Chapter VIII
The Greeks proceed unmolested through the country of the Macrones, and enter Colchis. Putting to flight the Colchians who obstructed their passage, they arrive at Trebisond, a Greek city, where they perform whatever vows they had made, and celebrate games.
1. Hence the Greeks advanced three days’ journey, a distance of ten parasangs, through the country of the Macrones. On the first day they came to a river which divides the territories of the Macrones from those of the Scythini. 2. On their right they had an eminence extremely difficult of access, and on their left another river,234 into which the boundary river, which they had to cross, empties itself. This stream was thickly edged with trees, not indeed large, but growing closely together. These the Greeks, as soon as they came to the spot, cut down,235 being in haste to get out of the country as soon as possible. 3. The Macrones, however, equipped with wicker shields, and spears, and hair tunics, were drawn up on the opposite side of the crossing-place; they were animating one another, and throwing stones into the river.236 They did not hit our men, or cause them any inconvenience.
4. At this juncture one of the peltasts came up to Xenophon, saying that he had been a slave at Athens, and adding that he knew the language of these men. “I think, indeed,” said he, “that this is my country, and, if there is nothing to prevent, I should wish to speak to the people.” 5. “There is nothing to prevent,” replied Xenophon; “so speak to them, and first ascertain what people they are.” When he asked them, they said that they were the Macrones. “Inquire, then,” said Xenophon, “why they are drawn up to oppose us, and wish to be our enemies.” 6. They replied, “Because you come against our country.” The generals then told him to acquaint them that we were not come with any wish to do them injury, but that we were returning to Greece after having been engaged in war with the king, and that we were desirous to reach the sea. 7. They asked if the Greeks would give pledges to this effect; and the Greeks replied that they were willing both to give and receive them. The Macrones accordingly presented the Greeks with a Barbarian lance, and the Greeks gave them a Grecian one; for they said that such were their usual pledges. Both parties called the gods to witness.
8. After these mutual assurances, the Macrones immediately assisted them in cutting away the trees, and made a passage for them, as if to bring them over, mingling freely among the Greeks; they also gave such facilities as they could for buying provisions, and conducted them through their country for three days, until they brought them to the confines of the Colchians. 9. Here was a range of hills,237 high, but accessible, and upon them the Colchians were drawn up in array. The Greeks, at first, drew up against them in a line,238 with the intention of marching up the hill in this disposition; but afterwards the generals thought proper to assemble and deliberate how they might engage with the best effect. 10. Xenophon then said it appeared to him that they ought to relinquish the arrangement in line, and to dispose the troops in columns;239 “for a line,” pursued he, “will be broken at once, as we shall find the hills in some parts impassable, though in others easy of access; and this disruption will immediately produce despondency in the men, when, after being ranged in a regular line, they find it dispersed. 11. Again, if we advance drawn up very many deep, the enemy will stretch beyond us on both sides, and will employ the parts that outreach us in any way they may think proper; and if we advance only a few deep, it would not be at all surprising if our line be broken through by showers of missiles and men falling upon us in large bodies. If this happen in any part, it will be ill for the whole extent of the line. 12. I think, then, that having formed our companies in columns, we should keep them so far apart from each other as that the last companies on each side may be beyond the enemy’s wings. Thus our extreme companies will both outflank the line of the enemy, and, as we march in file, the bravest of our men will close with the enemy first, and wherever the ascent is easiest, there each division will direct its course. 13. Nor will it be easy for the enemy to penetrate into the intervening spaces, when there are companies on each side, nor will it be easy to break through a column as it advances; while, if any one of the companies be hard pressed, the neighbouring one will support it; and if but one of the companies can by any path attain the summit, the enemy will no longer stand their ground.” 14. This plan was approved, and they threw the companies into columns. Xenophon, riding along from the right wing to the left, said. “Soldiers, the enemy whom you see before you, are now the only obstacle to hinder us from being where we have long been eager to be. These, if we can, we must eat up alive.”240
15. When the men were all in their places, and they had formed the companies into columns, there were about eighty companies of heavy-armed men, and each company consisted of about eighty men. The peltasts and archers they divided into three bodies, each about six hundred men, one of which they placed beyond the left wing, another beyond the right, and the third in the centre. 16. The generals then desired the soldiers to make their vows241 to the gods; and having made them, and sung the pæan, they moved forward. Cheirisophus and Xenophon, and the peltasts that they had with them, who were beyond the enemy’s flanks, pushed on; 17. and the enemy, observing their motions, and hurrying forward to receive them, were drawn off, some to the right and others to the left, and left a great void in the centre of their line; 18. when the peltasts in the Arcadian division, whom Æschines the Acarnanian commanded, seeing them separate, ran forward in all haste, thinking that they were taking to flight; and these were the first that reached the summit. The Arcadian heavy-armed troop, of which Cleanor the Orchomenian was captain, followed them. 19. But the enemy, when once the Greeks began to run, no longer stood their ground, but went off in flight, some one way and some another.
Having passed the summit, the Greeks encamped in a number of villages containing abundance of provisions. 20. As to other things here, there was nothing at which they were surprised; but the number of bee-hives was extraordinary, and all the soldiers that ate of the combs, lost their senses, vomited, and were affected with purging, and none of them were able to stand upright; such as had eaten only a little were like men greatly intoxicated, and such as had eaten much were like mad-men, and some like persons at the point of death. 21. They lay upon the ground, in consequence, in great numbers, as if there had been a defeat; and there was general dejection. The next day no one of them was found dead; and they recovered their senses about the same hour that they had lost them on the preceding day; and on the third and fourth days they got up as if after having taken physic.242
22. From hence they proceeded two days’ march, seven parasangs, and arrived at Trebisond, a Greek city, of large population, on the Euxine Sea; a colony of Sinope, but lying in the territory of the Colchians. Here they stayed about thirty days, encamping in the villages of the Colchians, 23. whence they made excursions and plundered the country of Colchis. The people of Trebisond provided a market for the Greeks in the camp, and entertained them in the city; and made them presents of oxen, barley-meal, and wine. 24. They negotiated with them also on behalf of the neighbouring Colchians, those especially who dwelt in the plain, and from them too were brought presents of oxen.
25. Soon after, they prepared to perform the sacrifice which they had vowed. Oxen enough had been brought them to offer to Jupiter the Preserver, and to Hercules, for their safe conduct, and whatever they had vowed to the other gods. They also celebrated gymnastic games upon the hill where they were encamped, and chose Dracontius a Spartan, (who had become an exile from his country when quite a boy, for having involuntarily killed a child by striking him with a dagger,) to prepare the course and preside at the contests. 26. When the sacrifice was ended, they gave the hides243 to Dracontius, and desired him to conduct them to the place where he had made the course. Dracontius, pointing to the place where they were standing, said, “This hill is an excellent place for running, in whatever direction the men may wish.” “But how will they be able,” said they, “to wrestle on ground so rough and bushy?” “He that falls,” said he, “will suffer the more.” 27. Boys, most of them from among the prisoners, contended in the short course, and in the long course above sixty Cretans ran; while others were matched in wrestling, boxing, and the pancratium. It was a fine sight; for many entered the lists, and as their friends were spectators, there was great emulation. 28. Horses also ran; and they had to gallop down the steep, and, turning round in the sea, to come up again to the altar. In the descent, many rolled down; but in the ascent, against the exceedingly steep ground, the horses could scarcely get up at a walking pace. There was consequently great shouting, and laughter, and cheering from the people.
