Anabasis

At this time, when nearly two months had already passed, Charminus the Laconian and Polynicus arrived on a mission from Thibron: they said that the Lacedaemonians had resolved to undertake a campaign against Tissaphernes, that Thibron had set sail to wage the war, and that he wanted this army; also that he said the pay would be a daric per month for every man, twice as much for the captains, and four times as much for the generals.

When the Lacedaemonians arrived, Heracleides learned on the instant that they had come to get the army, and told Seuthes that a most fortunate thing had happened: The Lacedaemonians want the army, and you no longer want it; by giving up the army you will be doing them a favour, while, on your side, the troops will not go on demanding their pay from you, but will soon be quitting the country.

Upon hearing these words Seuthes directed him to introduce the envoys; and when they told him that they had come after the army, he replied that he would deliver it up and that he desired to be their friend and ally; he also invited them to dinner, and entertained them magnificently. Xenophon, however, he did not invite, nor any one of the other generals.

When the Lacedaemonians asked what sort of a man Xenophon was, he replied that he was not a bad fellow on the whole, but he was a friend of the soldiers, and on that account things went the worse for him. And they said: He plays the demagogue, you mean, with the men? Exactly that, said Heracleides.

Well, said they, he won’t go so far, will he, as to oppose us in the matter of taking away the army? Why, said Heracleides, if you gather the men together and promise them their pay, they will hurry after you, paying scant heed to him.

How, then, they said, could we get them together? To-morrow morning, Heracleides replied, we will take you to them; and I know, he continued, that as soon as they catch sight of you, they will hurry together with all eagerness. So ended this day.

The next day Seuthes and Heracleides conducted the Laconians to the army, and the troops gathered together. And the two Laconians said: The Lacedaemonians have resolved to make war upon Tissaphernes, the man who wronged you; so if you will come with us, you will punish your enemy and, besides, each one of you will receive a daric a month, each captain twofold, and each general fourfold.

The soldiers were delighted to hear these words, and straightway one of the Arcadians got up to accuse Xenophon. Now Seuthes also was present, for he wanted to know what would be done, and was standing within hearing distance along with an interpreter,

although he could really understand for himself most of what was said in Greek. Thereupon this Arcadian said: For our part, Lacedaemonians, we should have been with you a long time ago if Xenophon had not talked us over and led us off to this region, where we have never ceased campaigning, by night or day, through an awful winter, while he gets the fruits of our toils; for Seuthes has enriched him personally while he defrauds us of our pay;

so for myself, if I could see this fellow stoned to death as punishment for having dragged us about as he has done, I should consider that I had my pay and should feel no anger over the toils I have endured. After this speaker another arose and talked in the same way, and then another. After that Xenophon spoke as follows:

Well, it is true, after all, that a human being must expect anything and everything, seeing that I now find myself blamed by you in a matter where I am conscious—at least, in my own opinion—of having shown the utmost zeal in your behalf. I turned back after I had already set out for home, not—Heaven knows it was not—because I learned that you were prospering, but rather because I heard that you were in difficulties; and I turned back to help you in any way I could.

When I had arrived, although Seuthes here sent many messengers to me and made me many promises if only I would persuade you to come to him, I did not try to do that, as you know for yourselves. Instead, I led you to a place from which I thought you could most speedily cross over to Asia; for I believed that this course was the best one for you and I knew it was the one you desired.

But when Aristarchus came with his triremes and prevented our sailing across, at that moment—and surely it was exactly the proper step—I gathered you together so that we might consider what we should better do.

So you with your own ears heard Aristarchus direct you to march to the Chersonese and you heard Seuthes urge you to take the field with him, and then every man of you spoke in favour of going with Seuthes and every man of you voted to do so. What wrong, therefore, did I do in that matter, when I led you to the place where you had all decided to go?

I come now to the time when Seuthes began to play false with you in the matter of your pay: if I am his supporter in that, it would be just for you to blame me and hate me; but if the truth is that I, who before that was the most friendly to him of us all, am now most of all at variance with him, how can it be just in this case that, when I sided with you rather than with Seuthes, I should be blamed by you about the things in which I am at variance with him?

But it is possible, you might say, that I really have received from Seuthes the money that belongs to you, and am only tricking you.[*](i.e. by pretending to side with you against Seuthes.) Then this at least is clear: if Seuthes was in fact paying anything to me, he surely was not paying it with the understanding that he was both to lose whatever he gave me and at the same time was to pay other sums to you, but rather, I presume, if he was giving me anything, he was giving it with this understanding, that by giving a smaller sum to me he was to escape paying over the larger to you.

Now if you imagine that this is the case, it is within your power upon the instant to make this transaction a vain one for us both by exacting your money from him. For it is clear that, if I have received anything from Seuthes, he will demand it back from me, and, moreover, he will demand it back with justice if I am failing to fulfil to him the undertaking for which I was accepting his gifts.

>But it is far from being true, in my opinion, that I have received what belongs to you; for I swear to you by all the gods and goddesses that I have not even received what Seuthes promised to me for my own services; he is present here himself, and as he listens he knows as well as I do whether I am swearing falsely;

furthermore, to make your wonder the greater, I swear besides that I have not even received what the other generals have received—nay, not even so much as some of the captains.

And why, then, did I follow this course? I supposed, soldiers, that the more I helped this man to bear the poverty in which he then was, the more I should make him my friend when he should have gained power. But in fact I no sooner see him enjoying prosperity than I recognize his true character.