Complete Works of Xenophon (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics)

by Xenophon

  4. Leaving Cerasus, the people who had thus far been conveyed by sea went on as before, while the rest continued their journey by land. [2] When they reached the boundary of the Mossynoecians, they sent to them Timesitheus the Trapezuntian, who was official representative of the Mossynoecians at Trapezus, and asked whether in marching through their country they were to regard it as friendly or hostile. The Mossynoecians replied that they would not permit them to pass through; [3] for they trusted in their strongholds. Then Timesitheus told the Greeks that the Mossynoecians who dwelt farther on were hostile to these people, and it was decided to summon them and see whether they wanted to conclude an alliance; so Timesitheus was sent to them, and brought back with him their chiefs. [4] When they arrived, these chiefs of the Mossynoecians and the generals of the Greeks met together; [5] and Xenophon spoke as follows, Timesitheus acting as interpreter: “Mossynoecians, we desire to make our way to Greece in safety by land, for we have no ships; but these people, who, as we hear, are your enemies, are trying to block our passage. [6] If you wish, therefore, it is within your power to secure us as allies, to exact vengeance for any wrong these people have ever done you, and to make them henceforth your subjects. [7] But if you dismiss us with a refusal, where, bethink you, could you ever again secure so large a force to help fight your battles?” [8] To these words the chief of the Mossynoecians replied that they desired this arrangement and accepted the alliance. [9] “Well, then,” said Xenophon, “what use will you want to make of us if we become your allies, and what assistance will you, in your turn, be able to render us in the matter of our passage through this territory?” [10] They replied: “We are able to invade this land of your enemies and ours from the opposite side, and to send to you here not only ships, but men who will aid you in the fighting and will guide you on your way.” [11]

  After confirming this agreement by giving and receiving pledges they departed. The next day they returned, bringing with them three hundred canoes, each made out of a single log and each containing three men, two of whom disembarked and fell into line under arms, while the third remained in the canoe. [12] Then the second group took their canoes and sailed back again, and those who stayed behind marshalled themselves in the following way. They took position in lines of about a hundred each, like choral dancers ranged opposite one another, all of them with wicker shields covered with white, shaggy ox-hide and like an ivy leaf in shape, and each man holding in his right hand a lance about six cubits long, with a spearhead at one end and a round ball at the butt end of the shaft. [13] They wore short tunics which did not reach their knees and were as thick as a linen bag for bedclothes, and upon their heads leathern helmets just such as the Paphlagonian helmets, with a tuft in the middle very like a tiara in shape; and they had also iron battle-axes. [14] After they had formed their lines one of them led off, and the rest after him, every man of them, fell into a rhythmic march and song, and passing through the battalions and through the quarters of the Greeks they went straight on against the enemy, toward a stronghold which seemed to be especially assailable. [15] It was situated in front of the city which is called by them Metropolis and contains the chief citadel of the Mossynoecians. In fact, it was for the possession of this citadel that the war was going on; for those who at any time held it were deemed to be masters of all the other Mossynoecians, and they said that the present occupants did not hold it by right, but that it was common property and they had seized it in order to gain a selfish advantage. [16]

  The attacking party was followed by some of the Greeks, not under orders from their generals, but seeking plunder. As they approached, the enemy for a time kept quiet; but when they had got near the stronghold, they sallied forth and put them to flight, killing a considerable number of the barbarians and some of the Greeks who had gone up the hill with them, and pursuing the rest until they saw the Greeks coming to the rescue; [17] then they turned and fell back, and after cutting off the heads of the dead men displayed them to the Greeks and to their own enemies, at the same time dancing to a kind of strain which they sang. [18] And the Greeks were exceedingly angry, not only because the enemy had been made bolder, but because the Greeks who went to the attack with the barbarians had taken to flight, though in very considerable numbers — a thing which they had never done before in the course of the expedition. [19]