Footnotes:
1 Darius II., surnamed Nothus, who reigned from B. C. 423 to B. C. 404, the year in which Cyrus went up to Babylon.
2 Several children of his are mentioned by Plutarch, Life of Artax. c. i. 27.
3 Afterwards Artaxerxes II., surnamed Mnemon; he began his reign B. C. 405.
4 Εἰς Καστωλοῦ πεδίον.] In each of the provinces of the Persian empire, certain open places, plains or commons, were appointed for the assembly and review of troops. See i. 2. 11; 9. 7; Hellen. 43. Heeren, Ideen, vol. ii. p. 486. Castolus is mentioned as a city of Lydia by Stephanus of Byzantium. Kühner.
5 Τῶν Ἑλλήνων —— ὁπλίτας —— τριακοσίους.] Three hundred of the Greeks that were in his pay, or of such as he could then procure.
6 A city and district in the south-western part of Arcadia.
7 Ὑπῆρχε τῷ Κύρῳ.] “Partibus et consiliis ejus [Cyri] favebat.” Schneider. “Cyro addicta et adjumento erat.” Kühner. Compare v. 6. 23; Hellen. vii. 5. 5.
8 Ὅστις —— τῶν παρὰ βασιλέως.] We must understand those who are called ἔφοδοι, Cyrop. viii. 6. 16: compare Œcon. iv. 6. Zeune. They were officers appointed to visit the satrapies annually, and make a report respecting the state of them to the king.
9 Οὕτω διατιθεὶς ἀπεπέμπετο, κ. τ. λ.] “He sent them all away (after) so disposing them, that they were friends rather to himself than the king.”
10 By this term are meant chiefly the Asiatics that were about Cyrus. The Greeks called all people Barbarians that were not of their own nation.
11 Ἀποστῆναι πρὸς Κῦρον.] These words are regarded as spurious by Schneider, on the suggestion of Wolf and Wyttenbach. Krüger and Kühner retain them, as added explicationis causá.
12 The daric was a Persian gold coin, generally supposed to have derived its name from Darius I.; but others think this doubtful. From c. vii. 18, it appears that three hundred darics were equal to a talent. If the talent be estimated therefore, as in Mr. Hussey’s Essay on Anc. Weights and Money, ch. iii. sect. 12, at £243 15s., the value of the daric will be 16s. 3d. The sum given to Clearchus will then be £8125.
13 Ξένος.] I have translated this word by guest-friend, a convenient term, which made its appearance in our language some time ago. The ξένοι were bound by a league of friendship and hospitality, by which each engaged to entertain the other, when he visited him.
14 A town of Arcadia, on the borders of Achaia.
15 Τό τε βαρβαρικὸν καὶ τὸ Ἑλληνικὸν τὸ ἐνταῦθα στράτευμα.] There has been much dispute about the exact signification of ἐνταῦθα in this place. Zeune would have it mean “illuc, in illum locum ubi sunt Pisidæ;” and Krüger thinks that “towards Sardis” is intended. But this is to do violence to the word; I have followed Weiske and Kühner, who give it its ordinary signification. “Barbarorum et Græcorum [exercitum],” says Kühner, “quem Cyrus ibi, ubi versabatur, collectum habebat.” The τὸ before ἐνταῦθα is an addition of Dindorf’s, which Kühner pronounces unnecessary.
16 The πελτασταὶ were troops armed with a light shield, called πέλτη, holding a middle place between the ὁπλῖται and ψιλοί. They were first made an efficient part of the Greek forces by Iphicrates: see his Life in Corn. Nep.; and Xen. Hellen. iv. 4. 16; 3. 12.
17 Xenophon begins his account of the expedition from Sardis, because he there joined the army, but afterwards constantly computes from Ephesus, the sea-port from whence he began his journey. Stanford.
18 Σταθμοός.] The word σταθμός means properly a station or halting-place at the end of a day’s march, of which the length varied, but was generally about five parasangs.
19 The parasang in Xenophon is equal to thirty stadia; see ii. 2. 6. So Herodotus, ii. 6; v. 53. Mr. Ainsworth, following Mr. Hamilton and Colonel Leake, makes the parasang equal to 3 English miles, 180 yards, or 3 geographical miles of 1822 yards each. Travels in the Track, pref. p. xii. Thus five parasangs would be a long day’s march; these marches were more than seven; and the next day’s was eight. But Rennell thinks the parasang not more than 2.78 English miles. Mr. Hussey, Anc. Weights, &c., Append. sect. 12, makes it 3 miles, 787-1/2 yards.
20 The plethrum was 100 Greek or 101.125 English feet. See Hussey, Append. sect. 10, p. 232.
21 The king of Persia was called the Great King by the Greek writers, on account of the great extent of his dominions, or of the number of kings subject to him; a title similar to that of the successors of Mahomet, Grand Signior.
22 This is the reading of the name adopted by Dindorf and Kühner; most other editors have Socrates, which occurs in four manuscripts; two have Sosias, and one Sostes.
23 The word is here used, as Spelman observes, in a more general sense than ordinary, to signify all that were not heavy-armed.
24 Τὰ Λύκαια.] The festival of Lycæan Jove is mentioned by Pausanias, viii. 2. 1, and the gymnastic contests held in it by Pindar, Ol. ix. 145; xiii. 153; Nem. x. 89. Schneider.—Mount Lycæum was sacred to both Jupiter and Pan. Kühner.
25 Στλεγγίδες.] Generally supposed to be the same as the Latin strigilis, a flesh-scraper; an instrument used in the bath for cleansing the skin. To this interpretation the preference seems to be given by Kühner and Bornemann, to whom I adhere. Schneider, whom Krüger follows, would have it a head-band or fillet, such as was worn by women, and by persons that went to consult oracles. Poppo observes that the latter sort of prizes would be less acceptable to soldiers than the former. There were, however, women in the Grecian camp, as will afterwards be seen, to whom the soldiers that gained the prizes might have presented them. The sense of the word must therefore be left doubtful. The sense of strigilis is supported by Suidas; see Sturz’s Lex. s. v.
26 Τὸν Σάτυρον.] Silenus. See Servius ad Virg. Ecl. vi. 13.
27 Κατὰ ἴλας καὶ κατὰ τάξεις.] Ἰλη signifies properly a troop of horse, consisting of 64 men; and τάξις, a company of foot, which Xenophon, in the Cyropædia, makes to consist of 100 men.
