# Xenophon/Chapter 2

Layout 2
CHAPTER II.
THE EXPEDITION OF CYRUS.
The best and most interesting of the works of Xenophon is called the 'Anabasis.' This name signifies the "march up-country," that is, from the sea to Babylon, and is only applicable to the first part of the work. The book, therefore, is misnamed, as it is far more concerned with the 'Catabasis,' or "march down to the sea again." Letting this pass, the 'Anabasis' essentially consists of three parts; 1st, The Expedition of Cyrus, and his invasion of the Persian dominions; 2d, The retreat of the Greek contingent in his army to the Euxine; 3d, The vicissitudes of that contingent when they had got back among Greek towns, but still kept together as a mercenary force. These three divisions of the story give us the natural headings for the present and two subsequent chapters.
The Cyrus now referred to is of course not Cyrus the Great (mentioned in the Bible), who had died more than a century previous to this expedition, and who had been succeeded by Cambyses, Darius I., Xerxes I. (Ahasuerus), Artaxerxes I., and Darius II. (called ​Nothus), who was father to Artaxerxes II. (called Mnemon), and to Cyrus, the younger, with whom we have to do.
Darius Nothus came to the throne in the year 423 B.C., and Cyrus was born after this date. He was, therefore, less than twenty-one years old when our story begins. Orientals are precocious, and early authority matures the powers; but still it must be allowed that he was a young prince of very extraordinary abilities, for in the measures by which he proposed to carry out his ambitious projects, he quite departed from the traditionary ideas of his country. He was the favourite son of his mother, Parysatis, who encouraged him in expecting to supersede his elder brother and succeed to the throne. As he had been born after his father's accession, he had, according to Persian custom, a superior claim to his brother, who, having been born before the accession, ranked as the son of a private person. But Darius Nothus, his father, settled it otherwise, and gave Cyrus, in his seventeenth year, the satrapy of Lydia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia, being, in short, the greater part of Asia Minor, while he nominated Artaxerxes to succeed himself on the throne.
The youthful satrap had, from the first, Greek troops in his pay, and Greek officers about his person. He mixed in Grecian politics, and assisted the Spartans in their war against Athens. Just before his father's death (404 B.C.) he was summoned to Babylon, and, when the decease had occurred, he was charged with plotting against his newly-crowned brother. He was arrested by Artaxerxes, and would have been put to ​death, but his mother begged his life and sent him back to his province.
Returning in disgrace and anger, he organised with secrecy and determination his plans. He collected more Greek troops by giving out that Tissaphernes, a neighbouring satrap, had designs upon the Greek towns in Asia Minor, and inviting Spartan soldiers to come over for their defence. He employed Clearchus, a Lacedæmonian exile, Proxenus, the friend of Xenophon, and other Greek adventurers who had come to his court, to raise a force for him, on the pretext of an expedition against Tissaphernes, or against the mountaineers of Pisidia. Sardis was the rendezvous, Pisidia the ostensible object; all designs against Artaxerxes were carefully concealed. And, in the meanwhile, the Great King himself was entirely blinded with regard to his brother's intentions. He thought that one satrap was going to make war on another—a circumstance entirely beneath his notice!
With a Greek force approaching 10,000 (they became afterwards rather more by additions on the way), and with a native army of 100,000 men, Cyrus marched from Sardis in the early spring of the year 401 B.C. He proceeded in a south-easterly direction, as it was part of his plan that his fleet should co-operate with him on the south coast of Asia Minor, and the route taken was that which would have led to Pisidia. They marched about seventy miles to the Mæander, which they crossed on a bridge of boats, and stopped a week at the wealthy city of Colossæ, where reinforcements ​joined them. Proceeding onwards, they reached Celænæ, where Cyrus had a palace and a vast park (Xenophon calls it by the Persian name, a "paradise") stocked with wild animals, which he used to hunt when he or his horses required exercise. In this "government house," which he was destined never to see again, he now rested for a month, and the army was increased by the arrival of more Greek recruits. The Greek contingent was reviewed, and was found to consist of 11,200 men.
