Transcript

027 - Bk 7 pt 5 · Anabasis

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Speaker 1: Book seven, Part five of Xenophons and Abases. This is
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Speaker 1: Anabasis by Xenophon, translated by H. G. Dawkins, Book seven,
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Speaker 1: Part five, number six. At this date, when nearly two
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Speaker 1: months had already passed, an embassy arrived. These were two
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Speaker 1: agents from Thibrin Charmenis, a Lacedaemonian, and Polinichus. They were
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Speaker 1: said to say that the Lacedaemonians had resolved to open
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Speaker 1: a campaign against his Aphernes, and that Thibrin, who had
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Speaker 1: set sail to conduct the war, was anxious to avail
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Speaker 1: himself of the troops. He could guarantee that each soldier
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Speaker 1: should receive a derrec a month as pay, the officer's
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Speaker 1: double pay, and the general's quadruple. The Lacedaemonian emissaries had
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Speaker 1: no sooner arrived than Heracleates, having learned that they had
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Speaker 1: come in search of the Hellenic troops, goes on himself
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Speaker 1: to Suthos and says, the best thing that could have happened.
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Speaker 1: The Lacedaemonians want these troops, and you have done with them,
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Speaker 1: so that if you hand over the troops to them,
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Speaker 1: you will do the Lacedaemonians a good turn and will
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Speaker 1: cease to be bothered for pay and more, the country
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Speaker 1: will be quit of them once and forever. On hearing this,
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Speaker 1: Suthos bade him introduce the emissaries as soon as they
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Speaker 1: had stated the object of their coming was to treat
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Speaker 1: for the Hellenic troops. He replied that he would willingly
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Speaker 1: give them up, that his one desire was to be
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Speaker 1: the friend and ally of lacedaemon So he invited them
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Speaker 1: to partake of hospitality and entertain them magnificently, But he
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Speaker 1: did not invite Xenophon, nor indeed any of the other generals. Presently,
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Speaker 1: the Lacedaemonians asked what sort of man is Xenophon, and
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Speaker 1: Suthus answered, not a bad fellow in most respects, but
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Speaker 1: he is too much the soldier's friend, and that is
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Speaker 1: why it goes ill with him. They asked, does he
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Speaker 1: play the popular leader? And Heracles answered exactly so well,
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Speaker 1: then said they he will oppose our taking away the troops,
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Speaker 1: will he? Not? To be sure he will, said Heraclets,
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Speaker 1: But you have only to call a meeting of the
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Speaker 1: whole body and promise them pay. And little further heed
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Speaker 1: will they pay to him? They will run off with you.
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Speaker 1: How are we to get them collected, they asked? Early tomorrow,
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Speaker 1: said Heracletes, we will bring you to them, and I know,
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Speaker 1: he added once more, as soon as they set eyes
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Speaker 1: on you, they will flock to you with alacrity. Thus
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Speaker 1: the day ended. The next day Suthus and Heracletes brought
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Speaker 1: the two Laconian agents to the army, and the troops
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Speaker 1: were collected, and the agents made a statement as follows,
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Speaker 1: The Lacedaemonians have resolved on war with Tisaphernes, who did
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Speaker 1: you much wrong by going with us? Therefore you will
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Speaker 1: punish your enemy, and each of you will get a
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Speaker 1: derrick a month, the officers twice that sum, and the
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Speaker 1: general's quadruple. The soldiers lent willing ears and up jumped
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Speaker 1: one of the Arcadians at once to find fault with Cinophon.
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Speaker 1: Suthus was also hard by, wishing to know what was
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Speaker 1: going to happen. He stood within earshot and his interpreter
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Speaker 1: by his side, not but what he could understand. Most
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Speaker 1: of what was said in Greek himself. At this point,
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Speaker 1: the Arcadian spoke, for the matter of that Lacedaemonians, we
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Speaker 1: should have been by your sides long ago, if Xenophon
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Speaker 1: had not persuaded us and brought us hither, we have
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Speaker 1: never ceased campaigning night and day, the dismal winter through.
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Speaker 1: But he reaps the fruit of our toils. Suthus has
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Speaker 1: enriched him privately, but deprives us of our hard earnings.
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Speaker 1: So that standing here as I do to address you first,
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Speaker 1: all I can say is that if I might see
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Speaker 1: the fellow stoned to death as a penalty for all
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Speaker 1: the long DANCEY has led us, I should feel I
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Speaker 1: had got my pay in full, and no longer grudge
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Speaker 1: the pains we have undergone. The speaker was followed by another,
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Speaker 1: and then another in the same strain, and after that
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Speaker 1: Xenophon made the following speech. True is the old adage.