28 Ἐφ’ ἁρμαμάξης.] The harmamaxa was a Persian carriage, probably covered, for women and children. See Q. Curt. iii. 3, 23; Wesseling ad Herod, vii. 41.
29 Προβάλεσθαι τὰ ὅπλα.] “To hold out the shield and the spear, the one to defend the person, and the other to repel or attack an adversary.” Kühner.
30 Φοινικιστὴν βασίλειον.] Æmilius Portus, on the authority of Zonaras, Lex. p. 1818, interprets this “dyer of the king’s purple;” an interpretation repugnant to what follows. Morus makes it purpuratus; Larcher, vexillarius, because in Diod. Sic. xiv. 26 a standard is called φοινικίς: Brodæus gives ‘unus è regiis familiaribus, puniceâ veste indutus, non purpurea.’ “Without doubt he was one of the highest Persian nobles, as he is joined with the ὕπαρχοι δυνάσται.” Kühner.
31 Εἶδε.] This seems to be the reading of all the manuscripts, and is retained by Poppo, Bornemann, Dindorf, and Kühner. But Schneider and Weiske read εἶλε, “took possession of,” on the suggestion of Muretus, Var. Lect. xv. 10, who thought it superfluous for Xenophon to say that Cyrus merely saw the tents. Lion, however, not unreasonably supposes this verb to be intended to mark the distance at which Cyrus passed from the tents, that is, that he passed within sight of them, the Cilicians having retired only a short space to the rear.
32 Σήσαμον καὶ μελίνην καὶ κέγχρον.] Sesamum is a leguminous plant, well known in the East; the seeds of it resemble hemp-seed, and are boiled and eaten like rice. Μελίνη, panicum, is a plant resembling millet. Κέγχρος, milium, millet, is far the best known of the three to Europeans. Panic bears its grain in ears; millet, in bunches.
33 Καπηλεῖα.] Καπηλεῖον is often used in the sense of a tavern; sometimes in a more general sense, as any kind of shop. We may suppose that all those remained behind who had anything to sell, with the hope of getting profit.
34 He himself, the very person who had desired Cyrus to send for him, refused to go; this refusal being given for the sake of keeping up appearances.
35 Ἐκ τούτων.] “Ex his, secundum hæc, h. e. in hac rerum conditione.” Kühner. Bornemann interprets simply post hæc.
36 Οὔτε στρατηγοῦ οὔτε ἰδιώτου ὄφελος οὐδέν.] “No profit (or use) either of a general or private soldier.”
37 Διὰ φιλίας τῆς χώρας.] The earlier editions have ὡς before διὰ, of which, as being useless, Schneider first suggested the omission; and which has accordingly been rejected by subsequent editors. The guide was to conduct them only through regions that were friendly to Cyrus, or where he could procure them a friendly reception.
38 Ὥσπερ πάλιν τὸν στόλον Κύρου μὴ ποιουμένου.] About the meaning of these words there has been much dispute. The translation which I have given is that of Bornemann, “quasi retro Cyrus navigaturus non esset,” which is adopted by Kühner. “The speaker assumes,” says Bornemann, “that Cyrus is directing his march against the Pisidians or some other rebellious people, and that, when he has reduced them, he will return to his province.”
39 The reference is to the three hundred Greeks that went up with Cyrus to Babylon under the command of Xenias the Parrhasian, i. 1. 2.
40 Ἦσαν δὲ ταῦτα δύο τείχη.] As the fem. πύλαι precedes, and as the gates were not properly the τείχη, but the space between them, Weiske conjectures ἦσαν δὲ ἐνταῦθα, κ. τ. λ., which Kühner and others approve, but have not admitted into the text. Kühner interprets τείχη “castella,” and I have followed him. When Xenophon speaks, a little below, of τείχη εἰς τὴν θάλατταν καθήκοντα, he seems to mean walls attached to the fortress nearest to the sea. So when he says that at each of the fortresses, ἐπὶ τοῖς τείχεσιν ἀμφοτέροις, were gates, he appears to signify that there were gates in the walls attached to each of the fortresses. “At a distance of about six hundred yards, corresponding with the three stadia of Xenophon, are the ruins of a wall, which can be traced amid a dense shrubbery, from the mountains down to the sea-shore, where it terminates in a round tower.” Ainsworth, p. 59.
41 “That is, within the two fortresses and beyond them, viz. in Syria.” Kühner.
42 Εἰς ζώνην.] Nominally to furnish her with girdles, or to supply ornaments for her girdle, it being the custom with the Persian kings to bestow places on their queens and other favourites ostensibly for the purpose of furnishing them with articles of dress, food, or other conveniences. See Herod, ii. 98; Plato, Alcib. I. c. 40; Cic. in Verr. iii. 23; Corn. Nepos, Life of Themistocles, c. 10.
43 Reckoning the talent at £243 15s., the mina (60 = a talent) will be £4 1s. 3d., and five minæ £20 6s. 3d.
44 Απεσπᾶτο.] “Drew itself away from” its pursuers. There are various readings of this word. Kühner adopts ἀπεσπα, in the sense of “drew off its pursuers from the rest of the huntsmen.” Bornemann reads ἀπέπτατο.
45 It would be needless to repeat all that has been said as to the construction of this passage; I have adopted the explication of Kühner.
46 Επὶ Πύλας.] A strait or defile through which the road lay from Mesopotamia into Babylonia; hence called the Pylæ Babyloniæ. It is mentioned by Stephanus Byzantinus sub voce Χαρμάνδη. Ainsworth, p. 80, places it fourteen miles north of Felújah, and a hundred and eight miles north of Babylon.
47 Καπίθη.] A measure, as is said below, equal to two Attic chœnices. The Attic chœnix is valued by Mr. Hussey, Essay on Ancient Weights, &c., ch. 13, sect. 4, at 1.8467 pint.
48 The siglus is regarded by some as the same with the Hebrew shekel, but erroneously, as the siglus was of less value than the shekel. The obolus is valued by Mr. Hussey at something more than three half-pence; seven oboli and a half would therefore be about a shilling.
49 Σκεπάσματα is the reading of Dindorf, but it ought rather to be στεγάσματα, if the distinction of Krüger and Kühner, who adopt the latter, be right; viz. that στίπασμα signifies a covering to wrap round the body, and στέγασμα a shelter against sun or rain. See Arrian, iii. 29. This mode of crossing rivers, we learn from Dr. Layard, is still practised in Armenia both by men and women.
50 See note on i. 2. 22.
51 This was a custom among the Persians on such occasions, as is expressly signified by Diodorus Siculus, xvii. 30 in his account of the condemnation of Charidemus, at the command of Darius.
52 Σκηπτούχων.] “Eunuchs, who, by the institution of Cyrus the elder, formed the king’s body-guard. See Cyrop. vii. 5. 58.” Zeune.
53 Οὐ μεμνῆσθαι.] This is the reading in all books and manuscripts. But a future seems to be wanted rather than a perfect. Hutchinson and others render it “te non fore memorem.” Should we read μεμνήσεσθαι?
