Artax. allowable in an historian, whose chief duty is to Mnemon. paint virtue and vice in their proper colours, to re

late at large an enterprize of such a nature, without intimating the least dislike or imputation against it? But with the Pagans, ambition was so far from being considered as a vice, that it often passed for a virtue.

SECT. IV. The king is for compelling the Greeks to deliver up their arms. They resolved to die rather than surrender themselves. A treaty is made with them. Tissaphernes takes upon him to conduct them back to their own country. He treacherously seizes Clearchus and four other generals, who are all put to death.

THE Greeks, having learnt, the day after the battle, that Cyrus was dead, sent deputies to Ariæus, the general of the Barbarians, who had retired with his troops to the place from whence they had marched the day before the action, to offer him, as victors, the crown of Persia in the room of Cyrus. At the same time arrived Persian heralds at arms from the king, to summon them to deliver up their arms; to whom they answered with an haughty air, that they talked a strange language to conquerors; that if the king would have their arms, he might come and take them if he could; but that they would die before they would part with them; that if he would receive them into the number of his allies, they would serve him with fidelity and valour; * but if he imagined to reduce them into slavery as conquered, he might know, they had wherewithal to defend themselves, and were determined to lose their lives and liberty together. The heralds added, that they had orders to tell them, that if they continued in the place where they were, they would be allowed a suspen

Xenoph. in Exped. Cyr. 1. ii. p. 272-292. Diod. 1. xiv. F: 255-257.

Sin ut victis servitium indiceretur, esse sibi ferrum et juventutem, et promptum libertati aut ad mortem animum. Tacit. Annal. 1. iv. c. 46.

Mnemon

sion of arms, but if they advanced or retired, that Artax. they would be treated as enemies. The Greeks agreed, and were asked by the heralds what answer they should report. Peace in continuing here, or war in marching, replied Clearchus, without explaining himself farther; from the view of keeping the king always in suspence and uncertainty.

The answer of Ariæus to the Grecian deputies was, that there were many Persians more considerable than himself, who would not suffer him upon the throne, and that he should set out early the next day to return into Ionia; that, if they would march thither with him, they might join him in the night. Clearchus, with the advice of the officers, prepared to depart. He commanded from thenceforth, as being the sole person of sufficient capacity; for he had not been actually elected general in chief.

The same night, Milthocytes the Thracian, who commanded forty horse, and about three hundred foot of his own country, went and surrendered himself to the king; the rest of the Greeks began their march under the conduct of Clearchus, and arrived about midnight at the camp of Ariæus. After they had drawn up in battle, the principal officers went to wait on him in his tent, where they swore alliance with him; and the Barbarian engaged to conduct the army without fraud. In confirmation of the treaty, they sacrificed a wolf, a ram, a boar, and a bull; the Greeks dipt their swords, and the Barbarians the points of their javelins, in the blood of the victims.

Ariaus did not think it proper to return by the same route they came, because, having found nothing for their subsistence the last seventeen days of their march, they must have suffered much more, had they taken the same way back again. He therefore took another; exhorting them only to make long marches at first; in order to evade the king's pursuit; which they could not effect. Towards the evening, when they were not far from some villages

Artax. where they proposed to halt, the scouts came in Mnemon, with advice, that they had seen several equipages

and convoys, which made it reasonable to judge, that the enemy were not far off. Upon which they stood their ground, and waited their coming up; and the next day, before sun-rising, drew in the same order as in the preceding battle. So bold an appearance terrified the king, who sent heralds, not to demand, as before, the surrender of their arms, but to propose peace and a treaty. Clearchus, who was informed of their arrival, whilst he was busy in drawing up his troops, gave orders to bid them wait, and to tell them, that he was not yet at leisure to hear them. He assumed purposely an air of haughtiness and grandeur, to denote his intrepidity, and at the same time to shew the fine appearance and good condition of his phalanx. When he advanced with the most shewy of his officers, expressly chosen for the occasion, and had heard what the heralds had to propose; he made answer, that they must begin with giving battle, because the army being in want of provisions, had no time to lose. The heralds having carried back this answer to their master, returned immediately; which shewed that the king, or whoever spoke in his name, was not very distant. They said, they had orders to conduct them to villages, where they would find provisions in abundance, and conducted them thither accordingly.