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Speaker 1: There is nothing which mortal man may not expect to see.
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Speaker 1: Here Am I being accused by you to day? Just
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Speaker 1: where my conscience did tells me that I have displayed
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Speaker 1: the greatest zeal on your behalf. Was I not actually
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Speaker 1: on my road home when I turned back? Not? God knows,
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Speaker 1: because I learned that you were in Luck's way. But
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Speaker 1: because I heard that you were in sore straits, and
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Speaker 1: I wished to help you, if in any way I could,
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Speaker 1: I returned and Southus. Yonder sent me messenger after messenger,
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Speaker 1: and made me promise upon promise, if only I could
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Speaker 1: persuade you to come to him. Yet, as you yourselves
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Speaker 1: will bear me witness, I was not to be diverted.
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Speaker 1: Instead of setting my hand to do that, I simply
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Speaker 1: led you to a point from which, with least loss
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Speaker 1: of time, I thought you could cross into Asia. This
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Speaker 1: I believed was the best thing for you, and you
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Speaker 1: knew I desired it. But when Aristarchus came with his
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Speaker 1: ships of war and hindered our passage across, you will
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Speaker 1: hardly quarrel with me for the step I then took
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Speaker 1: in calling you together, that we might advisedly consider our
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Speaker 1: best course, Having heard both sides, first Aristarchus, who ordered
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Speaker 1: you to march to the Chersonnaes, then so Athos, who
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Speaker 1: pleaded with you to undertake a campaign with himself. You
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Speaker 1: all proposed to go with Sythos, and you all gave
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Speaker 1: your votes to that effect. What wrong did I commit
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Speaker 1: in bringing you whither you were eager to go. If, indeed,
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Speaker 1: since the time when Southos began to tell lies and
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Speaker 1: cheatahs about the pay, I have supported him in this,
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Speaker 1: you may justly find fault with me and hate me.
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Speaker 1: But if I, who at first was most of all
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Speaker 1: his friend to day, and more than any one else
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Speaker 1: at variance with him, how can I, who have chosen
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Speaker 1: you and rejected Sythus in fairness, be blamed by you
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Speaker 1: for the very thing which has been the ground of
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Speaker 1: quarrel between him and me. But you will tell me,
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Speaker 1: perhaps that I get from Sythus what is by right yours,
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Speaker 1: and that I deal subtly by you. But is it
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Speaker 1: not clear that if Cythos has paid me anything, he
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Speaker 1: has at any rate not done so with the intention
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Speaker 1: of losing by what he gives me whilst he is
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Speaker 1: still your debtor. If he gave to me, he gave
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Speaker 1: in order that by a small gift to me he
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Speaker 1: might escape a larger payment to yourselves. But if that
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Speaker 1: is what you really think has happened, you can render
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Speaker 1: this whole scheme of ours null and void in an
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Speaker 1: instant by exacting from him the money which is your due.
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Speaker 1: It is clear Sothos will demand back from me whatever
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Speaker 1: I have got from him, and he will have all
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Speaker 1: the more right to do so if I have failed
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Speaker 1: to secure for him what he bargained for when I
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Speaker 1: took his gifts. But indeed, I am far removed from
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Speaker 1: enjoying what is yours. And I swear to you by
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Speaker 1: all the gods and goddesses that I have not taken
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Speaker 1: even what Suthos promised me. In private, he is present
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Speaker 1: himself and listening, and he is aware in his own
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Speaker 1: heart whether I swear falsely, And what will surprise you?
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Speaker 1: The more I can swear besides that I have not
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Speaker 1: received even what the other generals have received, no, nor
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Speaker 1: yet what some of the officers have received. But how so,
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Speaker 1: why have I managed my affairs no better? I thought, sirs.
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Speaker 1: The more I helped him to bear his poverty at
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Speaker 1: the time, the more I should make him my friend
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Speaker 1: in the day of his power. Whereas it is just
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Speaker 1: when I see the star of his good fortune rising,
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Speaker 1: that I have come to define the secret of his character.