54 Ἦσαν ἄρχοντες καὶ στράτηγοι καὶ ἡγεμόνες τέτταρες.] Weiske considers the words καὶ στράτηγοι καὶ ἡγεμόνες spurious; and Schneider and some others are of his opinion. Kühner thinks that they are genuine, and explicative of the more general term ἄρχοντες.
55 Ὀργυιαί.] The ὀργυιά was equal to 6.0675 English feet. See Hussey on Ancient Weights, &c., Append. sect. 10.
56 Τοῦ Μηδίας τείχους.] As many of the best manuscripts have Μηδείας, in this passage as well as in ii. 4. 12, ii. 4. 27, and vii. 8. 25, Kühner adopts that reading, under the notion that the wall was named from Medea, the wife of the last king of the Medes, whom the Persians conquered and despoiled of his dominions. “Those who defend the reading Μηδίας,” continues Kühner, “suppose the name to be derived from the country of Media, and believe, with Mannert, (Geog. i. p. 330,) that it is the same wall which Semiramis built to defend her kingdom on the side of Media; but this opinion rests on very weak arguments.” Ainsworth, p. 180, thinks that it extended from the Tigris to the Euphrates, and that the site of it is indicated by the ruins now called Sidd Nimrud, or “the Wall of Nimrod.”
57 “These canals however flowed, not from the Tigris into the Euphrates, but from the Euphrates into the Tigris, as is shown not only by Herodotus, Diodorus, Arrian, Pliny, Ammianus, but by later writers.” Kühner. But “the difference in the level of the rivers is so slight that —— it is probable that by merely altering the diagonal direction of a canal, the waters could be made to flow either way; certainly so at certain seasons.” Ainsworth, p. 89.
58 See note on i. 1. 9.
59 Ἀμφὶ ἀγορὰν πλήθουσαν.] The time from the tenth hour till noon. The whole day was divided by the Greeks into four parts, πρωῖ, ἀμφὶ ἀγορὰν πλήθουσαν, μεσημβρία, δείλη. Kühner.
60 The words κατὰ τὸ μέσον, which were introduced into the text by Leunclavius, as if absolutely necessary, and from a comparison of Diod. Siculus, xiv. 2, Bornemann and others have omitted. I have thought it well to express them in the translation. Compare sect. 22, 23.
61 The words in brackets, as being at variance with what is said immediately before, that the Persians had helmets on their heads, Wyttenbach, Weiske, and most other critics have condemned as an interpolation of some copyist. Kühner defends them an the ground that they do not interfere with what precedes, but merely express a general custom of the Persians. Jacobs for ἄλλους conjectures παλαιούς, which Lion has received into his text; but παλαιούς does not suit well with the present διακινδυνεύειν. For my own part, I would rather see the words out of the text than in it, if for no other reason than that they break the current of the narrative. Dindorf very judiciously leaves them in brackets.
62 Δείλη.] See note on sect. 1. of this chap. “This division of the day was also distinguished into two parts, δείλη πρωῖα, and δείλη οψία, the early part of the afternoon, (which is here meant,) and the evening.” Kühner.
63 Ἐν πλαισίῳ πλήρει ἀνθρώπων.] “In an oblong full of men,” i. e. the men being close together.
64 Οὐ πάνυ πρὸς αὐτῷ τῶ στρατεύματι.] “Satis longinquo à suis intervallo.”—Weiske.
65 Τὰ ἱερὰ —— καὶ τὰ σφάγια καλά.] The ἱερὰ are omens from the entrails of the victims; the σφάγια were omens taken from the appearances and motions of the animals when led to sacrifice. This is the explanation given by Sturz in the Lexicon Xenophonteum, and adopted by Kühner. Compare ii, 1. 9.
66 Dindorf has ὁ δὲ Κλέαρχος εἶπεν, which is the reading of some manuscripts; others have Ξενοφῶν instead of Κλέαρχος. Dindorf prefers the former, assuming that Clearchus had probably ridden up to Cyrus on that occasion; but this is an assumption which he had no right to make, as nothing can be gathered from the text in favour of it. Bornemann and Kühner think it better to consider both names as equally interpolations, and to read simply ὁ δὲ εἶπεν, Xenophon of course being understood.
67 Δεύτερον.] The watchword seems to have been passed from the extremity of one wing (the right I should suppose) to the extremity of the other, and then back again, that the soldiers, by repeating it twice, might be less likely to forget it. But as it would thus be passed only twice, not oftener, it would appear that we should read τὸ δεύτερον. Krüger de Authen. Anab. p. 33. Kühner observes that the article is not absolutely necessary. I have translated “the second time,” as the sense seems to require. Some have imagined that the word δεύτερον implies that a second watchword, another given out for the occasion, was passing round; but for this supposition there seems no ground. As there is no answer to the inquiry, τίς παραγγέλλει, Krüger thinks that some words have dropped out of the text.
68 Ἐξεκύμαινε.] This metaphor, from the swelling and heaving of a wave, is imitated by Arrian, Anab. ii. 10. 4, and praised in the treatise de Eloc. 84, attributed to Demetrius Phalereus.
69 Ἡγοῦνται.] Schneider, Kühner, and some other editors have ἡγοῦντο but Poppo and Dindorf seem to be right in adopting the present, notwithstanding the following optative.
70 See c. 6, sect. 11.
71 Ἐπὶ ταῖς βασιλέως θύραις.] For “at the king’s palace.” “The king’s palace was styled among the ancient Persians, as in the modern Constantinople, the Porte. Agreeably to the customs of other despots of the East, the kings of Persia resided in the interior of their palaces; seldom appearing in public, and guarding all means of access to their persons. The number of courtiers, masters of ceremonies, guards, and others was endless. It was through them alone that access could be obtained to the monarch.” Heeren, Researches, &c. vol. i. p 403. See Cyrop. i. 3. 2; 2. 3, seqq. Corn. Nep. Life of Conon, c. 3.
72 Ἀξιοῦσθαι.] Lion, Poppo, Kühner, and some other editors, read ἀξιοῦν, but the passive suits better with the preceding φαίνεσθαι.
73 Πρὸς τῶν Ἑλλήνων.] “These words,” says Kühner, “have wonderfully exercised the abilities of commentators.” The simplest mode of interpretation, he then observes, is to take πρὸς in the sense of versus, “towards,” comparing iv. 3. 26; ii. 2. 4; but he inclines, on the whole, to make the genitive Ἑλλήνων depend on τούτους understood: ἐκφεύγει τῶν Ἑλλήνων πρὸς (τούτους) οἵ ἔτυχον, κ. τ. λ., though he acknowledges that this construction is extremely forced, and that he can nowhere find anything similar to it. Brodæus suggested πρὸς τὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων, scil. στρατόπεδον, and Weiske and Schneider would read πρὸς τὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων στρατόπεδον. Other conjectures it is unnecessary to notice.