In the plains of Caystrus three months' pay became due to the troops. There had been some mistake in the arrangements, and Cyrus was in perplexity, when, most opportunely, he was joined by Epiaxa, wife of Syennesis, king of Cilicia, who came to meet him, bringing a large sum of money as an offering, and with this he paid his men. With the Cilician queen in his company he marched on to the city of Tyriæum, where, at her request, he held a grand review of his army. After the native battalions had marched past, he directed the Greeks to form into phalanx and exhibit a charge. This they did so effectually, advancing at a run with their spears presented, and with loud shouts, towards the Persian tents, that the queen and her people were seized with alarm and fled from the field, while the Greeks burst out laughing, and Cyrus was overjoyed to see the terror with which they inspired his countrymen.
Advancing by Iconium, through Lycaonia and Cap​padocia, towards Cilicia, he sent Epiaxa with a Greek escort under Meno, a Thessalian captain, to go by a direct route over the mountains into her own country. Cyrus himself found the pass over Mount Taurus, which was called the Cilician Grates, occupied by Syennesis. This pass being a narrow defile between rocks, 3600 feet above the sea, might easily have been held; but Syennesis (who was probably acting all along in collusion with Cyrus) had now the excuse that his flank had been turned by Meno, and that he was threatened on the other side by the fleet of Cyrus; so he evacuated the pass, and the invading army, without resistance, marched through the Gates of Cilicia. Descending into a beautiful plain, they came to Tarsus, even then a large and rich city, afterwards the rival in wealth, literature, and science of Athens, Antioch, and Alexandria, and famous for all time as the birthplace of St Paul.
Here it seemed as if the expedition would come to an end. For it was now clear that Pisidia (which they had passed) was not the object of the march; the Greek soldiers suspected that they were being led against the King; they said that they had not been engaged for this service, and that they would go no farther. Clearchus, the Lacedæmonian, the sternest disciplinarian and harshest officer in the army, tried to force his men to proceed. They at once mutinied, and he narrowly escaped being stoned. Laying aside all his usual imperiousness of manner, he stood before his men weeping, while they regarded him in tacit astonishment. He then broke silence, and said "Do not wonder, soldiers, ​at my grief, for Cyrus has been my friend and benefactor. I was anxious to serve him in payment of his past kindnesses to me. But since you are unwilling to accompany him on this expedition, I am reduced to the painful alternative of abandoning either him or you. Whether it is right or not, I have made up my mind what to do. I will never abandon you. Since you will not obey me, I will follow you. You are to me country, friends, allies. Be assured that wherever you go, I shall go also." The attitude thus taken by Clearchus at once restored him to the confidence of the soldiers, more especially as, when Cyrus sent for him, he adroitly refused to go. His next step was to invite opinions as to the course it would be best to pursue under the circumstances. Clearly, it would be now difficult to get home without the consent of Cyrus, and a little consultation among the soldiers showed that Cyrus was not likely to give that consent. At last it was resolved to send a deputation to the Prince, and ask what was really the service on which they were engaged. Cyrus had an answer at once ready for them. He said that "he expected to find his enemy, Abrocomas, twelve days' march forward, on the banks of the Euphrates. If they found him there they would chastise him; if not, they would consider then what was to be done." The soldiers were not really dupes of this particularly vague answer. But Clearchus had "played them" like fishes. By seeming to yield he had conquered. They contented themselves with asking higher pay, which Cyrus at once granted, raising the wages of each soldier from about 16 shillings to ​£1, 4s. per month. On this understanding, the army again marched forward and reached Issus, the last town of Cilicia on the sea-coast. Here the ships of Cyrus brought up some reinforcements, and among them Cheirisophus, the Spartan general, with 700 men.
