: I no sooner perceived your purpose than I consulted the
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Speaker 1: victims whether it was better for you to entrust this
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Speaker 1: leadership to me and for me to undertake it, or
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Speaker 1: the reverse. And the gods vouchsafed assigned to me so
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Speaker 1: plain that even a common man might understand it and
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Speaker 1: perceive that from such sovereignty I must needs hold myself
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Speaker 1: aloof under these circumstances. They chose Chirisiphus, who, after his
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Speaker 1: election stepped forward and said, nay, sirs, be well assured
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Speaker 1: of this, that had you chosen some one else, I,
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Speaker 1: for my part, should not have set up factious opposition.
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Speaker 1: As to Xenophon, I believe you have done him a
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Speaker 1: good turn by not appointing him, for even now Decippus
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Speaker 1: has gone some way introducing him to Anassebius, as far
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Speaker 1: as it lay in his power to do so, and
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Speaker 1: that in spite of my attempts to silence him. What
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Speaker 1: he said was that he believed Xenophon would rather share
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Speaker 1: the command of Cleircus's army with timasion A Dardanian than
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Speaker 1: with himself a Laconian, but continued, chirisifus, since your choice
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Speaker 1: has fallen upon me, I will make at my endeavor
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Speaker 1: to do you all the good in my power. So
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Speaker 1: make your preparations to weigh Anchor tomorrow whend and weather permitting,
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Speaker 1: we will voyage to Heraclea. Everyone must endeavor therefore to
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Speaker 1: put in at that port, and for the rest we
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Speaker 1: will consult when we are come thither Number two. The
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Speaker 1: next day they weighed anchor and set sail from Harmone
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Speaker 1: with a fair breeze. Two days voyage along the coast.
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Speaker 1: As they coasted along, they came in sight of Jason's Beach,
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Speaker 1: where as the story says, the ship Argo came to
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Speaker 1: moorings and then the mouth of the rivers, first the Termondon,
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Speaker 1: then the Eris, then the Hallis, and next to it
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Speaker 1: the Parthenius. Coasting passed the latter, they reached Heraclea, a
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Speaker 1: Hellenic city and a colony of the Megarians situated in
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Speaker 1: the territory of the Mariandians. So they came to Anchorage
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Speaker 1: off the Acherusian Kerosones, where Heracles is said to have
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Speaker 1: descended to bring up the dog Cerberus at a point
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Speaker 1: where they still show the marks of his descent, a
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Speaker 1: deep cleft more than two furlongs down here. The Heracleots
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Speaker 1: sent the Hellens as gifts of hospitality, three thousand measures
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Speaker 1: of barley and two thousand jars of wine, twenty beeves,
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Speaker 1: and one hundred sheep. Through the flat country there flows
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Speaker 1: the Lycus River, as it is called, about two hundred
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Speaker 1: feet in breadth. The soldiers held a meeting and took
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Speaker 1: council about the remainder of the journey, should they make
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Speaker 1: their exit from the Pontus by sea or by land?
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Speaker 1: And like on. The Achaean got up and said, I
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Speaker 1: am astonished, Sirs, that the generals do not endeavor to
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Speaker 1: provide us more efficiently with provisions. These gifts of hospitality
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Speaker 1: will not afford three days of victuals for the army.
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Speaker 1: Nor do I see from what region we are to
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Speaker 1: provide ourselves as we march. My proposal, therefore, is to
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Speaker 1: demand of the Heracliots at least three thousand sizisennis. Another
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Speaker 1: speaker suggested not less than ten thousand. Let us at
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Speaker 1: once before we break up this meeting, send down ambassadors
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Speaker 1: to the city and ascertain their answer to the demand
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Speaker 1: and take council accordingly. Thereupon they proceeded to put up
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Speaker 1: as ambassadors, first and foremost Chirisophus, as he had been
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Speaker 1: chosen general in chief, others also named Xenophon. But both
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Speaker 1: Chirisofus and Xenophon stoutly declined, maintaining both alike that they
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Speaker 1: could not compel a Hellenic city actually friendly to give
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Speaker 1: anything which they did not spontaneously offer. So, since these
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Speaker 1: two appeared to be backward, the soldiers sent Laikan the Achaean,
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Speaker 1: Kalemachus the Parhasian, and Agasias the Stymphalion. These three went
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Speaker 1: and denounced the resolutions passed by the army. Laikon, it
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Speaker 1: was said, even went so far as to threaten certain
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Speaker 1: consequences in case they refused to comply. The heracliots said
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Speaker 1: they would deliberate, and without more ado, they got together
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Speaker 1: their goods and chattels from their farms and fields outside,
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Speaker 1: and dismantled the market outside and transferred it within, after
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Speaker 1: which the gates were closed and arms appeared at the
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Speaker 1: battlements of the walls. At that check, the authors of
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Speaker 1: these tumultuary measures fell to accusing the generals as if
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Speaker 1: they had marred the proceeding, and the Arcadians and the
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Speaker 1: Achaeans banded together, chiefly under the auspices of two ring laders,
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Speaker 1: Kalimachus the Parhasian, and Lycon the Achaean. The language they
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Speaker 1: held was to this effect. It was outrageous that a
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Speaker 1: single Athenian and a Lacedaemonian, who had not contributed a
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Speaker 1: soldier to the expedition should rule the Peloponnesians, scandalous that
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Speaker 1: they themselves should bear the toils whilst others pocketed the spoils.