74 Ἀναπτύσσειν.] Literally “to fold back.” Whether we are to understand that one part of the wing was drawn behind the other, is not very clear. The commentators are not all agreed as to the exact sense that the word ought to bear. Some would interpret it by explicare, “to open out,” or “extend,” and this indeed seems more applicable to περιπτύξαντες which precedes; for the Greeks might lengthen out their line that the king’s troops might not surround them. But on the whole, the other interpretation seems to have most voices in favour of it.
75 Ἐκ πλέονος.] Sc. διαστήματος: they began to flee when the Greeks were at a still greater distance than before.
76 Μέχρι κώμης τινός.] This is generally supposed to have been Cunaxa, where, according to Plutarch, the battle was fought. Ainsworth, p. 244, identifies Cunaxa with Imséy’ab, a place 36 miles north of Babylon.
77 The infantry seem to have fled; the cavalry only were left.
78 Ἐπὶ πέλτης ἐπὶ ξύλου.] So stands the passage in Dindorf’s text; but most editors, from Schneider downwards, consider ἐπὶ ξύλου to be a mere interpretation of ἐπὶ πέλτης, that has crept by some accident into the text, and either enclose it in brackets or wholly omit it. Πέλτη is said by Hesychius and Suidas to be the same as δόρυ or λόγχη: and Krüger refers to Philostratus, Icon. ii. 82, ἐπὶ τῆς πέλτης ἀετός. In Cyrop. vii. 1, 4, the insigne of Cyrus the elder is said to have been a golden eagle, ἐπὶ δόρατος μακροῦ ἀνατεταμένος. Πέλτη accordingly being taken in this sense, all is clear, and ἐπὶ ξύλου is superfluous. Kühner gives great praise to the conjecture of Hutchinson, ἐπὶ πέλτης ἐπὶ ξυστοῦ, who, taking πέλτη in the sense of a shield, supposed that the eagle was mounted on a shield, and the shield on a spear. But the shield would surely have been a mere encumbrance, and we had better be rid of it. Yet to take πέλτη in the sense of a spear, unusual in Xenophon, is not altogether satisfactory; and it would be well if we could fairly admit into the text Leunclavius’s conjecture, ἐπὶ παλτοῦ.
79 Ἀνατεταμένον.] This word is generally understood to signify that the eagle’s wings were expanded. See Liddell and Scott’s Lexicon; and Dr. Smith’s Dict. of G. and R. Ant. sub Signa Militaria.
80 Πυνθανόμενοι.] Schneider and others would omit this word, as an apparent interpolation. I have followed Kühner’s interpretation.
81 Φέρεσθαι ἔρημοι.] Before Φέρεσθαι is to be understood ὥστε, as Zeune and Weiske observe. Kühner remarks that ἔρημοι should properly be referred to both πέλται and ἅμαξαι: the shields were without owners, and the waggons without their contents, as having been plundered by the enemy.
82 Περὶ πλήθουσαν ἀγοράν.] See i. 8. 1.
83 See i. 9. 3.
84 Θεόπομπος.] This is the reading of six manuscripts; others have Ξενοφῶν. 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 Θεόπομπος 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 Θεοπόμπος δὲ Πρόξενον τοῦτο εἰπεῖν φησι, 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.
85 As Xenophon, in the first book, has enumerated only 84 days’ march, 517 parasangs, which make but 15,510 stadia, Zeune thinks that the 9 days’ march, and 18 parasangs, here added, are to be understood as forming the route from Ephesus to Sardis. Krüger is inclined to think the passage an interpolation.
86 Εἰς τὸν πρῶτον σταθμόν.] This is the σταθμός mentioned in i. 10. 1, being that from which the army of Cyrus started on the day when the battle took place.
87 Bornemann observes that the sacrifice of the wolf seems to have been the act of the Persians, referring to Plutarch de Is. et Os., where it is said that it was a custom with them to sacrifice that animal. “They thought the wolf,” he adds, “the son and image of Ahrimanes, as appears from Kleuker in Append. ad Zendavestam, T. II. P. iii. pp. 78, 84; see also Brisson, p. 388.”
88 Ἀποδρᾶναι καὶ ἀποφυγεῖν.] The first means to flee, so that it cannot be discovered whither the fugitive is gone; the second, so that he cannot be overtaken. Kühner ad i. 4. 8. “Fugâ vel clandestinâ vel apertâ.” Weiske.
89 Ἄριοστον.] Best, apparently, on account of the loudness or clearness of his voice.
90 The arms, as Kühner observes, were piled in front of the men’s quarters. The affair of the ass was an invention of Clearchus to draw off the thoughts of the soldiers from the subject of their apprehension. Polyænus, iii. 9. 4, speaks of a similar stratagem having been adopted by Iphicrates.
91 Ἄριοστον.] This word answers to the Latin prandium, a meal taken in the early part of the day. We cannot here render it “dinner.”
92 I have translated this passage as I think that the drift of the narrative requires. Krüger refers σπένδοιτο to Clearchus, and thinks that by ἀυτοῖς τοῖς ἀνδράσι are meant the Persian deputies. Some critics suppose that by those words the men who were to get provisions are intended. To me nothing seems consistent with the context but to refer σπένδοιτο to the king, and to understand by ἀυτοῖς τοῖς ἀνδράσι the messengers from the Greeks.
93 Τον ἐπιτήδειον.] Scil. παίεσθαι, pœnæ idoneum, pœnû dignum. Kühner.
94 Προσελάμβανε.] Manum operi admovebat. Kühner.
95 Τὸν ἐγκέφαλον.] Literally “the brain.” Dulcis medulla earum [palmarum] in cacumine, quod cerebrum appellant. Plin. H. N. xiii. 4. See also Theophr. ii. 8; Galen. de Fac. simpl. Medic. iv. 15. It is generally interpreted medulla, “marrow” or “pith,” but it is in reality a sort of bud at the top of the palm-tree, containing the last tender leaves, with flowers, and continuing in that state two years before it unfolds the flower; as appears from Boryd. St. Vincent Itiner. t. i. p. 223, vers. Germ., who gives his information on the authority of Du Petit Thouars. The French call it choux; the Germans, Kohl, Schneider. “By modern travellers it is called the cabbage of the palm; it ‘is composed’ (says Sir Joseph Banks) ‘of the rudiments of the future leaves of the palm-tree, enveloped in the bases or footstalks of the actual leaves; which enclose them as a tight box or trunk would do.’ It forms a mass of convolutions, exquisitely beautiful and delicate; and wonderful to appearance, when unfolded. It is also exceedingly delicate to the taste. Xenophon has justly remarked that the trees from whence it was taken withered.” Rennell’s Illustrations of the Exp. of Cyrus, p. 118.
96 During this time Tissaphernes went to Babylon to the king, and was rewarded with the hand of his daughter, and the province of which Cyrus had been Satrap. Diod. Sic. xiv. 26. See sect. 8.