The army staid there three days, during which, Tissaphernes arrived from the king, with the queen's brother and three other Persian grandees, attended by a great number of officers and domesticks. After having saluted the generals, who advanced to receive him, he told them by his interpreter, that being a neighbour of Greece, and seeing them engaged in dangers, out of which it would be difficult to extricate themselves, he had used his good offices with the king, to obtain permission to re-conduct them into their own country; being convinced, that rei.

Mnemon.

ther themselves, nor their cities, would ever be un- Artax. mindful of that favour: That the king, without having declared himself positively upon that head, had commanded him to come to them, to know for what cause they had taken arms against him; and he advised them to make the king such an answer, as might not give any offence, and might enable him to do them service. "We call the gods to witness," replied Clearchus," that we did not list ourselves "to make war with the king, or to march against "him. Cyrus, concealing his true motives under "different pretexts, brought us almost hither with❝out explaining himself, the better to surprize you. "And when we saw him surrounded with dangers,

we thought it infamous to abandon him, after the "favours we had received from him. But as he is "dead, we are released from our engagement, and. "neither desire to contest the crown with Artaxer

xes, nor to ravage his country; provided he does 66 not oppose our return. However, if we are at"tacked, we shall endeavour, with the assistance of "the gods, to make a good defence; and shall not "be ungrateful in regard to those who render us

any service." Tissaphernes replied, that he would let the king know what they said, and return with his answer. But his not coming the next day gave the Greeks some anxiety: He however arrived on the third, and told them, that after much controversy, he had at length obtained the king's grace for them: For, that it had been represented to the king, that he ought not to suffer people to return with impunity into their country, who had been so insolent to come thither to make war upon him." In fine," said he," you may now assure yourselves of not "finding any obstacle to your return, and of being supplied with provisions, or suffered to buy them; " and you may judge, that you are to pass without "committing any disorders in your march, and that

you are to take only what is necessary; provided you are not furnished with it," These conditions

Artax.

were sworn to on both sides. Tissaphernes and the Mnemon. queen's brother gave their hands to the colonels and captains in token of amity. After which Tissaphernes withdrew, to dispose his affairs; promising to return as soon as they would admit, in order to go back with them into his government.

66

The Greeks waited for him above twenty days, continuing encamped near Ariæus, who received frequent visits from his brothers, and other relations, as did the officers of his army from the Persians of the different party; who assured them from the. king of an entire oblivion of the past; so that the friendship of Ariaus for the Greeks appeared to cool every day more and more. This change gave them cause of uneasiness. Several of the officers went to Clearchus and the other generals, and said to them, "What do we here any longer? Are we not sensible, "that the king desires to see us all perish, that "others may be terrified by our example? Perhaps "he keeps us waiting here, till he re-assembles his "dispersed troops, or sends to seize the passes in our way; for he will never suffer us to return into "Greece to divulge our own glory and his shame." Clearchus made answer to this discourse, that to depart without consulting the king, was to break with him, and to declare war by violating the treaty; that they should remain without a conductor in a country where nobody would supply them with provisions; that Ariæus would abandon them; and that even their friends would become their enemies; that he did not know, but there might be other rivers to pass, and that, though the Euphrates were the only one, they could not get over it, were the passage ever so little disputed. That if it were necessary to come to a battle, they should find them. selves without cavalry against an enemy that had a very numerous and excellent body of horse; so that if they gained the victory, they could make no great advantage of it, and if they were overcome, they were utterly and irretrievably lost. "Besides, why