Anabasis

The manner of the dance was this: a man is sowing and driving a yoke of oxen, his arms laid at one side, and he turns about frequently as one in fear; a robber approaches; as soon as the sower sees him coming, he snatches up his arms, goes to meet him, and fights with him to save his oxen. The two men do all this in rhythm to the music of the flute. Finally, the robber binds the man and drives off the oxen; or sometimes the master of the oxen binds the robber, and then he yokes him alongside the oxen, his hands tied behind him, and drives off.

After this a Mysian came in carrying a light shield in each hand, and at one moment in his dance he would go through a pantomime as though two men were arrayed against him, again he would use his shields as though against one antagonist, and again he would whirl and throw somersaults while holding the shields in his hands, so that the spectacle was a fine one.

Lastly, he danced the Persian dance, clashing his shields together and crouching down and then rising up again; and all this he did, keeping time to the music of the flute.

After him the Mantineans and some of the other Arcadians arose, arrayed in the finest arms and accoutrements they could command, and marched in time to the accompaniment of a flute playing the martial rhythm and sang the paean and danced, just as the Arcadians do in their festal processions in honour of the gods. And the Paphlagonians, as they looked on, thought it most strange that all the dances were under arms.

Thereupon the Mysian, seeing how astounded they were, persuaded one of the Arcadians who had a dancing girl to let him bring her in, after dressing her up in the finest way he could and giving her a light shield.

And she danced the Pyrrhic[*](A famous war-dance.) with grace. Then there was great applause, and the Paphlagonians asked whether women also fought by their side. And the Greeks replied that these women were precisely the ones who put the King to flight from his camp. Such was the end of that evening.

On the next day they introduced the ambassadors to the army, and the soldiers passed a resolution to do the Paphlagonians no wrong and to suffer no wrong at their hands. After this the ambassadors departed, and the Greeks, inasmuch as it seemed that vessels enough were at hand, embarked and sailed for a day and a night with a fair wind, keeping Paphlagonia on the left.

On the second day they reached Sinope, and came to anchor at Harmene, in the territory of Sinope. The Sinopeans dwell, indeed, in Paphlagonia, but are colonists of the Milesians. And they sent to the Greeks, as gifts of hospitality, three thousand medimni[*](The medimnus = about a bushel and a half.) of barley meal and fifteen hundred jars of wine.

Here Cheirisophus[*](cp. Xen. Anab. 5.1.3-4.) also came, with a man-of-war. And the soldiers expected that he had brought them something; in fact, however, he brought nothing, save the report that the admiral Anaxibius and the others commended them, and that Anaxibius promised that if they got outside the Euxine, they should have regular pay.

Here at Harmene the troops remained for five days.By this time, since it seemed that they were getting near Greece, the question came into their minds more than before how they might reach home with a little something in hand.

They came to the conclusion, therefore, that if they should choose one commander, that one man would be able to handle the army better, whether by night or day, than a number of commanders—that if there should be need of concealment, he would be better able to keep matters secret, or again, if there should be need of getting ahead of an adversary, he would be less likely to be too late; for, thought the soldiers, there would be no need of conferences of generals with one another, but the plan resolved upon by the one man would be carried through, whereas in the past the generals had acted in all matters in accordance with a majority vote.

As they thought over these things they turned to Xenophon; the captains came to him and said that this was the opinion of the army, and each one of them, with manifestations of good will, urged him to undertake the command.

As for Xenophon, he was inclined on some accounts to accept the command, for he thought that if he did so the greater would be the honour he would enjoy among his friends and the greater his name when it should reach his city, while, furthermore, it might chance that he could be the means of accomplishing some good thing for the army.