CHAPTER XXII.
THE RETREAT.
Seven weeks have passed since the catastrophe recorded in my lastchapter.[71] Curiously enough the Greeks had returned to their campafter their easily won victory without any suspicion of what hadhappened on the other side of the battle field. They wondered, indeed,that Cyrus neither came nor sent to congratulate them on their success,but the news of his death which was brought to them next morning by anIonian Greek, who had been in the service of Cyrus, came upon them likea thunderclap. Then had followed a period of indecision and perplexity.So long as they had to answer insolent messages from the King orTissaphernes, bidding them give up their arms and be content with suchchance of pardon as they might have, their course was plain. To suchdemands only one answer was possible. "We will die sooner than give themup," had been the reply which Cleanor the Arcadian, the senior officer,had made. But when the Persians began to treat, when they agreed upon atruce, and even allowed the Greeks to provision themselves, the courseto be followed became less plain. Tissaphernes made indeed the mostliberal offers. "We will lead you back to Greece," he said, "and findyou provisions at a fair price. If we do not furnish them, you are atliberty to take them for yourselves, only you must swear that you willbehave as if you were marching through the country of friends." Therewere some who roundly said that the Greeks had best have no dealingswith the man; he was known to be treacherous and false; this was onlyhis way of luring them on to their death. On the other hand it wasdifficult to refuse terms so advantageous. It was possible that thesatrap, though not in the least friendly, was genuinely afraid, andwould be glad to get rid at any price of visitants so unwelcome. Thiswas the common opinion. If the army could find its way home withoutfighting, it would be madness to reject the chance. For many days past,every thing had gone smoothly; relations between the Greeks andTissaphernes seemed to become more and more friendly. Clearchus, thegeneral, commanding in chief, had even dined with the satrap, had beentreated in the most friendly fashion, and was now come back to the campwith a proposition from him for a formal conference at which the Greekswere to be represented by their principal generals. Some voices wereraised against this proposal. "No one ever trusted Tissaphernes withoutrepenting it," was the sentiment of not a few, Xenophon amongst thenumber. But the opposition was overruled. Five generals and twentyinferior officers proceeded to the tent of Tissaphernes, followed by atroop of stragglers, who availed themselves of the favorableopportunity, as they thought it, of marketing within the enemy's lines.
"Callias," said Xenophon to his friend on the morning of this eventfulday, "my mind misgives me. The soothsayer tells me that, though thesacrifices have been generally favorable, there have always been somesinister indications. And certain it is that we have never put ourselvesso completely in the enemy's power as we have this day. Tissaphernes hasonly to say the word and our most skillful leaders are dead men. But,hark, what is that?"
A cry of surprise and wrath went up from the camp, and the two Atheniansrushed out of the tent in which they had been sitting, to ascertain thecause. One glance was enough. The stragglers were hurrying back at thetop of their speed with the Persians in hot pursuit. Among the foremostof the fugitives was an Arcadian officer, who, fearfully wounded as hewas, managed to make his way to the camp. "To arms!" he cried,"Clearchus and the rest are either dead or prisoners." Instantly therewas a wild rush for arms. Everyone expected that the next moment wouldbring the whole Persian army in sight. But the King and his satraps knewhow formidable the Greeks really were. As long as they had a chance ofsucceeding by fraud, they would not use force.
Fraud was immediately attempted. Ariaeus, who by this time had made hispeace with the King, rode up to within a short distance of the camp, andsaid, "Let the Greeks send some one that is in authority to bear amessage from the King." The veteran Cleanor accordingly went forward.
"Let me go with you," cried Xenophon, "I am eager to hear what hasbecome of my friend Proxenus. Come you, too," he whispered to Callias.
Ariaeus addressed them: "Thus saith the King; Clearchus, having forswornhimself and broken the truth, has been put to death. Proxenus and Medonare honorably treated. As for you, the King demands your arms, seeingthat they belonged to Cyrus, who was his slave."
Cleanor's answer was brief and emphatic, "Thou villain, Ariaeus, and therest of you, have you no shame before gods or men, that you betray us inthis fashion, and make friends with that perjurer Tissaphernes?"
Ariaeus could only repeat that Clearchus was a traitor. "Then," criedXenophon, "why send us not back Proxenus and Medon, good men you say,who would advise both you and us for the best?"
To this no answer was made; and the party slowly made their way back tothe camp. The worst had happened. They were in the midst of theirenemies, more than a thousand miles from the sea, and they had losttheir leaders.