97 Δεξιὰς.] That is, fidem regis nomine dabant. See the commentators on Cyrop. iv. 2. 7: δεξιὰν δὸς, ἵνα φέρωμεν καὶ τοις ἄλλοις τᾶυτα. Poppo. So it is said in Latin dextram ferre. See Breitenbach on Xen. Agesil. iii. 4
98 Ἦγε.] From iii. 4. 13, it appears that we must refer this verb to Orontes. See note on sect. 1. Whether Tissaphernes and Orontes both married daughters of the king, is uncertain. If only one of them, Xenophon is more likely to be in the right than Diodorus Siculus. Orontes was satrap of Armenia, iii. 5. 17. Rhodogune, a daughter of Artaxerxes, is said by Plutarch (Vit. Art. c. 27) to have been married to Orætes, who may be the same as Xenophon’s Orontes.
99 Ἐπὶ γάμῳ.] These words signify literally for or upon marriage. The true interpretation, says Krüger, is, doubtless, “in order that he might have her, or live with her, in wedlock,” the marriage ceremony having been, it would seem, previously performed at Babylon.
100 Πληγὰς ἐνέτεινον ἀλλήλοις.] Whether this signifies that they actually inflicted blows on one another, or only threatened them, may admit of some doubt. The former notion is adopted by the Latin translators, by Sturz in his Lexicon, and by the commentators generally.
101 See i. 7. 15.
102 i. 2. 22.
103 Zeune thinks that Xenophon may possibly mean himself; but this is mere conjecture.
104 Διελόντες.] An excellent conjectural emendation of Holtzmann for the old reading διελθόντες. Kühner.—The stratagem of Tissaphernes was similar to that by which Themistocles expedited the departure of Xerxes from Greece.
105 i. 7. 15.
106 Οὔτ’ ἀπὸ ποίου ἀν τάχους φεύγων τις ἀποφύγοι.] This is Dindorf’s reading. Bornemann and Kühner have οὔτ’ ἀπὸ ποίου ἀν τάχους οὔτε ὅποι ἀν τις φεύγων ἀποφύγοι, on the authority, as they say, of the best copies. Dindorf thought with Schæfer, ad Greg. Cor. p. 492, that the words οὔτε ὅποι ἀν were superfluous, and consequently omitted them. Bornemann and Kühner see no reason why they should not be retained.
107 Τὸν μέγιστον ἔφεδρον.] Ἔφεδρος properly meant a gladiator or wrestler, who, when two combatants were engaged, stood ready to attack the one that should prove victorious. See Sturz. Lex. Xen.; Schol. in Soph. Aj. 610; Hesychius; D’Orvill. ad Charit. p. 338.
108 Ἀναστρέφοιο.] “Ut dominus versere, vivias, domini partes sustineas:” Ἀν must be repeated from the preceding clause; unless that particle, as Dindorf thinks, has dropped out from before ἀναστρέφοιο. Kühner.
109 There is in the text, as Krüger observes, a confusion of the two constructions, ἀκούσαιμι τὸ ὄνομα τούτου, ὅστις, and ἀκούσαιμι, τις.
110 Ἅ ἡμῖν φίλια ὄντα.] I have here departed from Dindorf’s text, which has ἅ ὑμεῖς φίλια ὄντα, κ. τ. λ.; a reading much less satisfactory than the other, to which Schneider, Bornemann, and Kühner adhere.
111 Ταμιεύεσθαι.] This word is used in the same sense, 3. 47; iv. 1. 18; Thucyd. vi. 18; Plutarch, Timol. c. 27.
112 Τὴν δ’ ἐπὶ τῇ καρδιᾳ —— ἔχοι.] Sc. ὄρθην. The sense is, “but to wear a tiara erect on the heart, that is, to have a kingly spirit and to aspire to dominion, is what another, by your aid, might be able to do.” Tissaphernes, by this expression, wished to make it understood that he might possibly, with the support of the Greeks, aspire to the throne of Persia himself. A similar metaphor is noticed by Schæfer, (ad Greg. Corinth. p. 491.) in Philostratus v. a. iii. p. 131: δοκεῖ μοι καὶ τὸν προγνωσόμενον ἄνορ ὑγιῶς ἑαυτοῦ ἔχειν ——’ καθαρῶς δὲ αὐτὸν προφητεύειν, ἑαυτοῦ καὶ τοῦ περὶ τῷ στέρνῳ τρίποδος συνιέντος. Kühner. See Cyrop. viii. 3. 13. Hutchison refers to Dion Chrysost. xiv. extr. Lucian Piscat. p. 213. See also Strabo, xv. p. 231, where the Persian tiara is said to be πίλημα πυργωτόν, in the shape of a tower; and Joseph. Ant. xx. 3. “The tiaras of the king’s subjects were soft and flexible: Schol. ad Plat. de Repub.” Krüger.
113 Ὡς εἰς ἀγορὰν.] “Consequently unarmed.” Krüger.
114 Ὡς ἀπολωλέκατε.] Jacobs interprets ὡς by quàm, as equivalent to quàm turpiter! quàm impiè! But such exclamations belong rather to modern writers than to the ancients. * * * Others have conjectured ἀθέως, ἀνοσίως, ὠμῶς, ἵσως, ὅλως, οὕτως. In one manuscript ὡς is omitted; an omission approved by Larcher, Porson and some others. Some, too, think that the sentence is ἀνακόλουθος, and that the author, forgetful how he commenced it, goes on with ὡς for ὅτι. Dindorf supposes that Cleanor must be regarded as too much provoked and agitated to mind the exact arrangement of his words. For my own part, I consider that those have the most reason on their side who think that we should read οὕτως, interpreting it, with Bornemann, so rashly, so unjustifiably. From οὕτως, written compendiously, ὡς might easily have sprung. Kühner.
115 Τῶν δὲ συνόντων, κ. τ. λ.] By a species of attraction for τοῖς δὲ συνοῦσι πᾶσιν, ὡς καταγελῶν αὐτῶν, ἀεὶ διελέγετο. Kühner.
116 Ἐπὶ ταῖς βασιλέως θύραις.] See ii. 4. 4.
117 Εἰς τὴν ἑσπέραν.] Vespertino tempore. Kühner
118 Ἐπὶ δὲ τὰ ὅπλα.] See note on ii. 2. 20.
119 εοις, οἷς ἔδει, θύειν.] Ut diis eis, quibus oporteret, sacra faceret. Those gods are to be understood, to whom it was established, by law or by custom, that whoever was entering on an expedition, such as that which Xenophon meditated, should offer sacrifice. They were therefore certain or appointed gods: comp. sect. 8; and vi. i. 22. Yet the absence of the article ought not to surprise us, even when special gods are meant. Kühner.—What gods they were, does not appear.
120 Δι’ αἰσχύνην.] They had regard for their character in the eyes of one another, fearing that they might seem faint-hearted; and regard for it in those of Cyrus, fearing that they might seem ungrateful. Kühner.—Αἰσχύνη is self-respect, apprehension of what others may think of us; and may be illustrated by Hom. Il. v.
