Anabasis by Xenophon - Book 7, Part 1

Farnabasis, who was afraid that the army might undertake a campaign against his satrapy, sent to Anaxabias, the Spartan high admiral, who chanced to be in Byzantium, and begged him to convey the army out of Asia, undertaking to comply with his wishes in every respect. Anaxabias accordingly sent to summon the generals and officers to Byzantium, and promised that the soldiers should not lack pay for service if they crossed the strait. The officers said that they would deliberate and return an answer. Xenophon individually informed them that he was about to quit the army at once, and was only anxious to set sail. Anaxabias pressed him not to be in so great a hurry. Cross over with the rest, he said, and then it will be time enough to think about quitting the army. This the other undertook to do. Now Sothis, the Thracian, sent Medosades and begged Xenophon to use his influence to get the army across. Tell Xenophon if he will do his best for me in this matter he will not regret it. Xenophon answered, The army is in any case going to cross. So that, as far as that is concerned, Sothis is under no obligation to me or to anyone else. But as soon as it is once across, I personally shall be quit of it. Let Sothis therefore, as far as he may deem consistent with prudence, apply to those who are going to remain, and will have a voice in affairs. After this the whole body of troops crossed to Byzantium. But Anaxibias, instead of proceeding to give pay, made proclamation that, the soldiers were to take up their arms and baggage and go forth, as if all he wished were to ascertain their numbers and bid them Godspeed at the same moment. The soldiers were not well pleased at that, because they had no money to furnish themselves with provisions for the march, and they sluggishly set about getting their baggage together. Xenophon, meanwhile, being on terms of intimacy with the governor, Cleander, came to pay his host a final visit, and bid him adieu, being on the point of setting sail. But the other protested, Do not do so or else, said he, you will be blamed, for even now certain peoples are disposed to hold you to account, because the army is so slow in getting under way. The other answered, Nay, I am not to blame for that, it is the men themselves who are in want of provisions, that is why they are out of heart at their exodus. All the same, he replied, I advise you to go out, as if you intended to march with them, and when you are well outside, it will be time enough to take yourself off. Well, then, said Xenophon, we will go and arrange all this with Anaxibias. They went and stated the case to the admiral, who insisted that they must do as he had said, and march out, bag and baggage, by the quickest road, and as an appendix to the former edict, he added, Anyone absenting himself from the review and the muster, will have himself to blame for the consequences. This was peremptory. So out marched the generals first, and then the rest, and now, with the exception of here a man and there, they were all outside. It was a clean sweep, and Aetonicus stood posted near the gates, ready to close them, as soon as the men were fairly out, and to thrust in the bolt-pin. Then Anaxibias summoned the generals and captains, and addressed them, Provisions you had better get from the Thracian villages. You will find plenty of barley, wheat, and other necessaries in them, and when you have got them, off with you to the Chesseronesi, where Siniscus will take you into his service. Some of the soldiers overheard what was said, or possibly one of the officers was the medium of communication. However it was, the news was handed on to the army. As to the generals, their immediate concern was to try and gain some information as to Suthis. Was he hostile or friendly? Also, would they have to march through the sacred mountain, or round about through the middle of Thrace? While they were discussing these points, the soldiers snatched up their arms and made a rush full speed at the gates, with the intention of getting inside the fortification again. But Aetonicus and his men, seeing the heavy infantry coming up at a run, promptly closed the gates and thrust in the bolt-pin. Then the soldiers fell to battering the gates, exclaiming that it was their iniquitous to thrust them forth in this fashion into the jaws of their enemies. "'If you do not of your own accord open the gates,' they cried, "'we will split them in half.' And another set rushed down to the sea, and so along the water break and over the wall into the city, while a third set, consisting of those few who were still inside, having never left the city, seeing the affair at the gates, severed the bars with axes and flung the portals wide open, and the rest came pouring in. Xenophon, seeing what was happening, was seized with alarm lest the army betake itself to pillage, and ills incurable be wrought to the city, to himself and to the soldiers. Then he set off, and plunging into the throng, was swept through the gates with the crowd. The Byzantines no sooner saw the soldiers forcibly rushing in, than they left the open square and fled, some to the shipping, others to their homes, while those already indoors came racing out, and some fell to dragging down their ships of war, hoping possibly to be safe on board these, while there was not a soul who doubted but that the city was taken, and that they were all undone. Etonicus made a swift retreat to the citadel, and Exubias ran down to the sea, and getting on board a fisherman's smack, sailed round to the Acropolis, and at once set off to fetch over the garrison troops from Chalcedon, since those already in the Acropolis seemed hardly sufficient to keep the men in check. The soldiers, catching sight of Xenophon, threw themselves upon him, crying, Now, Xenophon, is the time to prove yourself a man. You have got a city, you have got triremes, you have got money, you have got men. To-day, if you only choose, you can do us a good turn, and we will make you a great man. He replied, Nay, I like what you say, and I will do it all, but if that is what you have your heart set on, fall into rank and take up positions at once. This he said, wishing to quiet them, and so passed the order along the lines himself, while bidding the rest to do the same. Take up position, stand easy. But the men themselves, by a species of self-marshalling, fell into rank, and were soon formed, the heavy infantry ate deep, while