  Then Xenophon called the Greeks together and said: “Fellow-soldiers, do not by any means lose heart on account of what has happened; for be sure that a good thing also has happened, no less important than the evil thing. [20] In the first place, you know that those who are to guide us are really enemies to the people whose enemies we also are compelled to be; secondly, and touching our own men, those among them who took little thought of the battle formation we use and got the idea that they could accomplish the same results in company with the barbarians as they could with us, have paid the penalty, — another time they will be less likely to leave our ordered lines. [21] But you must make ready to prove to our friends among the barbarians that you are better men than they, and to show the enemy that they are not going to fight against the same sort of men now as the disorderly mass they met before.” [22]

  It was thus that the Greeks spent that day; but on the next, after obtaining favourable omens from their sacrifices, they took breakfast, formed the companies in column, and began the march, with the barbarians in the same formation posted on the left, the bowmen distributed in the spaces between the companies, and the van of the hoplites a little farther back. [23] For the enemy had some nimble troops who kept running down the hill and pelting the Greeks with stones, and these fellows were held back by the bowmen and peltasts. The rest of the Greek army, proceeding at a walk, advanced first against the stronghold from which the barbarians and those with them had been put to flight on the preceding day; for it was there that the enemy were now drawn up to oppose them. [24] The barbarians did, indeed, meet the attack of the peltasts and engaged them in battle, but when the hoplites got near them, they turned to flight. The peltasts at once made after them and pursued them up the hill to the city, while the hoplites followed along, still keeping their lines. [25] When they were at the top and near the houses of Metropolis, at that moment all the troops of the enemy massed together and did battle; they hurled their lances, and with other spears which they had, so thick and long that a man could only carry them with difficulty, tried to defend themselves in hand to hand fighting. [26] As the Greeks, however, refused to give way, but kept pushing on to close quarters, the barbarians took to flight from that point also, every man of them abandoning the fortress. Their king in his wooden tower built upon the citadel, whom all the people jointly maintain and guard in his abiding place there, refused to come forth, as did also the commander of the stronghold which had been captured earlier, so they were burned up where they were, along with their towers. [27]

  In plundering the strongholds the Greeks found in the houses ancestral stores, as the Mossynoecians described them, of heaped up loaves, while the new corn was laid away with the straw, the most of it being spelt. [28] They also found slices of dolphin salted away in jars, and in other vessels dolphin blubber, which the Mossynoecians used in the same way as the Greeks use olive oil; [29] and on the upper floors of the houses there were large quantities of flat nuts, without any divisions. Out of these nuts, by boiling them and baking them into loaves, they made the bread which they used most. The Greeks also found wine, which by reason of its harshness appeared to be sharp when taken unmixed, but mixed with water was fragrant and delicious. [30]

  When they had breakfasted there, the Greeks took up their onward march, after handing over the fortress to the Mossynoecians who had helped them in the fighting. As for the other strongholds which they passed by, belonging to those who sided with the enemy, the most accessible were in some cases abandoned by their occupants, in other cases surrendered voluntarily. [31] The greater part of these places were of the following description: The towns were eighty stadia distant from one ano
ther, some more, and some less; but the inhabitants could hear one another shouting from one town to the next, such heights and valleys there were in the country. [32] And when the Greeks, as they proceeded, were among the friendly Mossynoecians, they would exhibit to them fattened children of the wealthy inhabitants, who had been nourished on boiled nuts and were soft and white to an extraordinary degree, and pretty nearly equal in length and breadth, with their backs adorned with many colours and their fore parts all tattooed with flower patterns. [33] These Mossynoecians wanted also to have intercourse openly with the women who accompanied the Greeks, for that was their own fashion. And all of them were white, the men and the women alike. [34] They were set down by the Greeks who served through the expedition, as the most uncivilized people whose country they traversed, the furthest removed from Greek customs. For they habitually did in public the things that other people would do only in private, and when they were alone they would behave just as if they were in the company of others, talking to themselves, laughing at themselves, and dancing in whatever spot they chanced to be, as though they were giving an exhibition to others.