Ἀλλήλους δ’ αἰδεῖσθε κατὰ κρατερὰς ὑσμίνας·
Αἰδομένων ἀνδρῶν πλέονες σόοι ἠὲ πέφανται·
“Have self-respect before one another in the violence of battle; of men who respect themselves, more are saved than killed.” Hutchinson cites A. Gellius, xix. 7: αἰσχύνη ἐστὶ φόβος δικαίον ψόγου, i. e. a fear of just blame.
121 Κηδεμών.] Cyrus, says Weiske, had his mother to take his part, the Greeks had no one to take theirs.
122 Καὶ τρωτοὶ καὶ θνητοὶ μᾶλλον.] “More vulnerable and mortal.” Alluding to the superiority of the Grecian armour over that of the Persians.
123 Τὸν ὑποστράτηγον.] Krüger, from v. 9. 36, and vi. 2. 11, concludes that the ὑποστράτηγος was he who was appointed to discharge the duties of the στράτηγος in his absence, or to take his place if he should be killed.
124 See ii. 2. 20.
125 Καιρόν.] Leunclavius makes this equivalent to “in vobis plurimum est situm.” Sturz, in his Lexicon Xenoph., says, “rerum status is est, ut vos in primis debeatis rebus consulere.” Toup, in his Emend. ad Suid., gives maximum momentum habetis.
126 See ii. 2. 20.
127 Τών καλλίστων ἐαυτὸν ἀξιώσαντα.] “Thinking himself worthy of the most beautiful (equipments).”
128 Τὸν θεόν.] Jupiter the Preserver. Kühner.
129 Αὔθις ἀφανιούντων.] Weiske, Schneider, and others omit the αὔθις. Bornemann, Dindorf, and Kühner preserve it, as it is found in six manuscripts, giving it, with Spohn, Lect. Theocr. i. p. 33, the sense of back again, as if the Persians had intended to make Athens disappear again as if it had never been. I think the word better left out. An American editor has conjectured αὐτὰς.
130 Γοῦν.] Some copies have οὖν. “The sense of γοῦν is this; ceteris rebus prætermissis, hoc quidem certissimum est, eos fugisse.” Kühner.
131 Εἰ ἄρα, κ. τ. λ.] Krüger admonishes the reader that these words must be taken negatively: whether—not.
132 Διήσουσιν.] Eight manuscripts have Διήσουσιν, which Bornemann has preferred. Dindorf also gave the preference to it in his first edition, but has subsequently adopted the other reading. Μήτε διοίσουσιν is interpreted by Bornemann, “if the rivers shall present no difference in any part of their course; if they be as broad at their sources as at their mouths.”
133 Αὐτοὶ εἴδομεν.] The Greeks had passed through a part of Lycaonia in their march up the country, i. 2. 19; when, however, it is not indicated that they saw much.
134 The allusion is to Odyss. ix. 83, where the lotus-eaters are mentioned:
The trees around them all their food produce,
Lotus the name, divine nectareous juice,
(Thence called Lotophagi,) which whoso tastes,
Insatiate riots in the sweet repasts,
Nor other home, nor other care intends,
But quits his house, his country, and his friends. Pope.
135 Περαίνειν.] Sc. τὸν λόγον. This is the sense in which this word has been taken, I believe, by most readers; as in Æsch. Pers. 699, and elsewhere. Sturz, in his Lexicon, seems to take it in the sense of to execute, to proceed to action.
136 Εἰ δὲ τι ἄλλο βέλτιον ἤ ταύτῃ.] Understand δοκεῖ ἔχειν. Kühner. “But if anything else (seems) better (to any one) than in this way.”
137 Ἐπειδὴ καὶ Λακεδαιμόνιός ἐστι.] The καὶ, also, refers to something understood: “since he is not only a brave man, but also a Lacedæmonian.” Kühner. The Lacedæmonians were then at the head of Greece: comp. v. 9. 26; vi. 6. 12. Zeune.
138 Πίστεως ἕνεκα.] To watch him, lest he should act treacherously. Kühner.
139 Πόλεμον ἀκήρυκτον.] Properly war in which there is no use for heralds, but in which all is violent and desperate; so that ἀκήρυκτος will be equivalent, according to Hesychius, to ἀδιάλλακτος, implacable, irreconcilable. See Erasm. Adag. iii. 3. 84. Sturz Lex. Others rather think it a deadly war, not commenced by sending heralds, and not to be terminated by sending them. Kühner. See Herod. v. 81.
140 Cyrus’s Greek auxiliaries for the expedition had consisted only of infantry; all his cavalry was either Asiatic or Thracian. The Thracian horse had deserted, and the Asiatic cavalry had gone over to Tissaphernes soon after the battle.
141 Τούτῳ μὲν.] As τίνες πέπανται immediately precedes, the singular τούτῳ rather startles the reader; but there are not wanting examples of similar irregularity.
142 Ἀτέλειαν.] Exemption, for instance, from keeping guard and keeping watch. Krüger.
143 Τῷ σφενδονᾶν ἐντεταγμένω ἐθέλοντι.] “To him willing to be a slinger, being enrolled in the company (of slingers).” This is the reading of Schneider, and Dindorf, and Bornemann. Kühner and some others prefer ἐν τῷ τεταγμένῳ, “in the place appointed him.”
144 Σπολάδες.] This form of the word is preferred by Dindorf, Schneider, Bornemann, and Kühner prefer στολάδες, both in this passage and in iv. 1. 18. Both forms seem to have been in use, and to have had the same signification; but σπολάς to have been the more common. See Pollux, 1. 135. Hesychius has πολὰς, χιτωνίσκος βαθὺς, σκύτινος, ὁ βύρσινος θώραξ. See Pollux, 7. 70; 10. 143. Suidas, Phavorinus, and Photius give similar interpretations.
145 Κρηπὶς δ’ ὑπῆν λιθίνη, κ. τ. λ.] The foundation appears to have risen twenty feet above the ground; so that the whole height of the wall would be a hundred and twenty feet. Mr. Ainsworth says that he found the ruins of the brick wall at Resen, which he considers to be the same with Larissa, “based on a rude and hard conglomerate rock, giving to them all the solidity and characteristics of being built of stone.” Travels in the Track, p. 139.
146 Cyrus the Great.
147 Ἐλάμβανον.] That the Medes did not willingly submit, but were overcome by force, is testified by Herodotus, and is apparent from what is said here; whence it follows that λαμβάνειν τὴν ἀρχὴν παρά τινος may be applied even when those who lose the government are forcibly deprived of it. Xenophon however is at variance with himself in the Cyropædia, where Cyrus is said to have succeeded to the throne by a marriage with the daughter of Cyaxares. Kühner.