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Speaker 1: And that two though the preservation of the army was
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Speaker 1: due to themselves, For as ever every one must admit
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Speaker 1: to the Arcadians and Achaeans, the credit of that achievement
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Speaker 1: was due, and the rest of the army went for nothing.
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Speaker 1: Which was indeed so far true that the Arcadians and
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Speaker 1: Achaeans did form, numerically the larger half of the whole army.
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Speaker 1: What then, did common sense suggest, Why that they, the
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Speaker 1: Arcadians and Achaeans, should make common cause, choose generals for themselves, independently,
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Speaker 1: continue the march, and try somewhat to better their condition.
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Speaker 1: This proposal was carried all the Arcadians and Achaeans who
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Speaker 1: chanced to be with Chyrisulphus left him and Xenophon setting
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Speaker 1: up for themselves and choosing ten generals of their own.
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Speaker 1: These ten, it was decreed, were to put into effect
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Speaker 1: such measures as approved themselves to the majority. Thus the
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Speaker 1: absolute authority vested in Kyrisulphus was terminated there and then,
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Speaker 1: within less than a week of his appointment. Xenophon, however,
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Speaker 1: was minded to prosecute the journey in their company, thinking
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Speaker 1: that this would be a safer plan than for each
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Speaker 1: to start on his own account. But Naon threw his
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Speaker 1: weight in favor of separate action, every one for himself,
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Speaker 1: he said, for he had heard from Chirisophus that Cleander,
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Speaker 1: the Spartan governor general at Byzantium, talked of coming to
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Speaker 1: Kalpejaven with some war vessels. Naon's advice was due to
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Speaker 1: his desire to secure a passage home in these war
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Speaker 1: vessels for themselves and their soldiers, without allowing any one
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Speaker 1: else to share in their good fortune. As for Chirisophus,
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Speaker 1: he was at once so out of heart at the
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Speaker 1: turn things had taken and soured with the whole army
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Speaker 1: that he left it to his subordinate Naon to do
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Speaker 1: just what he liked. Xenophon, on his side, would still
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Speaker 1: have been glad to be quit of the expedition and
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Speaker 1: sail home, But on offering sacrif to Heracles the leader
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Speaker 1: and seeking advice whether it were better and more desirable
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Speaker 1: to continue the march in charge of the soldiers who
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Speaker 1: had remained faithful, or to take his departure, the God
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Speaker 1: indicated to him by the victims that he should adopt
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Speaker 1: the former course. In this way, the army was now
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Speaker 1: split up into three divisions. First the Arcadians and Achaeans
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Speaker 1: over four thousand, five hundred men, all heavy infantry. Secondly
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Speaker 1: Hyrisophus and his men viz. One thousand, four hundred heavy
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Speaker 1: infantry and the seven hundred Peltasts or Clearcustracians. Thirdly Xenophon's
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Speaker 1: division of one thousand, seven hundred heavy infantry and three
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Speaker 1: hundred peltast. But then he alone had the cavalry about
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Speaker 1: forty troopers. The Arcadians, who had bargained with the Heracleots
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Speaker 1: and got some vessels from them, were the first to
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Speaker 1: set sail. They hoped by pouncing suddenly on the Bithians
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Speaker 1: to make as large a haul as possible. With that object,
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Speaker 1: they disembarked at Kalpehaven, pretty nearly at the middle point
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Speaker 1: in Thrace. Chyrisophus, setting off straight from Heraclea, commenced a
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Speaker 1: land march through the country, but having entered into Thrace,
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Speaker 1: he preferred to cling to the sea board, health and
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Speaker 1: strength failing him. Xenophon lastly took vessels and disembarking on
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Speaker 1: the confines of Thrace, and the Heracleotid pushed forward through
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Speaker 1: the heart of the country. End of Book six, Part
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Speaker 1: one recording by B. G. Oxford