  5. Through this country, both the hostile and the friendly portions of it, the Greeks marched eight stages, reaching then the land of the Chalybians. These people were few in number and subject to the Mossynoecians, and most of them gained their livelihood from working in iron. [2] Next they reached the country of the Tibarenians, which was much more level and had fortresses upon the seacoast that were less strong. The generals were desirous of attacking these fortresses, so as to get a little something for the army, and accordingly they would not accept the gifts of hospitality which came from the Tibarenians, but, directing them to wait until they should take counsel, proceeded to offer sacrifices. [3] After many victims had been sacrificed all the seers finally declared the opinion that the gods in no wise permitted war. So then the generals accepted the gifts of hospitality, and proceeding as through a friendly country for two days, they arrived at Cotyora, a Greek city and a colony of the Sinopeans, situated in the territory of the Tibarenians. [4]

  [As far as this point the army travelled by land. The length in distance of the downward journey, from the battlefield near Babylon to Cotyora, was one hundred and twenty-two stages, six hundred and twenty parasangs, or eighteen thousand, six hundred stadia; and in time, eight months.] [5] There they remained forty-five days. During this time they first of all sacrificed to the gods, and all the several groups of the Greeks, nation by nation, instituted festal processions and athletic contests. [6] As for provisions, they got them partly from Paphlagonia and partly from the estates of the Cotyorites; for the latter would not provide them with a market, nor would they receive their sick within the walls of the city. [7]

  Meanwhile ambassadors came from Sinope, full of fears not only for the city of the Cotyorites (for it belonged to them and its inhabitants paid them tribute), but also for its territory, because they heard it was being laid waste. And coming to the Greek camp they spoke as follows, Hecatonymus, who was regarded as a clever orator, being their spokesman: [8] “Soldiers,” he said, “the city of the Sinopeans has sent us, first, to applaud you as Greeks who stand victors over barbarians, and, secondly, to congratulate you that you have made your way through many dreadful troubles, as we have heard, in safety to this place. [9] Now we claim, being ourselves Greeks, to receive from you, who are Greeks also, good treatment and no ill; for we, on our side, have never set the example by doing you any manner of harm. [10] These Cotyorites are our colonists, and it was we who gave over to them this land, after we had taken it away from barbarians; therefore they pay us a stated tribute, as do the people of Cerasus and Trapezus; hence whatever harm you may do to these Cotyorites, the city of the Sinopeans regards as done to itself. [11] At present we hear, firstly, that you have made your way into the city by force, some of you, and are quartered in the houses, and, secondly, that you are taking from the estates by force whatever you may need without asking leave. [12] Now these things we do not deem proper; and if you continue to do them, you force us to make friends with Corylas and the Paphlagonians and whomever else we can.” [13]

  In reply to these words Xenophon, on behalf of the soldiers, rose and said: “For ourselves, men of Sinope, we have come back well content to have saved our bodies and our arms; for it was not possible at one and the same time to gather plunder and to fight with the enemy. [14] As to our doings now, since we have reached Greek cities, we got our provisions in Trapezus by purchase, for the Trapezuntians provided us a market, and in return for the honours they bestowed upon us and the gifts of hospitality they gave the army, we paid them like honours; if any of the barbarians were their friends, we kept our hands off them, while upon their enemies, against whom they would themselves lead us, we wrought all the harm we could. [15] Ask them what sort of people they found us to be; for the men are here present whom the city of Trapezus, out of friendship, sent with us as guides. [16] On the other hand, wherever we come, whether it be to a barbarian or to a Greek land, and have no market at which to buy, we take provisions, not out of wantonness, but from necessity. [17] The Carduchians, for example, and the Taochians and Chaldaeans were not subjects of the King and were exceedingly formidable, yet, even so, we made enemies of them because of this necessity of taking provisions, inasmuch as they would not provide a market. [18] The Macronians, however, provided us as good a market as they could, and we therefore regarded them as friends, barbarians though they were, and took by force not a thing that belonged to them. [19]