The two Athenians, who shared the same tent, lay down to rest at anearly hour. It still wanted some time to midnight, when Xenophonsurprised his companion by suddenly starting up.
"I believe," he cried, "all will be well after all. I have had a mostencouraging dream."
"What was it?" asked Callias.
"I dreamed," returned the other, "that I was at home and that there wasa great storm of thunder and lightning and that the lightning struck thehouse and that it blazed up all over."
Callias stared. "But that does not sound very encouraging."
"Ah! but listen to what I have to tell you. When Proxenus asked me tocome with him on this expedition, I applied to Socrates for his advice.'Ask the god at Delphi,' he said. So I asked the god but not, as hemeant me to do, whether I should go or not, but to what gods, ifI went, I should sacrifice. Well, this has been a great trouble tome, and I look upon this dream as an answer. First--this is theencouragement--Zeus shows me a light in darkness. The house all on ablaze, I take it, means that we are surrounded with dangers."
"May it turn out well," was all that Callias could find it in his heartto say. But if he was tempted to think meanly of his companion, he hadsoon reason to alter his opinion.
"Whether my dream means what I think or any thing else," Xenophon wenton, "we must act. To fall into the hands of the King means death, anddeath in the most shameful form. And yet no one stirs hand or foot toavoid it; we lie quiet, as though it were time to take our rest. I shallgo and talk to my comrades about it."
The first thing was to call together his own particular friends, theofficers of Proxenus' division. He found them as wakeful as himself.
"Friends," he said, "we must get out of the King's clutches. You knowwhat he did to his own brother. The man was dead; but he must nail hisbody to a cross. What will he do, think you, to us? No; we must get outof his reach. But how? Not by making terms with him. That only gives himtime to hem us in more and more completely. No; we must fight him; andwe, who are more enduring and brave than our enemies, have a right tohope that we shall fight to good purpose. And surely the gods will helpus rather than them. For are they not faithless and forsworn?
"But, if we are to fight, we must have leaders. Let us choose them then.As for me, I will follow another, or, if you will have it so, I willlead myself. Young I am, but I am at least of an age to take care ofmyself."
Then there was a loud cry--"Xenophon for general!" Only one voice wasraised in protest, that of a captain, who spoke in very broadBoeotian. "Escape is impossible; we should better try persuasion."Such was the burden of his speech.
Xenophon turned on him fiercely. "Escape impossible! And yet you knowwhat the King did. First came a haughty command that we should give upour arms. When we refused, he took to soft words and cajolery. He isafraid of us; but if we trust to persuasion we are lost." Then turningto the others, he cried, "Is this man fit to be a captain? Make him abearer of burdens. He is a disgrace to the name of Greek."
"Greek," cried an Arcadian captain, "he is no Boeotian, nor Greek atall. He is a Mysian slave. I see his ears are bored." And the man waspromptly turned out of camp.
The day was now beginning to dawn. It was scarcely light when the wholearmy assembled in obedience to a hasty summons which had been sentthrough the camp.
Chirisophus opened the proceedings. "We have fared ill, fellowsoldiers," he said, "in that we have been robbed of so many officers andhave been deserted by our allies. Still we must not give in. If wecannot conquer, at least we can die gloriously. Anyhow we must not fallalive into the hands of the King."
After an address by another general, Xenophon stood up. He had dressedhimself in his best apparel. "Fine clothes will suit victory best," hesaid to himself, "and if I die, let me at least die like a gentleman."
"Gentlemen," he said, "if we were going to treat with the barbarians,then, knowing how faithless they are, we might well despair; but if wemean, taking our good swords in our hands, to punish them for what theyhave done, and to secure our own safety, then we may hope for the best."
At this point, a soldier sneezed. A sneeze was a lucky omen, and by acommon impulse all the soldiers bowed their heads. Xenophon seized theopportunity.
"I spoke of safety, gentlemen, and as I was speaking, Zeus the Savior,sent us an omen of good fortune. Let us therefore vow to him athank-offering for deliverance, if we ever reach our native country.This let us do as an army; and besides, let everyone vow to offeraccording to his ability in return for his own safe arrival."
These propositions were unanimously accepted, and the hymn of battle wassolemnly sung by the whole army.
"Now," said the speaker, "we have set ourselves right with the gods, whowill doubtless reward our piety, while they will punish these perjurersand traitors who seek to destroy us."
