Anabasis

Now Agasias, whom he thus demanded, had been a friend of Xenophon’s all through—which was the very reason why Dexippus was slandering him.After that the commanders, perplexed as they were, called a meeting of the army; and while some of them made light of Cleander, Xenophon thought that it was no trifling matter, and he arose and said:

Fellow soldiers, it seems to me it is no trifling matter if Cleander is to go away with such an intention toward us as he has expressed. For the Greek cities are close by, the Lacedaemonians stand as the leaders of Greece, and they are able, nay, any single Lacedaemonian is able, to accomplish in the cities whatever he pleases.

Hence if this man shall begin by shutting us out of Byzantium, and then shall send word to the other governors not to receive us into their cities, on the ground that we are disobedient to the Lacedaemonians and lawless, and if, further, this report about us shall reach Anaxibius,[*](See Xen. Anab. 5.1.4 and note thereon.) the Lacedaemonian admiral, it will be difficult for us either to remain or to sail away; for at present the Lacedaemonians are supreme both on land and sea.

Now the rest of us must not be kept away from Greece for the sake of one or two men, but we must obey whatever order the Lacedaemonians may give us; for the cities from which we come likewise obey them.

For my own part, therefore,—for I hear that Dexippus is saying to Cleander that Agasias would not have done what he did if I had not given him the order,—for my own part, I say, I relieve both you and Agasias of the accusation if Agasias himself shall say that I was in any way responsible for this occurrence, and I pass judgment against myself, if I have taken the lead in stone-throwing or any other sort of violence, that I deserve to suffer the uttermost penalty, and I shall submit to the penalty.

And I maintain also that if he holds any one else responsible, that man ought to put himself in Cleander’s hands for trial; for in that way you would stand relieved of the accusation. But as matters are now, it will be hard if we who expected to obtain both praise and honour in Greece, shall find instead that we are not even on an equality with the rest of the Greeks, but are shut out from their cities.

After this Agasias rose and said: Soldiers, I swear by the gods and goddesses that in very truth neither Xenophon nor any one else among you directed me to rescue the man; but when I saw a good man of my own company being led off by Dexippus, the one who betrayed you, as you know for yourselves, it seemed to me an outrage; and I rescued him, I admit it.

Now do not you deliver me up; but I will myself, as Xenophon proposes, put myself in Cleander’s hands, so that he may try me and do with me whatever he may choose; do not for this cause make war upon the Lacedaemonians, but rather accomplish a safe return, each of you to the place where he wishes to go. I beg you, however, to choose some of your own number and send them with me to Cleander, so that if I pass over anything, they may speak, and act too, on my behalf.

Thereupon the army empowered him to choose whomever he wished and take them with him, and he chose the generals. After this Agasias set off to Cleander, and with him the generals and the man he had rescued.

And the generals said: We have been sent to you, Cleander, by the army, and they ask you, in case you accuse them all, to bring them to trial yourself and deal with them as you please; or in case you accuse some one individual, or two or more, they demand of these men that they put themselves in your hands for trial. Therefore if you have any charge against any one of us, we are now here before you; if you have any charge against any one else, tell us; for no one who is ready to yield obedience to us will fail to present himself before you.

After this Agasias came forward and said: I am the person, Cleander, who rescued this man here from Dexippus when he was leading him off, and who gave the order to strike Dexippus.

For I know that this soldier here is a good man, and I know also that Dexippus was chosen by the army to be commander of the fifty-oared warship which we begged for and obtained from the Trapezuntians on the understanding that with it we were to collect vessels whereon we might return in safety, and that this Dexippus slipped away from us, and betrayed the soldiers in whose company he had gained deliverance.

So we have robbed the Trapezuntians of their warship and are rascals in their estimation, all on account of this Dexippus; indeed, we have lost our very lives, so far as lay in this fellow’s power; for he heard, just as we did, that it was impossible, returning by land, to cross the rivers and reach Greece in safety.

It was from that sort of a fellow, then, that I rescued his prisoner. Had it been you who were leading him off, or any one of your men, and not one of our runaways, be well assured that I should have done nothing of this kind. And believe that if you now put me to death, you are putting to death a good man for the sake of a coward and a scoundrel.

Upon hearing these words Cleander said that he had no commendation for Dexippus if he had behaved in this way, but that he nevertheless thought that even if Dexippus were an utter scoundrel, he ought not to have suffered violence; rather, he continued, he should first have had a trial, just as you are yourselves asking in the present case, and should then have received his punishment.

For the moment, therefore, go away, leaving this man here with me, and when I issue the order, be present for the trial. And I bring no charge either against the army or any other person now that this man himself admits that he rescued the prisoner.

Then the one who had been rescued said: For myself, Cleander, in case you really imagine that I was being led off for some wrong doing, I neither struck nor stoned anybody, but merely said that the sheep were public property. For a resolution had been passed by the soldiers that if any one should do any plundering on his own account when the entire army went out, what he secured was to be public property.

That was what I said, and thereupon this fellow seized me and proceeded to lead me off, in order that nobody might utter a word, but that he might save the booty for the plunderers in violation of the ordinance—and get his own share out of it. In reply to this Cleander said: Well, since that is your statement, stay behind, so that we can take up your case also.

After that Cleander and his party proceeded to breakfast; and Xenophon called a meeting of the army and advised the sending of a delegation to Cleander to intercede for the men.