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Speaker 1: Some one may say, are you not ashamed to be
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Speaker 1: so taken in like a fool? Yes, I should be
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Speaker 1: ashamed if it had been an open enemy who had
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Speaker 1: so deceived me. But to my mind, when a friend
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Speaker 1: cheats a friend, a deeper stain attaches to the perpetrator
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Speaker 1: than to the victim of deceit. Whatever precaution a man
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Speaker 1: may take against his friend that we took in full,
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Speaker 1: we certainly gave him no pretext for refusing to pay
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Speaker 1: us what he promised. We were perfectly upright in our
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Speaker 1: dealings with him. We did not dwaddle over his affairs,
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Speaker 1: nor did we shrink from any work to which he
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Speaker 1: challenged us. But you will say I ought to have
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Speaker 1: taken security of him at the time, so that had
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Speaker 1: he fostered the wish, he might have lacked the ability
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Speaker 1: to deceive. To meet that retort, I must beg you
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Speaker 1: to listen to certain things which I should never have
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Speaker 1: said in his presence, except for your utter want of
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Speaker 1: feeling towards me or your extraordinary ingratitude. Try and recall
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Speaker 1: the posture of your affairs when I extricated you and
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Speaker 1: brought you to Cethos. Do you not recollect tao at Parenthus,
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Speaker 1: Aristarchus shut the gates in your faces each time you
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Speaker 1: offered to approach the town, and how you were driven
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Speaker 1: to camp outside under the canopy of heaven. It was midwinter.
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Speaker 1: You were thrown upon the resources of a market, wherein
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Speaker 1: few were the articles offered for sale, and scanty the
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Speaker 1: wherewithal to purchase them. Yet stay and thrace you must,
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Speaker 1: for there were ships of war riding an anchor in
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Speaker 1: the bay, ready to hinder your passage across. And what
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Speaker 1: did that stay imply? It meant being in a hostile country,
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Speaker 1: confronted by countless cavalry legions of light infantry. And what
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Speaker 1: had we a heavy infantry forced, certainly, with which we
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Speaker 1: could have dashed at villages in a body, possibly and
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Speaker 1: seized a modicum of food at most. But as to
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Speaker 1: pursuing the enemy with such a force as ours, or
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Speaker 1: capturing men or cattle, the thing was out of the question.
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Speaker 1: For when I rejoined you, your original cavalry and light
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Speaker 1: infantry divisions had disappeared in such sore straits you lay,
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Speaker 1: supposing that, without making any demands for pay, whatever I
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Speaker 1: had merely won for you the alliance of Suthus, whose
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Speaker 1: cavalry and light infantry were just what you needed. Would
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Speaker 1: you not have thought that I had planned very well
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Speaker 1: for you? I presume it was through your partnership with
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Speaker 1: him and his that you were able to find such
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Speaker 1: complete stores of corn in the villages when the Thracians
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Speaker 1: were driven to take to their heels in such hot haste,
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Speaker 1: and you had so large a share of captives and cattle. Why,
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Speaker 1: from the day on which his cavalry force was attached
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Speaker 1: to us, we never set eyes on a single foeman
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Speaker 1: in the field, though up to that date the enemy,
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Speaker 1: with his cavalry and his light infantry, used undauntedly to
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Speaker 1: hang on our heels and effectually prevented us from scattering
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Speaker 1: in small bodies and reaping a rich harvest of provisions.
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Speaker 1: But if he who partly gave you this security has
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Speaker 1: failed to pay and full the wages due you therefrom,
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Speaker 1: is not that a terrible misfortune, so monstrous indeed, that
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Speaker 1: you think I ought not to go forth alive. But
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Speaker 1: let me ask you, in what condition do you turn
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Speaker 1: your backs on this land to day? Have you not
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Speaker 1: wintered here in the lap of plenty? Whatever you have
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Speaker 1: got from Sothos has been surplus gain. Your enemies have
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Speaker 1: to meet the bill of your expenses, whilst you led
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Speaker 1: a merry round of existence in which you have not
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Speaker 1: once set eyes on a dead body of a comrade,
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Speaker 1: or lost one living man. Again, if you have achieved
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Speaker 1: any or rather many noble deeds against the Asiatic barbarian,
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Speaker 1: you have them safe. And in addition to these, to
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Speaker 1: day you have won for yourselves a second glory. You
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Speaker 1: undertook a campaign against the European Thracians and have mastered them.
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Speaker 1: What I say, then, is that these very matters which
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Speaker 1: you make a ground of quarrel against myself are rather
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Speaker 1: blessings for which you ought to show gratitude to Heaven.
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Speaker 1: Thus far I have confined myself to your side of
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Speaker 1: the matter. Bear with me, I beg you, while we
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Speaker 1: examine mine. When I first essayed to part with you
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Speaker 1: and journey homewards, I was doubly blessed from your lips.
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Speaker 1: I had won some praise, and thanks to you, I
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Speaker 1: had obtained glory from the rest of hellas I was
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Speaker 1: trusted by the Lacedaemonians, else would they not have sent
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Speaker 1: me back to you. Whereas to day I turned to
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Speaker 1: go calumniated before the Lacedaemonians, by yourselves, detested in your behalf,
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Speaker 1: by Suthus, whom I meant so to benefit by the
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Speaker 1: help of you, that I should find in him a
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Speaker 1: refuge for myself and for my children, if children I
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Speaker 1: might have in after time, and you the while, for
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Speaker 1: whose sake I have incurred so much hate, the hate
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Speaker 1: of people far superior to me in strength, You, for
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Speaker 1: whom I have not yet ceased to devise all the
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Speaker 1: good I can entertained such sentiments about me. Why I
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Speaker 1: am no renegade or runaway slave you have got hold of.
