15. In the mean time Clearchus returned, and asked whether they had yet given their answer. Phalinus, in reply, said, "Your companions, O Clearchus, give each a different answer; and now tell us what you have to say." 16. Clearchus then said, "I was glad to see you, O Phalinus, and so, I dare say, were all the rest of us; for you are a Greek, as we also are; and, being so many in number as you see, and placed in such circumstances, we would advise with you how we should act with regard to the message that you bring. 17. Give us then, I entreat you by the gods, such advice as seems to you most honourable and advantageous, and such as will bring you honour in time to come, when it is related, that Phalinus, being once sent from the king to require the Greeks to deliver up their arms, gave them, when they consulted him, such and such counsel; for you know that whatever counsel you do give, will necessarily be reported in Greece."
18. Clearchus craftily threw out this suggestion, with the desire that the very person who came as an envoy from the king, should advise them not to deliver up their arms, in order that the Greeks might be led to conceive better hopes. But Phalinus, adroitly evading the appeal, spoke, contrary to his expectation, as follows: 19. "If, out of ten thousand hopeful chances, you have any single one, of saving yourselves by continuing in arms against the king, I advise you not to deliver up your arms; but if you have not a single hope of safety in opposing the king's pleasure, I advise you to save yourselves in the only way in which it is possible." 20. Clearchus rejoined, "Such, then, is your advice; but on our part return this answer, that we are of opinion, that, if we are to be friends with the king, we shall be more valuable friends if we retain our arms, than if we surrender them to another; but that if we must make war against him, we should make war better if we retain our arms, than if we give them up to another." 21. Phalinus said, "This answer, then, we will report: but the king desired us also to inform you, that while you remain in this place, a truce is to be considered as existing between him and you; but, if you advance or retreat, there is to be war. Give us, therefore, your answer on this point also; whether you will remain here, and a truce is to exist, or whether I shall announce from you, that there is war." 22. Clearchus replied, "Report, therefore, on this point also, that our resolution is the same as that of the king." "And what is that?" said Phalinus. Clearchus replied, "If we stay here, a truce; but if we retreat or advance, war." 23. Phalinus again asked him, "Is it a truce or war that I shall report?" Clearchus again made the same answer: "A truce, if we stay; and if we retreat or advance, war." But of what he intended to do, he gave no intimation.
[Footnote 80: [Greek: Pynthanomenoi].] Schneider and others would omit this word, as an apparent interpolation. I have followed Kühner's interpretation.]
[Footnote 81: [Greek: Pheresthai erêmoi].] Before [Greek: Pheresthai] is to be understood [Greek: hôste], as Zeune and Weiske observe. Kühner remarks that [Greek: erêmoi] should properly be referred to both [Greek: peltai] and [Greek: hamaxai]: the shields were without owners, and the waggons without their contents, as having been plundered by the enemy.]
[Footnote 82: [Greek: Peri plêthousan agoran].] See i. 8. 1.]
[Footnote 83: See i. 9. 3.]
[Footnote 84: [Greek: Theopompos].] This is the reading of six manuscripts; others have [Greek: Xenophôn]. The passage has greatly exercised the ingenuity of the learned, some endeavouring to support one reading, some the other. If we follow manuscript authority, it cannot be doubted that [Greek: Theopompos] is genuine. Weiske thinks "Xenophon" inadmissible, because the officers only of the Greeks were called to a conference, and Xenophon, as appears from iii. 1. 4, was not then in the service: as for the other arguments that he has offered, they are of no weight. Krüger (Quæstt. de Xen. Vit. p. 12) attempts to refute Weiske, and to defend the name of Xenophon, conjecturing that some scholiast may have written in the margin [Greek: Theopompos de Proxenon touto eipein phêsi], whence the name of Theopompus may have crept into the text, as Diod. Sic., xiv. 25, attributes those words to Proxenus. But as this notion rests on conjecture alone, I have thought it safest, with Weiske, Schneider, Poppo, and Dindorf, to adhere to the reading of the best manuscripts. * * * Who this Theopompus was, however, is unknown; for he is nowhere else mentioned in the Anabasis. Kühner.]
CHAPTER II.
The Greeks, joining Ariæus, form an alliance with him, and take
counsel with him in reference to their return. During the night
following the first day's march they are seized with a panic, which
Clearchus allays.
1. Phalinus and his companions departed; and there now returned, from their interview with Ariæus, Procles and Cheirisophus; Menon had remained there with Ariæus. They reported, "that Ariæus said that there were many Persians, of superior rank to himself, who would not endure that he should be king; but," he adds, "if you wish to return with him, he desires you to come to him this very night; if you do not, he says that he will set out by himself early in the morning." 2. Clearchus rejoined, "And we must certainly do as you say, if we determine to go to him; but if not, adopt for yourselves such measures as you may think most for your advantage;" for not even to them did he disclose what he intended to do.
3. But afterwards, when the sun was setting, having assembled the generals and captains, he spoke as follows: "My friends, when I offered a sacrifice with reference to marching against the king, the signs of the victims were not favourable, and indeed it was with good cause that they were not so; for as I now learn, there is between us and the king the river Tigris, a navigable river, which we could not cross without vessels; and vessels we have none. Yet it is not possible to remain here; for we have no means of procuring provisions. But for going to the friends of Cyrus, the sacrifices were extremely favourable. 4. We must accordingly proceed thus: when we separate, we must sup, each of us on what he has; when the signal is given with the horn as if for going to rest, proceed to pack up your baggage; when it sounds the second time, place it on your baggage-cattle; and, at the third signal, follow him who leads the way, keeping your baggage-cattle next the river, and the heavy-armed troops on the outside." 5. The generals and captains, after listening to this address, went away, and did as he directed; and thenceforth he commanded, and the others obeyed, not indeed having elected him commander, but perceiving that he alone possessed such qualifications as a leader ought to have, and that the rest of them were comparatively inexperienced.
6. The computation of the route which they had come from Ephesus in Ionia to the field of battle, was ninety-three days' march, and five hundred and thirty-five parasangs, or sixteen thousand and fifty stadia;[85] and the distance from the field of battle to Babylon was said to be three hundred and sixty stadia.
7. Here, as soon as it was dark, Miltocythes the Thracian deserted to the king, with about forty horse that he commanded, and nearly three hundred of the Thracian infantry. 8. Clearchus led the way for the rest, in the prescribed order; and they followed, and arrived at the first halting-place,[86] to join Ariæus and his troops about midnight; and the generals and captains of the Greeks, having drawn up their men under arms, went in a body to Ariæus; when the Greeks on the one hand, and Ariæus and his principal officers on the other, took an oath not to betray each other, and to be true allies; and the Barbarians took another oath, that they would lead the way without treachery. 9. These oaths they took after sacrificing a bull, a wolf,[87] a boar, and a ram, over a shield, the Greeks dipping a sword, and the Barbarians a lance, into the blood.