Anabasis

Such was the message of the King’s heralds. The Greeks received it with anger, but nevertheless Clearchus said as much as this, that it was not victors who gave up their arms; However, he continued, do you, my fellow generals, give these men whatever answer you can that is best and most honourable, and I will return immediately. For one of his servants had summoned him to see the vital organs that had been taken out of a sacrificial victim, for Clearchus chanced to be engaged in sacrificing.

Then Cleanor the Arcadian, being the eldest of the generals, made answer that they would die sooner than give up their arms. And Proxenus the Theban said: For my part, Phalinus, I wonder whether the King is asking for our arms on the assumption that he is victorious, or simply as gifts, on the assumption that we are his friends. For if he asks for them as victor, why need he ask for them, instead of coming and taking them?[*](These words recall the famous answer which Leonidas at Thermopylae made to the same demand: μολὼν λαβέ, Come and take them.) But if he desires to get them by persuasion, let him set forth what the soldiers will receive in case they do him this favour.

In reply to this Phalinus said: The King believes that he is victor because he has slain Cyrus. For who is there now who is contending against him for his realm? Further, he believes that you also are his because he has you in the middle of his country, enclosed by impassable rivers, and because he can bring against you a multitude of men so great that you could not slay them even if he were to put them in your hands. Then Theopompus, an Athenian, said: