Complete Works of Xenophon (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics)

by Xenophon

  After this Xenophon asked Seuthes to give over the hostages to him and to join him on an expedition to the mountain, if he so pleased; otherwise, to let him go by himself. [21] On the next day, accordingly, Seuthes gave over the hostages — men already elderly and the most powerful, so it was said, of the mountaineers — and came himself with his troops. Now by this time Seuthes had a force quite three times as large as before; for many of the Odrysians, hearing what success Seuthes was enjoying, came down from the upper country to take service with him. [22] And when the Thynians saw from their mountain masses of hoplites, masses of peltasts, and troops of horsemen, they descended and besought him to grant them a truce, agreeing to do anything and everything and urging him to receive pledges. [23] Thereupon Seuthes summoned Xenophon, disclosed to him the proposals they were making, and said that he should not grant them a truce if Xenophon wanted to punish them for their attack. [24] And Xenophon said: “Why, for my part I think I have abundant satisfaction as it is, if these people are to be slaves instead of free men.” He added, however, that he advised Seuthes to take as hostages in the future those who were most capable of doing harm and to leave the old men at home. Thus it was that all the people in this region surrendered.

  5. And now they crossed over to the country of the Thracians above Byzantium, in the so-called Delta; this was beyond the domain of Maesades, being the land of Teres the Odrysian. [2] There Heracleides presented himself, with the proceeds from the sale of the booty. And Seuthes, leading forth three pairs of mules — for there were no more than three — and the yokes of oxen besides, called Xenophon and bade him take for himself and then distribute the rest among the generals and captains. [3] Xenophon replied: “Well, for my part I am content to get something at a later time; give rather to these generals and captains who have followed with me.” [4] So one of the mule teams was given to Timasion the Dardanian, one to Cleanor the Orchomenian, and one to Phryniscus the Achaean, while the yokes of oxen were distributed among the captains. Seuthes also paid over the wages of the troops, but for twenty days only of the month that had now passed; for Heracleides said that he had not obtained any more than that from his sale. [5] Xenophon was angered at this, and said to him with an oath: “It seems to me, Heracleides, that you are not caring for Seuthes’ interest as you should; for if you were, you would have brought back with you our wages in full, even if you had to borrow something, in case you could not do it in any other way, or to sell your own clothes.” [6]

  This made Heracleides not only angry, but fearful that he might be banished from the favour of Seuthes, and from that day he slandered Xenophon before Seuthes to the best of his ability. [7] As for the soldiers, they held Xenophon to blame for their not having received their pay; and Seuthes, on the other hand, was angry with him because he was insistent in demanding their pay for the soldiers. [8] Hitherto, he had continually been mentioning the fact that upon his return to the coast he was going to give Xenophon Bisanthe and Ganos and Neonteichos, but from this time he did not allude to a single one of these places again. For Heracleides had put in this slanderous suggestion with the rest, that it was not safe to be giving over fortresses to a man who had a force of troops. [9]

  Hereupon Xenophon began to consider what it was best to do about continuing the march still farther inland; Heracleides, on the other hand, took the rest of the generals in to visit Seuthes and bade them say that they could lead the army just as well as Xenophon, while at the same time he promised them that within a few days they would have their pay in full for two months and urged them to continue the campaign with Seuthes. [10] And Timasion said: “Well, so far as I am concerned, I shall undertake no campaign without Xenophon even if there is going to be five months’ pay.” And Phryniscus and Cleanor agreed with Timasion. [11] Thereupon Seuthes fell to abusing Heracleides because he had not invited Xenophon in also. The upshot of this was, that they invited Xenophon by himself. And he, comprehending the rascality of Heracleides, in wanting to make him an object of suspicion to the other generals, brought with him when he came all the generals and the captains. [12] When all of them had been prevailed upon, they continued the march with Seuthes, and, keeping the Pontus upon the right through the country of the millet-eating Thracians, as they are called, arrived at Salmydessus. Here many vessels sailing to the Pontus run aground and are wrecked; for there are shoals that extend far and wide. [13] And the Thracians who dwell on this coast have boundary stones set up and each group of them plunder the ships that are wrecked within their own limits; but in earlier days, before they fixed the boundaries, it was said that in the course of their plundering many of them used to be killed by one another. [14] Here there were found great numbers of beds and boxes, quantities of written books, and an abundance of all the other articles that shipowners carry in wooden chests. After subduing the country in this neighbourhood they set out upon their return. [15] By that time Seuthes had an army larger than the Greek army; for more and still more of the Odrysians had come down from the interior, and the peoples that from time to time were reduced to obedience would join in the campaign. And they went into camp on the plain above Selymbria, at a distance of about thirty stadia from the coast. [16] As for pay, there was none to be seen as yet; and not only did the soldiers entertain very hard feelings toward Xenophon, but Seuthes no longer felt kindly toward him, and whenever Xenophon came and wanted to have a meeting with him, it would straightway be found that he had engagements in abundance.

  6. 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. [2]

  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.” [3] 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. [4] 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. [5] “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.” [6] “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. [7]

  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.” [8] 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, [9] although he could really understand for himself most of what was s
aid 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; [10] 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: [11]

  “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. [12] 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. [13] 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. [14] 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? [15] 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? [16]

  “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. 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. [17] 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. [18] 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; [19] 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. [20]

  “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. [21] One might say, `Are you not ashamed of being so stupidly deceived?’ I certainly should be ashamed, by Zeus, if I had been deceived by one who was an enemy; but for one who is a friend, to deceived seems to me more shameful than to be deceived. [22] For if there is such a thing as precaution toward friends, I know that we took every precaution not to afford this man a just pretext for not paying us what he had promised; for we neither did this man any wrong, nor did we mismanage his affairs, nor yet did we shrink like cowards from any service to which he summoned us. [23]

  “But, you might say, sureties ought to have been taken at the time, so that he could not have deceived us even if he had wanted to do so. In reply to that, listen to words which I never should have spoken in this man’s presence if you had not seemed to me utterly senseless — or at least exceedingly thankless toward me. [24] Recollect in what sort of troubles you then found yourselves, troubles out of which I delivered you when I brought you to Seuthes. Did you not go to Perinthus, and did not Aristarchus the Lacedaemonian forbid your entering and shut the gates against you? So you encamped outside, under the sky, though it was midwinter, and you got your provisions by purchase at a market, though scanty were the supplies you saw offered for sale and scanty the means you had with which to buy; [25] yet you were compelled to remain upon the Thracian coast, for over against you lay triremes that prevented your crossing to Asia; and remaining there, you were of necessity in a hostile country, where there were many horsemen opposed to you and many peltasts; [26] as for ourselves, we had a force of hoplites to be sure, with which, in case we went in a body against the villages, we might perhaps have been able to obtain food, though by no means an abundant supply, but any force with which we could have pursued and captured either slaves or cattle we had not; for I had found no division either of cavalry or of peltasts in existence any longer among you. [27]

  “Now when you were in such straits, if I had obtained for you, without demanding into the bargain any pay whatsoever, simply an alliance with Seuthes, who possessed both the cavalry and the peltasts that you were in need of, would you have thought that I had carried through a bad plan on your behalf? [28] For you remember, I imagine, that when you had joined forces with these troops, you not only found food in greater abundance in the villages, for the reason that the Thracians were compelled to flee in greater haste, but you also got a larger share of cattle and captives. [29] In fact, we never saw the face of an enemy again after the cavalry had joined us, whereas up to that time the enemy had been following boldly at our heels with horsemen and peltasts and had prevented us from scattering in any direction in small parties and thus securing a greater abundance of provisions. [30] And if, then, the man who aided in providing you this security did not give you, besides, very generous pay for your security, is that such a dreadful misfortune? and do you think that on that account you cannot possibly let me go alive? [31]

  “As matters stand now, what is your situation in departing from here? Have you not passed the winter amid an abundance of provisions, and, whatever you have received from Seuthes, is it not really so much clear gain? For it was the enemy’s possessions that you have been consuming. And while enjoying such fortune, you have not had to see any of your number slain nor have you lost any men alive. [32] And if any glorious deed was earlier performed by you against the barbarians in Asia, have you not at the same time kept that secure and likewise gained other glory besides in the present, by vanquishing, in addition, the Thracians in Europe against whom you took the field? For my part, I assert that for the very acts on account of which you now feel angry toward me, you should, in all justice, feel grateful to the gods, counting them as blessings. [33]

  “So much, then, for your situation. And now, in the name of the gods, come, and consider how the case stands with me. At the time when I first set out to return home, I possessed, as I departed, abundant praise in your eyes, and I also possessed, through you, fair fame in the eyes of the Greeks at large. And I was trusted by the Lacedaemonians, for otherwise they would not have sent me b
ack to you again. [34] Now, on the other hand, I am going away traduced by you before the Lacedaemonians and hated on your account by Seuthes, the man through whom I hoped to secure, by rendering him good service with your help, a fair place of refuge for myself and my children, in case children should ever be born to me. [35] And you, for whose sake I have incurred most hatred, and the hatred of men far stronger than I am, for whose sake I have not even to this moment ceased striving to accomplish whatever good I may, hold such an opinion of me as this! [36]