Anabasis

Xenophon meanwhile, since he had become a friend of Cleander, the governor, called to take leave of him, saying that he was to sail home at once. And Cleander said to him: Do not do so; if you do, said he, you will be blamed, for even now certain people are laying it to your charge that the army is slow about moving away.

Xenophon replied: Why, I am not responsible for that; it is rather that the soldiers lack food supplies and on that account are depressed about their going away.

Nevertheless, said Cleander, I advise you to go forth from the city as though you were planning to make the journey with them, and to leave them only when the army has got outside. Well, then, said Xenophon, we will go to Anaxibius and negotiate about this matter. So they went and put the question before him.

His orders were, that Xenophon was to follow the course proposed and that the troops were to pack up and leave the city with all speed; and he further declared that any one who was not present for the review and the enumeration would have himself to blame for the consequences.

After that the army proceeded to march forth from the city, the generals at the head and then the rest. And now the entire body with the exception of a few men were outside, and Eteonicus[*](A Lacedaemonian officer who figures rather prominently in the story of the Peloponnesian War (Xen. Hell. 1.1.32, Xen. Hell. 1.6.26, etc.); now apparently an aide to Anaxibius.) was standing by the gates ready, as soon as the last man got out, to close the gates and thrust in the crossbar.

Then Anaxibius called together the generals and captains and said: Get your provisions from the Thracian villages; there is an abundance there of barley and wheat and other supplies; when you have got them, proceed to the Chersonese, and there Cyniscus[*](A Lacedaemonian general engaged in war with the Thracians.) will take you into his pay.

And some of the soldiers, overhearing these words, or perhaps one of the captains, proceeded to spread the report of them through the army. Meanwhile the generals were inquiring about Seuthes, whether he was hostile or friendly, and whether they were to march by way of the Sacred Mountain[*](On the northern coast of the Propontis. Their destination was the Gallipoli peninsula, and the alternative routes are a short but difficult one or a long, easy one.) or go round through the middle of Thrace.

While they were talking over these matters, the soldiers caught up their arms and rushed at full speed toward the gates, intending to get back inside the city wall. But when Eteonicus and his men saw the hoplites running towards them, they shut the gates and thrust in the bar.

The soldiers, however, set to hammering at the gates, and said that they were most unjustly treated in being cast out and left at the mercy of the enemy; and they declared that they would break through the gates if the keepers did not open them of their own accord.

Meanwhile others ran down to the shore, made their way along the break-water, and thus scaled the wall and got into the city, while still others, who chanced to be within the walls, seeing what was going on at the gates, cut through the bar with their axes and threw the gates open, whereupon the rest rushed in.

When Xenophon saw what was taking place, being seized with fear lest the army might fall to plundering and irreparable harm might be done to the city, to himself, and to the soldiers, he ran and plunged within the gates along with the rest of the throng.

As for the Byzantines, no sooner did they see the army bursting in by force than they fled from the market-place, some to their boats and others to their homes, while all who chanced to be indoors ran out, and some took to launching the ships-of-war in order to seek safety in them—all alike imagining that they were lost and the city captured.

Eteonicus made his escape to the citadel. Anaxibius ran down to the shore, sailed round in a fishing boat to the citadel, and immediately summoned the garrison from Calchedon; for the force in the citadel did not seem adequate to bring the Greek troops under control.

As soon as the soldiers saw Xenophon, many of them rushed towards him and said: Now is your opportunity, Xenophon, to prove yourself a man. You have a city, you have triremes, you have money, you have this great number of men. Now, should you so wish, you would render us a service and we should make you great.

He replied, desiring to quiet them down: Your advice is certainly good, and I shall do as you say; but if this is what you long for, ground your arms in line of battle with all speed. Then he proceeded to pass along this order himself and bade the others send it on—to ground their arms in battle line.

The men acted as their own marshals, and within a short time the hoplites had fallen into line eight deep and the peltasts had got into position on either wing.

The place where they were, indeed, is a most excellent one for drawing out a line of troops, being the so-called Thracian Square, which is free of houses and level. As soon as their arms were grounded and they had quieted down, Xenophon called the troops together and spoke as follows:

That you are angry, fellow soldiers, and believe you are outrageously treated in being so deceived, I do not wonder. But if we indulge our anger, by taking vengeance for this deception upon the Lacedaemonians who are here and by sacking the city which is in no way to blame, consider the results that will follow.

We shall be declared to be at war with the Lacedaemonians and their allies. And what sort of a war that would prove to be one may at least conjecture by having seen and by recalling to mind the events which have quite lately taken place.

We Athenians, remember, entered upon our war against the Lacedaemonians and their allies with no fewer than three hundred triremes, some afloat and others in the dockyards, with an abundance of treasure already at hand in our city, and with a yearly revenue, accruing at home or coming in from our foreign possessions, of not less than a thousand talents; we ruled over all the islands, we possessed many cities in Asia, in Europe we possessed among many others this very city of Byzantium also, where we now are,—and we were vanquished, in the way that all of you remember.