  “As for the Cotyorites, whom you claim as yours, if we have taken anything that belonged to them, they are themselves to blame; for they did not behave toward us as friends, but shut their gates and would neither admit us within nor send a market without; and they alleged that the governor set over them by you was responsible for this conduct. [20] In regard to your statement about people making their way into the city by force and being quartered there, we asked them to receive our sick into their houses; but when they refused to open their gates, we went in at a point where the place of itself received us; and we have done no deed of force save only that our sick are quartered in the houses, paying their own expenses, and that we are guarding the gates, in order that our sick may not be in the power of your governor, but that it may be in our power to get them back when we so wish. [21] The rest of us, as you see, are quartered in the open in our regular formation, all ready, in case one does us a kindness, to return the like, or if it is an injury, to return that. [22]

  “As to the threat you uttered, that if you thought best you would enlist Corylas and the Paphlagonians as allies against us, we on our side are quite ready to make war with you both if it be necessary; for we have made war ere now with others who were many times your numbers. But if we think best to make a friend of the Paphlagonian — [23] and we hear that he has a desire for your city and strongholds on the coast — we shall try to prove ourselves his friends by aiding him to accomplish his desires.” [24]

  Hereupon Hecatonymus’ fellow-ambassadors made it very clear that they were angry with him for the words he had spoken, and one of them took the floor and said that they had not come to make war, but to show that they were friends. “And if you come,” he continued, “to the city of the Sinopeans, we shall receive you there with gifts of hospitality, and now we shall direct the people of this city to give you what they can; for we see that all you say is true.” [25] After this the Cotyorites sent gifts of hospitality, and the generals of the Greeks entertained the ambassadors of the Sinopeans, and they had a great deal of friendly conversation with one another on general matters, while in particular they made such inquiries as each party wished in regard to the rest of the journey.

  6. Such was the end of that day. On the next the generals called an assembly of the soldiers, and they decided to invite the Sinopeans to join them in deliberating about the rest of their journey. For if they should have to proceed by land, it seemed that the Sinopeans would be useful t
o them, by virtue of their acquaintance with Paphlagonia; and if they were to go by sea, there was still need, they thought, of the Sinopeans, inasmuch as they were the only people who could provide ships enough for the army. [2] They accordingly invited the ambassadors in and proceeded to take counsel with them, asking them, as Greeks dealing with Greeks, to make a beginning of their kindly reception by showing friendliness and offering the best advice. [3]

  Then Hecatonymus rose and, in the first place, defended himself in the matter of his remark that they would make a friend of the Paphlagonian, by saying that he did not mean that his own people would make war upon the Greeks, but rather that despite the opportunity they had to be friends of the barbarians they would choose the Greeks instead. But when they told him to proceed to give some advice, he began with a prayer to the gods as follows: [4] “If I should give the advice which in my judgment is best, may many blessings come to me; otherwise, the opposite. For what men term ‘sacred counsel’ seems verily to be my portion; since to-day if I be found to have given good counsel, there will be many to praise me, but if it be ill, there will be many among you to curse me. [5] Now I know that we shall have far more trouble if you are conveyed by sea, for upon us will fall the duty of providing the ships; while if you journey by land, upon you will fall the task of doing the fighting. [6] Nevertheless, I must say what I believe; for I am acquainted with both the country of the Paphlagonians and their power. Their country possesses these two things, the fairest plains and the loftiest mountains. [7] And, in the first place, I know at once where you must make your entry: there is no place save where the peaks of the mountains rise high on either side of the road; holding these peaks a mere handful of men could command the pass, and if they are so held, not all the men in the world could effect a passage. All this I could even point out if you should care to send some one to the spot with me. [8] Secondly, I know that they have plains and a cavalry which the barbarians themselves regard as superior to the whole of the King’s cavalry. Indeed, only now these Paphlagonians have failed to present themselves when the King summoned them, for their ruler is too proud to obey. [9]