The First Four Books of Xenophon's Anabasis

CHAPTER V

After a three days' halt on the river Zabatus, Clearchus endeavours

to put an end to the distrust between the Persians and the Greeks

by an interview with Tissaphernes. He is received so plausibly that

he is induced to return on the following day, accompanied by five

other generals and twenty captains, in expectation of being

informed of the persons who had excited, by false reports, ill

feelings between the two armies. The generals are conducted into

the tent and put to death; the captains and those with them are

massacred on the outside, one only escaping to tell the tale.

Ariæus calls on the rest of the Greeks to surrender their arms, but

is answered with defiance.

1. Soon after, they arrived at the river Zabatus, the breadth of which was four plethra. Here they remained three days; during which the same suspicions continued, but no open indication of treachery appeared. 2. Clearchus therefore resolved to have a meeting with Tissaphernes, and, if it was at all possible, to put a stop to these suspicions, before open hostilities should arise from them. He accordingly sent a person to say, that he wished to have a meeting with Tissaphernes; who at once requested him to come. 3. When they met, Clearchus spoke as follows: "I am aware, O Tissaphernes, that oaths have been taken, and right-hands pledged between us, that we will do no injury to each other: nevertheless, I observe you on your guard against us, as though we were enemies; and we, perceiving this, stand on our guard against you. 4. But since, upon attentive observation, I can neither detect you in any attempt to injure us, and since, as I am certain, we have no such intentions towards you, it seemed proper for me to come to a conference with you, that we may put an end, if we can, to our distrust of one another. 5. For I have, before now, known instances of men, who, being in fear of another, some through direct accusations, and others through mere suspicion, have, in their eagerness to act before they suffered, inflicted irremediable evils upon those who neither intended nor wished anything of the kind. 6. Thinking, therefore, that such misunderstandings may be best cleared up by personal communications, I have come here, and am desirous to convince you that you have no just ground for mistrusting us. 7. In the first and principal place, the oaths, which we have sworn by the gods, forbid us to be enemies to each other; and I should never consider him to be envied who is conscious of having disregarded such obligations; for from the vengeance of the gods I know not with what speed any one could flee so as to escape,[106] or into what darkness he could steal away, or how he could retreat into any stronghold, since all things, in all places, are subject to the gods; and they have power over all everywhere alike. 8. Such are my sentiments respecting the gods, and the oaths which we swore by them, in whose keeping we deposited the friendship that we cemented; but among human advantages, I, for my own part, consider you to be the greatest that we at present possess; 9. for with your assistance, every road is easy, every river is passable, and there will be no want of provisions; but without you all our way would lie through darkness, (for we know nothing of it,) every river would be difficult to pass, and every multitude of men would be terrible, but solitude most terrible of all, as it is full of extreme perplexity. 10. And even if we should be so mad as to kill you, what else would be the consequence, than that, having slain our benefactor, we should have to contend with the king as your most powerful avenger?[107] For my own part, of how many and how great expectations I should deprive myself, if I attempted to do you any injury, I will make you acquainted. 11. I was desirous that Cyrus should be my friend, as I thought him, of all the men of his time, the most able to benefit those whom he wished to favour. But I now see that you are in the possession both of the power and the territory of Cyrus, while you still retain your own province, and that the power of the king, which was opposed to Cyrus, is ready to support you, 12. Such being the case, who is so mad as not to wish to be your friend?

"But I will mention also the circumstances from which I derive hopes that you will yourself desire to be our friend. 13. I am aware that the Mysians give you much annoyance, and these, I have no doubt, I should be able, with my present force, to render subservient to you; I am aware also that the Pisidians molest you; and I hear that there are many such nations besides, which I think I could prevent from ever disturbing your tranquillity. As for the Egyptians, against whom I perceive you are most of all incensed. I do not see what auxiliary force you could use to chastise them better than that which I now have with me. 14. If, again, among the states that lie around you, you were desirous to become a friend to any one, you might prove the most powerful of friends; and if any of them gave you any annoyance, you might, by our instrumentality, deal with them[108] as a master, as we should serve you not for the sake of pay merely, but from gratitude, which we should justly feel towards you if we are saved by your means. 15. When I consider all these things, it appears to me so surprising that you should distrust us, that I would most gladly hear the name[109] of him who is so persuasive a speaker as to make you believe that we are forming designs against you."

Thus spoke Clearchus. Tissaphernes replied as follows: 16. "I am delighted, O Clearchus, to hear your judicious observations; for, with these sentiments, if you were to meditate anything to my injury, you would appear to be at the same time your own enemy. But that you may be convinced that you have no just cause for distrusting either the king or me, listen to me in your turn. 17. If we wished to destroy you, do we appear to you to be deficient in numbers either of cavalry or infantry, or in warlike equipments, with the aid of which we might be able to do you injury, without danger of suffering any in return? 18. Or do we seem to you likely to be in want of suitable places to make an attack upon you? Are there not so many plains, which, as the inhabitants of them are friendly to us,[110] you traverse with exceeding toil? See you not so many mountains before you to be crossed, which we might, by pre-occupying them, render impassable to you? Or are there not so many rivers, at which we might parcel you out[111] as many at a time as we might be willing to engage? Some of these rivers, indeed, you could not cross at all, unless we secured you a passage. 19. But even supposing that we were baffled in all these points, yet fire at least would prove its power over the produce of the soil; by burning which, we could set famine in array against you, which, though you were the bravest of the brave, you would find it difficult to withstand. 20. How then, having so many means of waging war with you, and none of them attended with danger to ourselves, should we select from amongst them all this mode, the only one that is impious in the sight of the gods, the only one that is disgraceful in the sight of men? 21. It belongs, altogether, to men who are destitute of means, deprived of every resource, and under the coercion of necessity, and at the same time devoid of principle, to seek to effect their purposes by perjury towards the gods, and breach of faith towards men. We, O Clearchus, are not so foolish or so inconsiderate; 22. or why, when we have the opportunity of effecting your destruction, have we made no such attempt? Be well assured, that the cause of this was my desire to prove myself faithful to the Greeks, and, in consequence of doing them service, to return supported by that very body of foreign troops, to whom Cyrus, when he went up, trusted only on account of the pay that he gave them. 23. As to the particulars in which you will be of service to me, some of them you have enumerated, but of the greatest of all I am myself fully conscious; for though it is permitted to the king alone to wear the turban upright on the head, yet perhaps another than he may, with your assistance, wear that upright which is on the heart."[112]

24. Tissaphernes, in speaking thus, seemed to Clearchus to speak with sincerity, and he replied, "Do not those, then, who endeavour by calumny to make us enemies, when there are such strong inducements to friendship between us, deserve the severest of punishment?" 25. "Well, then," said Tissaphernes, "if you will come to me, as well generals as captains, in a public manner, I will inform you who they are that tell me that you are forming plots against me and my army." 26. "I will bring them all," said Clearchus, "and, on my part, will let you know the quarter whence I hear reports respecting you." 27. After this conversation, Tissaphernes, behaving to Clearchus with much courtesy, desired him to stay with him, and made him his guest at supper.

On the following day, when Clearchus returned to the camp, he plainly showed that he considered himself to be on the most friendly footing with Tissaphernes, and stated what he had proposed; and he said that those must go to Tissaphernes, whose presence he required, and that whoever of the Greeks should be proved guilty of uttering the alleged calumnies, must be punished as traitors, and persons ill-affected to the Greeks. 28. It was Menon that he suspected of making the charges, as he knew that he had had an interview with Tissaphernes in company with Ariæus, and was forming a party and intriguing against himself, in order that, having gained the whole army over to his own interests, he might secure the friendship of Tissaphernes. 29. Clearchus likewise wished the whole army to have their affections fixed on himself, and troublesome rivals to be removed out of his way.

Some of the soldiers urged, in opposition to his advice, that all the captains and generals should not go, and that they ought to place no confidence in Tissaphernes. 30. But Clearchus pressed his proposal with great vehemence, till he at length succeeded in getting five generals and twenty captains to go; and some of the other soldiers followed them, to the number of about two hundred, as if for the purpose of marketing.[113]

31. When they had arrived at the entrance of Tissaphernes' tent, the generals, who were Proxenus the Boeotian, Menon the Thessalian, Agias the Arcadian, Clearchus the Lacedæmonian, and Socrates the Achæan, were invited to enter; but the captains waited at the door. 32. Not long after, at one and the same signal, those within were seized, and those without massacred; and immediately afterwards a body of Barbarian cavalry, riding through the plain, killed every Greek, slave or freeman, that they met.

33. The Greeks, observing the motions of these cavalry from the camp, were filled with astonishment, and wondered what they could be doing, till Nicarchus an Arcadian came fleeing thither, wounded in the belly and holding his intestines in his hands, and related all that had occurred. 34. The Greeks, in consequence, ran to their arms in a state of general consternation, expecting that the enemy would immediately march upon the camp. 35. They however did not all come, but only Ariæus and Artaozus and Mithridates, who had been Cyrus's most confidential friends; and the interpreter of the Greeks said, that he saw with them, and recognised, the brother of Tissaphernes. Other Persians, equipped with corslets, to the number of three hundred, were in attendance on them. 36. As they approached the camp, they called for whatever general or captain of the Greeks might be there, to come out to them, that they might deliver a message from the king. 37. There accordingly went forth to them, with much caution, Cleanor the Orchomenian, and Sophænetus the Stymphalian, generals of the Greeks, and with them Xenophon the Athenian, that he might learn news of Proxenus. As for Cheirisophus, he happened to be absent at some village looking for provisions.

