Mnemon. "should the king, who has so many other means to Artax. 66 Tissaphernes however arrived with his troops, in order to return into his government, and they set forward all together under the conduct of that satrap, who supplied them with provisions. Ariaus with his troops encamped with the Barbarians, and the Greeks separately at some distance, which kept up a continual distrust amongst them. Besides which, there happened frequent quarrels for wood or forage, that augmented their aversion for each other. After three days march, they arrived at the wall of Media, which is an hundred feet high, twenty broad, and twenty leagues in extent, all built of bricks, cemented with bitumen, like the walls of Babylon, from which it was not very distant at one of its extremities. When they had passed it, they marched eight leagues in two days, and came to the river Tygris, after having crossed two of its canals, cut expressly for watering the country. They then passed the Tygris upon a bridge of twer ty-seven boats near Sitacum, a very great and populous city. After four days march they arrived at another city very powerful also, called Ópis. They found there a bastard brother of Artaxerxes with a very considerable body of troops, which he was bringing from Susa and Ecbatana to his aid. He admired the fine order of the Greeks. From thence, having passed the deserts of Media, they came after a march of six days to a place called the lands of Parysatis; the revenues of which appertained to that princess. Tis *Twenty Parasangas. + The march of the Greeks and the rest of the army, from the day after the battle till the passing of the Tygris, abounds in ' the text of Xenophon with very great obscurities, to explain which fully, would require a long dissertation. My plan does not admit me to enter into such discussions, which I must therefore refer to those who are more able than me. Artax. saphernes, to insult' the memory of her son Cyrus, Mnemon. so dearly beloved by her, gave the villages to be plun dered by the Greeks. Continuing their march through the desert on the side of the Tygris, which they had on their left, they arrived at Cænæ, a very great and rich city, and from thence at the river Zabates. The occasions of distrust increased every day between the Greeks and Barbarians. Clearchus thought it incumbent on him to come to an explanation once for all with Tissaphernes. He began with observing upon the sacred and inviolable nature of the treaties subsisting between them. "Can a man," said he, "conscious of the guilt of perjury, be capable of "living at ease? How would he shun the wrath of "the gods, the witnesses of treaties, and escape their "vengeance, whose power is universal ?" He added afterwards many things to prove, that the Greeks were obliged by their own interest to continue faithful to him, and that, by renouncing his alliance, they must first inevitably renounce not only all religion, but reason and common sense. Tissaphernes seemed to relish this discourse, and spoke to him with all the appearance of the most perfect sincerity; insinuating at the same time, that some persons had done him bad offices with him. "If you will bring "your officers hither," said he, "I will shew you "those who have wronged you in their represen"tations." He kept him to supper, and professed more friendship for him than ever. The next day Clearchus proposed in the assembly, to go with the several commanders of the troops to Tissaphernes. He suspected Menon in particular, whom he knew to have had a secret conference with the satrap in the presence of Ariæus; besides which, they had already differed several times with each other. Some objected, that it was not proper that all the generals should go to Tissaphernes, and that it did not consist with prudence to rely implicitly upon the professions of a Barbarian. But Clearchus Mnemon continued to insist upon what he had moved, till it Artax. was agreed, that the four other commanders, with twenty captains, and about two hundred soldiers, under the pretext of buying provisions in the Persian camp, where there was a market, should be sent along with him. When they came to the tent of Tissaphernes, the five commanders, Clearchus, Menon, Proxenes, Agias, and Socrates, were suffer ed to enter, but the captains remained without at the door. Immediately, on a certain signal before agreed on, those within were seized, and the others put to the sword. Some Persian horse afterwards scoured the country, and killed all the Greeks they met, whether freemen or slaves. Clearchus, with the other generals, was sent to the king, who ordered their heads to be struck off. Xenophon describes with sufficient extent the characters of those officers. Clearchus was valiant, bold, intrepid, and of a capacity