Beyond were "the gates of Cilicia and Syria," two fortresses about five hundred yards apart, with a stream flowing between them. And this aperture, being the only entrance into Syria, was one of the most defensible positions in the whole march. Cyrus had appointed his fleet to meet him here to assist in forcing it. But the one fortress had been abandoned by Syennesis, and the other by the outpost of Abrocomas; and the Grecian army passed through these gates also unchallenged. They advanced along the coast to Myriandrus, a Phœnician settlement. This was the last time, for many a long day, that any of them were destined to look upon the sea. Here two of the Greek captains deserted in a merchant vessel. But Cyrus had the adroitness to "make capital" out of the circumstance. He addressed the army, and showed that he might easily have the deserters captured by his war-galleys, but that he abstained from doing so. "Let them go, therefore," said he, "and remember that they have behaved worse to me than I have to them." The Greeks, even such as had before been disinclined to the expedition, on seeing the generosity of Cyrus, now accompanied him with greater pleasure and cheerfulness. Twelve days' march from this point brought them to the large town of Thapsacus, on the banks of the Euphrates. Here a halt ​was made, and Cyrus formally announced to the Greek captains that his march was directed to Babylon, against the Great King. The soldiers, hearing this, felt or feigned anger, and declared that they would not go forward without a handsome present. Cyrus at once promised to give every man five minas of silver (£20) as soon as they should reach Babylon; and while they were debating on the offer Meno persuaded his men to earn favour with Cyrus by crossing the Euphrates before the rest had made answer. They followed his advice, and crossed the river at once. Cyrus was delighted. He sent high commendations to the soldiers and secret presents to Meno; and then marching himself through the river, he was followed by all the army. In passing the stream no one was wetted above the breast; and the people of Thapsacus declared that the river had never before been fordable on foot. Every one said that "it was a divine providence, and that the river clearly made way for Cyrus as the future king." After crossing the Euphrates, the Cyreians marched for nine days along its left bank till they came to the river Araxes, one of its affluents, where they halted, and collected provisions from the villages to serve them in the desert which they were now entering. For five days hence they passed through what Xenophon calls "Arabia," a country level as the sea and full of wormwood. All the other shrubs were aromatic, and there was not a tree to be seen. Here they found wild asses, ostriches, bustards, and antelopes. The horsemen of the army had some sport with these. They found the flesh of the wild ​ass like venison, but more tender, and that of the bustard delicious. The ostrich by its running flight entirely beat them, and not one could be caught. They halted at the river Mascas, and again laid in provisions before entering for a second time the desert, which lasted for a march of thirteen days, during which beasts died for want of fodder, corn failed, and the soldiers lived entirely on flesh. Cyrus pushed along over this part of the way with the utmost expedition. The marches were forced; and at one place where the baggage-waggons had stuck in some mud, Cyrus impatiently ordered the Persian nobles who were round him to assist in extricating them. In an instant they doffed their purple cloaks, and, all arrayed as they were in splendid vests and embroidered trousers, and with their gold chains and bracelets on, they plunged into the mire and executed his orders.
The "Anabasis" was now nearly concluded. They came to Pylæ, or "the Gates," a defile leading from Mesopotamia into the Babylonian territory, only a hundred and eight miles north of the great city. Opposite to this, over the Euphrates, was a town called Charmande, from which the soldiers, on rafts, got provisions, and wine made from dates. Here, on the eve of the conclusion of the march, the safety of the whole army was endangered by a brawl between the soldiers of Meno and those of Clearchus. They were with difficulty appeased by Cyrus, who assured them that "if anything goes wrong with you Greeks, all these natives whom you see about you will instantly be​come more hostile than even the army of the Great King."
As it was, the natives who were with Cyrus continued remarkably faithful to him, even now that it was getting rather nervous work; for they were evidently close to the King's army, and the country around them had been cut up by cavalry and the forage burnt. One noble Persian, however, by name Orontes, endeavoured at this moment to go over to Artaxerxes. This man was a born traitor and sycophant. On two previous occasions he had alternately plotted against Cyrus and whined to him for forgiveness. He now volunteered to go out on reconnaissance, and at the same time sent off a letter to the King, saying that he was going to come over to him with a thousand of the Cyreian horse. But the messenger to whom he intrusted this document took it to Cyrus. Orontes was arrested and taken into Cyrus's tent, where he was tried by a council of seven Persians and Clearchus. According to the report of Xenophon, Cyrus gravely and temperately stated the case against him, and the council unanimously condemned him to death. Orontes was led away to the tent of a confidential eunuch, and "no man afterwards saw him either alive or dead."
Cyrus now advanced cautiously for three days through the Babylonian territory. At the end of the third day's march he held a midnight review of his army, expecting that the King would give him battle next day. He found that he had a force of 12,900 Greeks and 100,000 natives. Reports of the royal ​army represented them as 1,206,000 strong! But Cyrus addressed the generals and captains of the Greeks, and assured them that the difference of numbers was of no importance. He said, "I will tell you from experience what you will have to encounter—vast numbers and plenty of shouting and noise. If you stand firm, I am really ashamed to tell you what poor creatures you will find these natives to be. Only be men, and I will make those of you who wish to go home the envy of your countrymen; though I hope that many of you will elect to remain in my service."