38. When they had stopped just within hearing, Ariæus said to them: "Clearchus, O Greeks, having been found guilty of perjury, and of violating the truce, has received his just punishment, and is dead; Proxenus and Menon, as having denounced his treachery, are in great honour; but the king demands of you your arms; for he says that they are his, as they belonged to Cyrus his subject." 39. To this the Greeks answered, (Cleanor the Orchomenian spoke for them,) "O Ariæus, most wicked of men, and the rest of you, as many as were the friends of Cyrus, have you no regard either for gods or men, that, after having sworn that you would consider our friends and enemies to be likewise yours, you have thus,[114] after treacherously deserting us in concert with Tissaphernes, the most godless and most unprincipled of human beings, murdered the very men to whom you swore alliance, and, abandoning us who are left, have come against us in conjunction with our enemies?" 40. Ariæus replied, "Clearchus had been previously detected in treacherous designs against Tissaphernes and Orontes, and all of us who accompany them." 41. To this Xenophon rejoined, "Clearchus, then, if he infringed the truce in violation of his oath, is deservedly punished; for it is just that those who violate their oaths should suffer death; but as for Proxenus and Menon, as they are your benefactors and our generals, send them hither; for it is clear that, being friends to both parties, they will endeavour to advise what is best both for you and for us." 42. The Barbarians, after conversing among themselves for some time, departed without making any answer to this proposal.

[Footnote 106: [Greek: Out' apo poiou an tachous pheugôn tis apophygoi].] This is Dindorf's reading. Bornemann and Kühner have [Greek: out' apo poiou an tachous oute hopoi an tis pheugôn apophygoi], on the authority, as they say, of the best copies. Dindorf thought with Schæfer, ad Greg. Cor. p. 492, that the words [Greek: oute hopoi an] were superfluous, and consequently omitted them. Bornemann and Kühner see no reason why they should not be retained.]

[Footnote 107: [Greek: Ton megiston ephedron].] [Greek: Ephedros] properly meant a gladiator or wrestler, who, when two combatants were engaged, stood ready to attack the one that should prove victorious. See Sturz. Lex. Xen.; Schol. in Soph. Aj. 610; Hesychius; D'Orvill. ad Charit. p. 338.]

[Footnote 108: [Greek: Anastrephoio].] "Ut dominus versere, vivias, domini partes sustineas:" [Greek: An] must be repeated from the preceding clause; unless that particle, as Dindorf thinks, has dropped out from before [Greek: anastrephoio]. Kühner.]

[Footnote 109: There is in the text, as Krüger observes, a confusion of the two constructions, [Greek: akousaimi to onoma toutou, hostis], and [Greek: akousaimi, tis].]

[Footnote 110: [Greek: Ha hêmin philia onta].] I have here departed from Dindorf's text, which has [Greek: ha hymeis philia onta, k. t. l.]; a reading much less satisfactory than the other, to which Schneider, Bornemann, and Kühner adhere.]

[Footnote 111: [Greek: Tamieuesthai].] This word is used in the same sense, 3. 47; iv. 1. 18; Thucyd. vi. 18; Plutarch, Timol. c. 27.]

[Footnote 112: [Greek: Tên d' epi tê kardia --echoi].] Sc. [Greek: orthên]. The sense is, "but to wear a tiara erect on the heart, that is, to have a kingly spirit and to aspire to dominion, is what another, by your aid, might be able to do." Tissaphernes, by this expression, wished to make it understood that he might possibly, with the support of the Greeks, aspire to the throne of Persia himself. A similar metaphor is noticed by Schæfer, (ad Greg. Corinth. p. 491.) in Philostratus v. a. iii. p. 131: [Greek: dokei moi kai ton prognôsomenon anor hygiôs heautou echein --' katharôs de auton prophêteuein, heautou kai tou peri tô sternô tripodos synientos]. Kühner. See Cyrop. viii. 3. 13. Hutchison refers to Dion Chrysost. xiv. extr. Lucian Piscat. p. 213. See also Strabo, xv. p. 231, where the Persian tiara is said to be [Greek: pilêma pyrgôton], in the shape of a tower; and Joseph. Ant. xx. 3. "The tiaras of the king's subjects were soft and flexible: Schol. ad Plat. de Repub." Krüger.]

[Footnote 113: [Greek: Hôs eis agoran].] "Consequently unarmed." Krüger.]

[Footnote 114: [Greek: Hôs apolôlekate].] Jacobs interprets [Greek: hôs] by quàm, as equivalent to quàm turpiter! quàm impiè! But such exclamations belong rather to modern writers than to the ancients. * * * Others have conjectured [Greek: atheôs, anosiôs, ômôs, hisôs, holôs, houtôs]. In one manuscript [Greek: hôs] is omitted; an omission approved by Larcher, Porson and some others. Some, too, think that the sentence is [Greek: anakolouthos], and that the author, forgetful how he commenced it, goes on with [Greek: hôs] for [Greek: hoti]. Dindorf supposes that Cleanor must be regarded as too much provoked and agitated to mind the exact arrangement of his words. For my own part, I consider that those have the most reason on their side who think that we should read [Greek: houtôs], interpreting it, with Bornemann, so rashly, so unjustifiably. From [Greek: houtôs], written compendiously, [Greek: hôs] might easily have sprung. Kühner.]