for forming great enterprizes. His courage was not rash, but directed by prudence, and he retained all the coolness of his temper and presence of mind in the midst of the greatest dangers. He loved the troops, and let them want for nothing. He knew how to make them obey him; but out of fear. His mien was awful and severe; his language rough; his punishments, instant and rigorous: He gave way sometimes to passion, but presently came to himself, and always chastised with justice. His great maxim was, that nothing could be done in an army with out a severe discipline; and from him came the saying, that a soldier ought to fear his general more than the enemy. The troops * esteemed his valour, and did justice to his merit; but they were afraid of his humour, and did not love to serve under him. In a word, says Xenophon, the soldiers feared him as scholars do a severe pedagogue. We may say of Manebat admiratio ciri et fama; sed oderant. Tacit. Histor 1. ii. c. 68. Artax. him with Tacitus, that by an excess of severity he Mnemon. made, what had otherwise been well done by him, unamiable; Cupidine severitatis in his etiam, quæ rite faceret, acerbus. a Proxenes was of Boeotia, From his infancy he aspired at great things, and was industrious to make himself capable of them. He spared no means for the attainment of instruction, and was the disciple of Gorgias the Leontine, a celebrated rhetorician, who sold his lectures at a very high price. When he found himself capable of commanding, and of doing good to his friends, as well as of being served by them, he entered into Cyrus's service with the view of advancing himself. He did not want ambition, but would take no other path to glory than that of virtue. He had been a perfect captain, had he had to do with none but brave and disciplined men, and it had been only necessary to be beloved. He was more apprehensive of being in his soldiers displeasure, than his soldiers in his. He thought it sufficient for a commander to praise good actions, without punishing bad ones; for which reason he was beloved by the worthy; but those of a different character abused his facility. He died at thirty years of age. * Could the two great persons, we have here drawn after Xenophon, have been moulded into one, something perfect might have been made of them; retrenching their several defects, and retaining only their virtues But it rarely happens, that the same man, as Tacitus says of Agricola, behaves, according to the exigency of times and circumstances, sometimes with gentleness, and sometimes with severity, without lessening his authority by the former, or the people's affection by the latter. a Tacit. Annal. c. lxxv. *Egregium principatus temperamentum, si, demptis utriusque vitiis, sole virtutes miscerentur. Tacit. Histor. 1. ii. c. 5. † Pro variis temporibus ac negotiis severus et comis—nec illi, quod est rarissimum, aut facilitas authoritatem, aut severitas amorem, deminuit. Tacit. in Agric. e. ix. Menon was a Thessalian, avaricious and ambitious, Artax. but ambitious only from the motive of avarice, pur- Mnemon. suing honour and estimation for the mere lucre of money. He courted the friendship of the great, and of persons in authority, that he might have it in his power to commit injustice and oppression with im punity. To obtain his ends, all means with him were virtue; falsehood, fraud, perjury; whilst since. rity, and integrity of heart, stood in his scheme for weakness and stupidity. He loved nobody; and if he professed friendship, it was only to deceive. As others made their glory consist in religion, probity, and honour, he valued himself upon injustice, de ceit, and treachery. He gained the favour of the great by false reports, whispering, and calumny; and that of the soldiery by licence and impunity. In fine, he endeavoured to render himself terrible by the mischief it was in his power to do, and imagined he favoured those to whom he did none. It was in my thoughts to have retrenched these characters, which interrupt the thread of the history. But as they are a lively image of the manners of men, which in all times are the same, I thought retaining them would neither be useless nor disagreeable to the reader. SECT. V. Retreat of the ten thousand Greeks from the province of Babylon to Trebisond. b THE generals of the Greeks having been seized, and the officers who attended them massacred, the troops were in the highest consternation. They were five or six hundred leagues from Greece, surrounded with great rivers and enemy nations, without any supplies of provisions. In this state of general dejection, they could not think of taking either nourishment or repose. In the middle of the night, Xenophon, a young Athenian, but of prudence and Xenoph. in Exped. Cyr. 1. iii. & iv. |