the light infantry had run up to cover either wing. The Thracian square, as it is called, is a fine site for maneuvering, being bare of buildings and level. As soon as the arms were stacked and the men's tempers cooled, Xenophon called a general meeting of the soldiers, and made the following speech, Soldiers, I am not surprised at your wrath, or that you deem it monstrous treatment so to be cheated, but consider what will be the consequences if we gratify our indignation, and in return for such deception, avenge ourselves on the Lacedaemonians here present, and plunder an innocent city. We shall be declared enemies of the Lacedaemonians and their allies, and what sort of war will that be, we need not go far to conjecture. I take it you have not forgotten some quite recent occurrences. We Athenians entered into war against the Lacedaemonians and their allies with a fleet consisting of not less than three thousand line of battle ships, including those in dock as well as those afloat. We had vast treasures stored up in the city, and a yearly income which, derived from home or foreign sources, amounted to no less than a thousand talents. Our empire included all the islands, and we were possessed of numerous cities, both in Asia and in Europe. Amongst others, this very Byzantium, where we are now, was ours, and yet in the end we were vanquished, as you all very well know. What must we anticipate will now be our fate. The Lacedaemonians have not only their old allies, but the Athenians and those who were at that time allies of Athens are added to them. Tissaphernes and all the rest of the Asiatics on the seaboard are our foes, not to speak of our arch-enemy the king himself, Upyonder, whom we came to deprive of his empire and to kill if possible. I ask then, with all these banded together against us, is there anyone so insensate as to imagine we can survive the contest? For heaven's sake, let us not go mad or loosely throw away our lives in war with our own native cities, nay, our own friends, our kith and our kin, for in one or the other of the cities they are all included. Every city will march against us, and not unjustly, if after refusing to hold one single barbarian city by right of conquest, we seize the first Hellenic city that we come to and make it a ruinous heap. For my part, my prayer is that, before I see such things wrought by you, I at any rate may lie ten thousand fathoms underground. My counsel to you, as Hellenes, is to try and obtain your just right, through obedience to those who stand at the head of Hellas. And if so be that you fail in those demands, why being more sinned against than sinning, do we need rob ourselves of Hellas too? At present I propose that we should send to Anaxibius, and tell him that we have made an entrance into the city, not meditating violence, but merely to discover if he and his will show us any good, for if so, it is well, but if otherwise, at least we will let him see that he does not shut the door upon us as dupes and fools. We know the meaning of discipline, we turn our backs and go. This resolution was passed, and they sent Hieronymus and Eleon, with two others, Eurylochus and Arcadian, and Felicius and Achaean, to deliver the message. So these set off on their errand. But while the soldiers were still seated in conclave, Plurotatus of Thebes arrived. He was a Theban, not an exile, but with a taste for generalship, who made it his business to see if any city or nation were in need of his services. Thus on the present occasion, he presented himself, and begged to state that he was ready to put himself at their head, and would lead them into Delta Therese, as it is called, where they would find themselves in a land of plenty. But until they got there, he would provide them with meat and drink enough to spare. While they were still listening to this tale, the return message from Anaxibius came. His answer was, the discipline they had spoken of, was not a thing they would regret. Indeed he would report their behavior to the authorities at home, and for himself, he would take advice and do the best he could for them. Thereupon the soldiers accepted Corotatus as their general, and returned without the walls. Their new general undertook to present himself to the troops next day, with sacrificial beasts and a soothsayer, with eatables also and drinkables for the army. Now as soon as they were gone out, Anaxibius closed the gates and issued a proclamation to the effect, that any of the soldiers caught inside should be knocked down to the hammer and sold at once. Next day, Corotatus arrived with the victims and the soothsayer. A string of twenty bearers bearing barley meal followed at his heel, succeeded by twenty other carrying wine, and three laden with a supply of olives, and two others carrying, the one about as much garlic as a single man could lift, and the other a similar load of onions. These various supplies he set down, apparently for distribution, and began to sacrifice. Now Xenophon sent a cleander, begging him to arrange matters so that he might be allowed to enter the walls, with a view to starting for Byzantium on his homeward voyage. Cleander came, and this is what he said. I have come, but I was barely able to arrange what you want. Anaxibius insisted, it was not convenient that Xenophon should be inside while the soldiers are close to the walls without, the Byzantines at sixes and sevens moreover, and no love lost between the one party of them and the other. Still, he ended by bidding you to come inside, if you were really minded to leave the town by sea with himself. Accordingly, Xenophon bade the soldiers good-bye, and returned with cleander within the walls, to return to Coratades. The first day he failed to get favorable signs at the sacrifice, and never a dole of rations did he make to the soldiers. On the second day the victims were standing ready near the altar, and so was Coratades, with chaplet crowned, all ready to sacrifice, when up comes Timosian the Dardanian, with Neon the Essenean, and Cleonor of Orcomenus, forbidding Coratades to sacrifice. He must understand there was an end to his generalship, unless he gave them provisions. The other bade them measure out the supplies, pray, dole them out, but when he found that he had a good deal short of a single day's provisions for each man, he picked up his paraphernalia of sacrifice and withdrew. As to being general, he would have nothing more to say to it. End of Book 7, Part 1