The next day there was no appearance of the King; but they came on a trench which had been dug to impede their progress. It was 30 feet broad and 18 deep, and stretched for more than 40 miles across the plain of Babylon, leaving a passage of only 20 feet between itself and the Euphrates. But even this laboriously-constructed obstacle was made useless by being left undefended; and the Cyreian army marched quietly through the narrow passage, and concluded the day without seeing the enemy. Cyrus now sent for Silanus, the chief soothsayer of the Greeks, and presented him with 3000 darics (£2600), because on the eleventh day previous he had foretold that the King would not fight within ten days. Cyrus had then said, "If your prophecy comes true I will give you ten talents; for unless the King fights within ten days he will not fight at all."
It was quite natural now for every one to suppose that Artaxerxes had abandoned the idea of resistance. So from this the army advanced in loose order, many ​of the men's arms piled on beasts of burden, and Cyrus himself riding at ease in a chariot. But at noon on the next day but one after their leaving the trench, when they were at a place called Cunaxa, a mounted scout came in at full speed, shouting both in Greek and Persian that the King was coming up with a vast army in battle array. In hot haste they began to form, thinking that the King would be upon them before they should have time to get into rank. But it was not till the afternoon that they got sight of, first, a white cloud of dust, second, a sort of blackness in the plain, next a flashing of brass; and then the spears and lines of men became visible. It was a mighty mass. On their left, opposite the Greeks, were cavalry in white armour, troops with wicker targets, and Egyptians with long wooden shields reaching to their feet, while before the line at intervals were scythed chariots to cut through the ranks of their opponents. In the centre was the Great King, surrounded by a close phalanx. But though in the centre of his own line, that line was so immense that he was actually beyond the extreme left of the army of Cyrus. Despite what Cyrus had said about the shouting of the natives, they now came on quietly enough with a slow even step.
The right of the Cyreian line, resting on the Euphrates, consisted of the Greeks, commanded in their ​several divisions by Clearchus, Proxenus, Meno, and others. To the left of them was the native force, under Ariæus, a Persian general, on the extreme left, and with Cyrus commanding in person in the centre. This young pretender to the throne of Persia seemed full of hope and enthusiasm, and despised all precautions. While all others wore helmets, he presented himself for the battle with his head uncovered.
Riding along the front of his line with a small staff, he came to where the Greeks were stationed, and calling out to Clearchus, told him to lead his troops against the enemy's centre, where the King was, and strike there; "for if," he said, "we are victorious in that quarter, the day is ours." As the event showed, this order was sound enough; and if Clearchus had had sufficient contempt for his opponents to carry it out, probably the course of subsequent history would have been changed. But in order to do so, the Greeks would have had to pass before the entire line of the enemy (less than half a mile distant) with their right or unshielded side exposed. Secondly, they would run the risk of being outflanked on the extreme left, owing to the great length of the enemy's line. Under these circumstances, Clearchus determined in his own mind to stick to the river, which protected his right flank, and to charge where he was. So he merely replied to Cyrus that "he would see that all went right."
In the meanwhile Xenophon (who is now for the first time mentioned) rode up to Cyrus and asked if he had any commands. Cyrus directed him to tell the ​men that the omens of sacrifice were quite favourable. Just then a noise was heard in the ranks, and on the Prince asking what it was, Xenophon told him that the Greeks were passing the watchword of the day, "Jupiter the Preserver and Victory." On hearing this, Cyrus said, "I accept it with all my heart," and rode away to his own station.
The Greeks now sang the pæan, and began to advance against the enemy. As they advanced, their line fluctuated a little, and those who were thrown out began to run, and gradually all took to running, at the same time raising their well-known shout to Mars, and rattling their spears against their shields. The moral effect of this astounding charge was too much for their native opponents. Before the Greeks had got within a bow-shot of them they turned and fled, and even the drivers of the scythed chariots leapt down and ran away, leaving their horses to run wildly among friends and foes alike. The entire left wing of the King's army was routed, and the Greeks pursued them on and on, without losing a man,—but uselessly, because the centre, with Artaxerxes in the midst, was still untouched.
