Anabasis

I offer, soldiers, as you see, all the sacrifices I can both on your behalf and my own in order that I may perchance say and think and do such things as will be fairest and best both for you and me. And in the present case I was sacrificing for guidance on this point only, whether it was better to begin to speak before you and to act regarding this project, or not to touch the matter at all.

Now Silanus, the soothsayer, answered me in respect to the main issue that the omens were favourable (for he knew well enough that I was not unacquainted with divination, from being always present at the sacrifices); but he said that there appeared in the omens a kind of fraud and plot against me, manifestly because he knew that he was himself plotting to traduce me before you. For he spread abroad the report that I was intending to do these things at once, without getting your consent.

Now if I saw that you were without resources, I should be looking about for a plan by which you might get possession of a city, with the provision that afterwards he who chose might sail back home at once, while he who did not wish to go at once might return after he had accumulated enough to bestow a little something upon his people at home.

But since, in fact, I see that the Heracleots and Sinopeans are sending you the ships in which to sail away, and that men are promising you pay from the first of the month, it seems to me it is a fine thing to be carried safely where we want to go and at the same time to receive pay for our preservation; therefore I renounce that other project for myself, and I say, to all those who have come to me and expressed the view that it ought to be carried out, that they also should renounce it.

For I hold this opinion: standing together and in force, as you are now, I think you will be held in honour and will have provisions, for in strength lies the opportunity to wrest away the possessions of the weaker; but let yourselves get separated and your force broken up into small parts, and you would neither be able to obtain food to live on nor would you come off unharmed.

I think, therefore, just as you do, that we should set out for Greece, and that if it does come to pass that any man is caught deserting before the entire army is in a place of safety, he should be brought to trial as a wrong-doer. And whoever is of this opinion, he continued, let him raise his hand. Up went every hand.

Silanus, however, began shouting, and attempted to say that it was fair for any one who so chose to leave the army. But the soldiers would not allow him to speak, and they threatened him that as surely as they caught him running away, they would inflict due punishment upon him.

After that, when the Heracleots learned that it had been voted to sail away, and that Xenophon himself had put the question to vote, they did send the ships, but in the matter of the money they had promised to Timasion and Thorax they turned out to be deceivers.

Consequently the men who had promised the pay were panic-stricken, and stood in fear of the army. They therefore took with them the other generals to whom they had communicated their earlier doings—namely, all the generals except Neon the Asinaean, who was acting as lieutenant for Cheirisophus because Cheirisophus had not yet returned—and came to Xenophon, with the message that they had changed their minds and thought it was best to sail to the Phasis, inasmuch as there were ships at hand, and seize the land of the Phasians.

Their king, as it chanced, was a grandson of Aeetes. Xenophon replied that he would not say a word to the army about this plan; but, he went on, gather the men together and speak to them yourselves, if you wish. Then Timasion the Dardanian declared it as his opinion that they should not hold an assembly, but that each general should first endeavour to persuade his own captains. So they went away and set about doing this.

The soldiers, accordingly, learned by inquiry that this plan was being agitated. And Neon said that Xenophon had won over the other generals and was intending to deceive the soldiers and lead them back to the Phasis.

Upon hearing these words the soldiers were exceedingly angry; meetings were held, groups of them collected, and it was greatly to be feared that they would do the sort of things they had done to the heralds of the Colchians and the market clerks.[*](As described by Xenophon in the following speech, 13 ff.)

When Xenophon became aware of the situation, he decided to call an assembly of the men as speedily as possible and not to allow them to gather of their own accord; so he directed the herald to call an assembly.

And as soon as the soldiers heard the herald, they rushed together with the utmost readiness. Then Xenophon, without mentioning against the generals the matter of their visit to him, spoke as follows:

I hear, soldiers, that some one is bringing a charge against me, namely, that I am going to deceive you and lead you to the Phasis. In the name of the gods, then, give ear to my words, and if it appears that I am guilty of wrong, I ought not to leave this spot without paying the penalty; but if it appears to you that my accusers are guilty of wrong, they ought to be dealt with in such manner as they deserve.