Then, after appealing to the glorious memories of the past, when theGreeks, fighting against overwhelming odds, had once and again turnedback the tide of Persian invasion, he addressed himself to deal with thecircumstances of the situation. "Our allies have deserted us; but weshall fight better without such cowards. We have no cavalry; but battlesare won by the sword; our foes will have the better only in being ableto run away more quickly. No market will be given us; but it is betterto take our food than to buy it. If rivers bar our way, we have only tocross them higher up. Verily, I believe that not only can we get away,but that if the King saw us preparing to settle here, he would be gladto send us away in coaches and four, so terribly afraid is he of us.
"But how shall we go? Let us burn our tents and all superfluous baggage.The baggage too often commands the army. That is the first thing to do.Our arms are our chief possession. If we use them aright, everything inthe country is ours. Let us march in a hollow square, with the baggageanimals and the camp followers in the middle. And let us settle at oncewho is to command each section of the army."
All this was accepted without demur. Chirisophus was appointed tocommand the van, Xenophon, with a colleague, as the youngest of thegenerals, the rear. Practically these two divided the command betweenthem.
The first experience of an encounter with the enemy was not reassuring;in fact it was almost disastrous. Early in the first day's march, oneMithridates, a personage well known to the Greeks, for he had been highin Cyrus' confidence, rode up with a couple of hundred horsemen andtwice as many slingers and bowmen. He had a look of coming as a friend;indeed, earlier in that day he had come with what purported to be aconciliatory message from Tissaphernes. But on arriving within amoderate distance of the Greeks he halted, and the next moment there wasa shower of bullets and arrows from the slings and bows. The Greeks werehelpless. They suffered severely, but could do nothing to the enemy inreturn. The Cretan archers had a shorter range than that of the Persianbows, and the javelin could not, of course, come anywhere near theslingers. At last Xenophon gave the order to charge. Charge the men did,heavy-armed and light-armed alike. Possibly it was better than standingstill to be shot at. But they did not contrive to catch a single man. Asfoot soldiers they were fairly outpaced; and they had no cavalry. Onlythree miles were accomplished that day, and the army reached thevillages in which they were to bivouac, in a state of great despondency.Unless such attacks could be resisted with better success, the fate ofthe army was sealed.
Xenophon was severely blamed by his colleagues for his action incharging. He frankly acknowledged his fault. "I could not stand still,"he said, "and see the men falling round me without striking a blow, butthe charge was no good. We caught none of them, and we did not find iteasy to get back. Thanks to the gods, there were not very many of them;if they had come on in force, we must have been cut to pieces."
After a short silence, he addressed his colleagues again. "We are at agreat disadvantage. Our Cretans cannot shoot as far as their Persianarchers; and our hand throwers are useless against the slingers. As forthe foot soldiers, no man, however fleet of foot, can overtake anotherwho has a bowshot's start of him, especially as we cannot push thepursuit far from the main body. The simple truth is that we must haveslingers and horsemen of our own. I know that there are Rhodians in thearmy who can sling leaden bullets to a much greater distance than thesePersian slings can reach. I propose, first, that we find out who amongthem have slings of their own; these we will buy at the proper value; ifany know how to plait some more, we will pay them the proper price fordoing it; the slings thus obtained, we shall soon get a corps ofslingers to use them. Give them some advantage and they will enrollthemselves fast enough. Now for the cavalry. We have some horses I know.There are some in the rear-guard with me; there are others that belongedto Clearchus; a good many have been taken from the enemy, and are beingused as baggage animals. Let us take the pick of these and equip themfor the use of cavalry; we shall soon have some very capable horsemen atour service."
The idea was promptly carried out. That very night a couple of hundredslingers were enrolled, and the next day, which was spent without anyattempt to advance, fifty horsemen passed muster, fairly well-mountedand duly furnished with buff jackets and cuirasses. This was only thefirst of many instances in which Xenophon showed the fertility andreadiness of device which did so much to save the army.
The very next day the new forces were brought into action with thehappiest results. Mithridates came up again with his archers andslingers, but encountered a reception on which he had not calculated.The cavalry made a brilliant charge, cutting down a number of theinfantry and taking prisoners some seventeen horsemen. At the end of theday's march, the army reached the Tigris. Fourteen weeks of hard andperilous marching lay before them; but they were fairly well-equippedfor the work. I shall take an account of some of the principal incidentsof the journey from a diary kept by Callias, who acted throughout asaid-de-camp to Xenophon.
FOOTNOTES:
[71] The battle of Cunaxa, in which Cyrus fell, was fought on Sept. 3d.The day at which we have now arrived is Oct. 31st.
Callias: A Tale of the Fall of Athens Page 22