Cyrus observed with satisfaction the victorious course of the Greeks; and those about him, with Oriental flattery, prematurely saluted him as king. But he was not carried away. He kept his bodyguard of 600 horsemen drawn up in close rank, and steadily watched the movements of Artaxerxes. Presently the Great King, as no one attacked him in front, showed signs of wheeling round, as if to take the ​Greeks in the rear. On this Cyrus moved down upon him, and, charging fiercely with his 600 horse, broke through and routed the 6000 cavalry that formed the body-guard of the King, and killed their commander with his own hand. In the eagerness of pursuit his horsemen got dispersed, and only Cyrus, accompanied by a handful of men—chiefly those who were called his "table-companions"—bore straight on to the spot where Artaxerxes was exposed to view with a little band around him. Maddened with excitement, Cyrus cried out, "I see the man!" and, rushing at his brother, struck him an ill-aimed blow with his lance, wounding him slightly through the breastplate. At the same moment Cyrus himself was pierced by a javelin under the eye, and falling from his horse, was slain. Eight of his chiefs fell around him, and his faithful eunuch, seeing him fall, threw himself on the body, and clasping it in his arms, was put to death. The head and the right hand of Cyrus were cut off, and all his native troops, composing the left wing of the army, took to flight, and retreated to their camp of the night before, a distance of eight miles from the battle-field. Thus ended the battle of Cunaxa (September 3, 401 B.C.) and the expedition of Cyrus.
At first sight there is a halo of romance over the whole enterprise, not unlike that which surrounds the ill-fated Rebellion of 1745. And as the generous impulses in our nature prompt us to take the side of a gallantly-maintained but unfortunate cause, so it is difficult not to sympathise with young Cyrus and his Greeks, as against the Persian King and his over​whelming masses of inferior troops. And yet, after all, the attempt, however boldly devised and ably carried out, was only an act of treason without any adequate justification. The expedition of Cyrus was prompted by no patriotic or public motive, but solely by personal ambition of the most selfish kind, and was nothing short of fratricidal in its intent, being directed against a brother, who, as far as we know, had done Cyrus no wrong, except that of being his senior, and of having been chosen for the throne. In the guilt of these motives the Greeks were not implicated; they were engaged on a false pretence, and were not informed of the real nature of the service on which they were to be employed till it was virtually too late to withdraw from it. On the other hand, they were not fighting for a cause, but for pay; they were not like the Jacobites of "the '45," but were mercenaries, whom Cyrus had retained, just as an Indian prince might retain a body of European soldiers, as likely to beat a very disproportionate number of his countrymen. And yet there was something fine in the relationship between Cyrus and the Greeks; it was not entirely based upon considerations of money, but consisted greatly in personal attachment. Cyrus, young as he was, had sufficient greatness of character to inspire many of the Greek captains with an enthusiasm for his person. They served him, as Xenophon tells us, partly from regard, and partly because they had an imaginative notion that great things were to be achieved in his service. Cyrus, unlike most Orientals, had the good sense to see the ​policy of perfect good faith to his friends; he led the Greeks to rely on him implicitly, and, unlike one with despotic traditions, he treated them as citizens, on a basis of fair reasoning between man and man. Many a trait does Xenophon record of his behaviour en bon camarade. It is true that all this time he was on his promotion, and therefore on his best behaviour. But there was something really Napoleonic in his ascendancy over the minds of men. These powers, thus early manifested, might have had a formidable influence on the affairs of mankind. Xenophon justly thinks that no one who had sat on the throne of Persia since the great Cyrus could have compared in ability with Cyrus the younger. Mr Grote is of opinion that, if he had succeeded in his enterprise, he would successfully have played the game of employing the Greeks against each other, and that, forestalling the work of Macedonia, he would have destroyed the independence of Greece by subjugating her to Persia. On the whole, then, it may have been of advantage to the interests of civilisation that Clearchus did not better follow out, at the battle of Cunaxa, the instructions of Cyrus.
* ↑ This was the place to which St Paul's "Epistle to the Colossians" was addressed. A few broken columns and debris now alone mark its site.
* ↑ This name is nowhere mentioned by Xenophon. The names of battle-fields are often left at first unsettled. It is given by Plutarch (Artaxerxes, c. 8). The spot was about fifty miles from Babylon.