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Speaker 1: If you carry out what you say, be sure you
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Speaker 1: will have done to death a man who has passed
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Speaker 1: many a vigil in watching over you, who has shared
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Speaker 1: with you many a toil, and run, many a risk
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Speaker 1: in turn and out of turn, who thanks to the
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Speaker 1: gracious Gods, has by your side set up full many
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Speaker 1: a trophy over the barbarian, who lastly has strained every
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Speaker 1: nerve in his body to protect you again yourselves. And
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Speaker 1: so it is that to day you can move freely
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Speaker 1: where you choose, by land or by sea, and no
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Speaker 1: one can say you nay. And you on whom this
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Speaker 1: large liberty draws, who are sailing to a long desired goal,
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Speaker 1: who are sought after by the greatest of military powers,
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Speaker 1: who have pay in prospect and for leaders. These Lacedaemonians,
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Speaker 1: our acknowledged chiefs Now is the appointed time you think
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Speaker 1: to put me to a speedy death. But in the
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Speaker 1: days of our difficulties, it was very different, oh ye,
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Speaker 1: men of marvelous memory. No, in those days you called
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Speaker 1: me father, and you promised you would bear me ever
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Speaker 1: in mind your benefactor. Not so, however, not so ungracious
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Speaker 1: are those who have come to you to day, Nor,
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Speaker 1: if I mistake not, have you bettered yourselves in their
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Speaker 1: eyes by your treatment of me With these words? He paused,
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Speaker 1: and Charmenace, the Lacedaemonian got up and said, nay, by
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Speaker 1: the twins, you are wrong, surely in your anger against
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Speaker 1: this man. I myself can bear testimony in his favor.
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Speaker 1: When Paul Nichos and I asked Sothos what sort of
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Speaker 1: a man he was, Southus answered he had but one
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Speaker 1: fault to find with him, that he was too much
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Speaker 1: the soldier's friend, which also was the cause why things
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Speaker 1: went wrong with him, whether as regards us Lacedaemonians or himself. Southos.
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Speaker 1: Upon that, Ariolachus of Lucia and Arcadian got up and said,
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Speaker 1: addressing the two Lacedaemonians, yes, sirs and What strikes me
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Speaker 1: is that you cannot begin your generalship of us better
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Speaker 1: than by exacting from Sothos our pay, whether he likes
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Speaker 1: it or no. Let him pay in full, and do
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Speaker 1: not take us away. Before Polycratus, the Athenian, who was
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Speaker 1: put forward by Xenophon, said, if my eyes do not
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Speaker 1: deceive me, sirs, there stands Heracles Yonder, the man who
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Speaker 1: received the property won by our toil, who took it
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Speaker 1: and sold it, and never gave back, either to Southos
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Speaker 1: or to us, the proceeds of the sale, but kept
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Speaker 1: the money to himself, like the thief he is. If
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Speaker 1: we are wise, we will lay hold of him, for
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Speaker 1: he is no Thracian but a Helene. And again TALENs
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Speaker 1: is the wrong he has committed. When Heracleides heard these words,
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Speaker 1: he was in great consternation. So he came to Sothos
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Speaker 1: and said, if we are wise, we will get away
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Speaker 1: from here, out of reach of these fellows. So they
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Speaker 1: mounted their horses and were gone in a thrice, galloping
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Speaker 1: to their own camp. Subsequently, Southos sent Abroziomies, his private interpreter,
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Speaker 1: to Xenophon, begging him to stay behind with one thousand
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Speaker 1: heavy troops and engaging duly to deliver to him the
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Speaker 1: places on the sea board and the other things which
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Speaker 1: he had promised. And then as a great secret, he
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Speaker 1: told him that he had heard from Polynichus that if
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Speaker 1: he once got into the clutches of the Lacedaemonians, Thibron
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Speaker 1: was certain to put him to death. Several messages kept
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Speaker 1: coming to Xenophon, by letter or otherwise, from several quarters,
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Speaker 1: warning him that he was calumniated and had best be
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Speaker 1: on his guard. Hearing which he took two victims and
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Speaker 1: sacrificed to Zeus the King whether it were better and
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Speaker 1: happier to stay with Suthos on the terms proposed, or
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Speaker 1: to part with the army. The answer he received was
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Speaker 1: depart end of Book seven, Part five,