148 Ἥλιον δὲ νεφέλη προκαλύψασα ἠφάνισε.] This reading has been adopted by Dindorf and others, from a conjecture of Brodæus or Muretus; the manuscripts have all ἥλιος δὲ νεφέλην προκάλυψας, except two, one of which has the ν erased in νεφέλην, and the other νεφέλῃ. Those who read with Dindorf refer to Plutarch de Placit. Philosoph. ii. 24, where the cause of an eclipse of the sun is said by some philosophers to be a condensation of clouds imperceptibly advancing over the disc. Bornemann and Kühner restore the reading of the manuscripts, which Langius thus interprets: sol nubem sibi prætendens se obscuravit; than which no better explanation has been offered. That we are not to suppose an eclipse of the sun to be signified in the text, is well observed by Bornemann; as Thales had previously ascertained the causes of such eclipses, and had foretold one, according to Herodotus i. 74; hence it is impossible to believe that Xenophon would have spoken of a solar eclipse himself, or have made the inhabitants speak of one, so irrationally. Hutchinson and Zeune absurdly understand τὴν πόλιν with ἠφάνισε.
149 Ἐξέλιπον.] Hutchinson and Weiske interpret this word animis defecerunt. Abreschius (Dilucid. Thucyd. p. 274) makes it reliquerunt sc. urbem; an interpretation adopted by Porson, Schneider, Kühner, and all the modern editors.
150 Εὖρος.] We must understand the length of each side.
151 Ἐπὶ ταύτης.] There might be steps on the outside on which they might climb.
152 Τεῖχος.] Now called Yarumjah, according to Ainsw. Travels, p. 139.
153 Κογχυλιάτον.] “It is a curious fact, that the common building-stone of Mosul (near Mespila) is highly fossiliferous, and indeed replete with shells, characteristic of a tertiary or supra-cretaceous deposit; and the same lime-stone does not occur far to the north or south of Mosul, being succeeded by wastes of gypsum.”’ Ainsw. Travels, p. 140.
154 Ἐμβροντήτους ποιεῖ.] “Jupiter makes the inhabitants thunderstruck.” “He rendered them,” says Sturz, “either stupid or mad.”
155 Σκύθαι τοξόται.] As there is no mention of Scythians in the whole Anabasis, Krüger, in his larger edition, suggested that the word Σκύθαι might have been written in the margin by some sciolist, who was thinking of the Athenian τοξόται; but in his smaller edition he has shown that he has learned something better from Arrian, Tact. ii. 13: “Those of the cavalry who use bows are called ἱπποτοξόται, and by some Σκύθαι.” Kühner.
156 In order that they might fall with the greater weight. Bornemann. Or perhaps, as Bishop Thirlwall thinks, that they might reach a greater distance.
157 Πονήρως.] From πόνηρος, difficult, not from πονηρός, bad. See Thucyd. viii. 24, ed. Popp. part iii. vol. iv. p. 658, seqq. Kühner.
158 Καὶ εὐεπίθετον ἧν ἐνταῦθα τοῖς πολεμίοις. I have rendered this phrase agreeably to the notion of Krüger, who thinks εὐεπίθετον used absolutely, or as a substantive. Some, however, understand τὸ πλαίσιον, or τὸ στράτευμα, which is perhaps better.
159 Ἐνωμοτάρχας.] The ἐνωμοτία being the fourth part of a λόχος, or twenty-five men. See Xen. De Rep. Lac. ii. 4; Arnold’s Thucyd. v. 68.
160 As there were six companies of a hundred men each, they moved into the vacant space, if it was but narrow, by centuries, that is, six men in front, and a hundred deep; if it was somewhat broader, by fifties, that is, twelve men in front, and fifty deep; if very broad, by twenty-fives, that is, twenty-four men in front, and twenty-five deep. Kühner.
161 Ἐν τῷ μέρει.] Each in his place; one after another in the order which had been previously appointed.
162 Ην ἡ κώμη.] Schneider, Bornemann, and most editors before Dindorf, read κώμη, a village, without the article. Dindorf has added the article from two manuscripts, and Kühner has followed him, supposing that the particular village of which the Greeks had now caught sight is meant. Bornemann, if the article be added, thinks that the village in which the palace stood is intended. The passage seems to me decidedly better without the article; for, if it be inserted, the reader is puzzled to know why Xenophon changes the number, when he had just before said that the palace stood in the midst of villages.
163 According to the discipline of the Persians; see Herod, vii. 21, 56, 223.
164 This is the first mention of surgeons in the Greek army, as Mr. Stanford observes, since the time of Homer. But whether the persons here mentioned were professed surgeons, or merely some of the soldiers, who, in long service, had gained experience in the treatment of wounds, is uncertain. The latter supposition is more in consonance with the word appointed.
165 Πολὺ γὰρ διέφερον —— ὁρμῶντες ——πορευόμενοι.] The manuscripts present some variations here. Bornemann’s text is the same as Dindorf’s. Kühner prefers διέφερεν ——ὁρμῶντας —— πορευομένους, expressing a doubt whether the other method be really Greek.
166 Δεῖ —— Πέρσῃ ἀνδρὶ.] Most commentators concur in taking this as an example of the rarer construction of δεῖ with the dative; though it has been suggested whether Πέρσῃ ἀνδρὶ may be the dative after ἐπισάξαι, as if a Persian horse-soldier had an attendant to equip his horse for him.
167 Ἐπισάξαι.] Spelman quarrels with D’Ablancourt for translating this word by “saddle,” and adopts in his own version “housings,” which I have borrowed from him, from inability to find a better word.
168 Τὸ στρατόπεδον.] Apparently for the place where they intended to encamp. It seems needless to understand, with Krüger, “castra interea à lixis et calonibus posita.”
169 Ἀναζεύξαντες.] Ἀναζεύξαι, castra movere. Zeune.
170 The enemy had not occupied the highest part of the mountain, but a lower position upon it. Comp. sect. 37. Kühner.
171 Ἐκ τῆς βοηθείας.] Xenophon is here somewhat obscure; for he made no mention of this βοηθεία before. Cheirisophus and his men seem to have gone to aid the party of Greeks that were dispersed for plunder, when some of them were cut off by the Persians, and when Tissaphernes attempted to burn the villages. * * * Afterwards he is rather tautological; for the words ἡνίκα ——οἱ Ἕλληνες express no more than is said in οἱ μὲν ἀμφὶ Χειρίσοφον —— βοηθείας, except that they serve to mark the exact time when Xenophon addressed the men. Kühner.
172 Ἐπὶ τὰς σκηνάς.] The tents were burned, iii. 3. 1; and Krüger therefore observes that we must consider τὰς σκηνάς as equivalent to τὸ στρατόπεδον, or the place of encampment. This explanation is better than that of Weiske and Zeune, who think that the shelter of the villages is meant.
173 Ἅ ἀποδαρέντα καὶ φυσηθέντα.] “Which being skinned and blown out.” From brevity, Xenophon has said that of the animals which he ought to have said of their skins. Krüger.
174 Διαβάντι.] The road “for one crossing” the river.
175 Καὶ ἔστιν ὅυτως ἔχον.] A most happy emendation of Abreschius, Dilucid. Thucyd. p. 640, for καὶ ἔστιν ὅυτω στενόν.
176 “Thus they accomplished their entrance into Kurdistan without opposition, and crossed one of the most defensible passes that they were almost destined to meet. * * * The recesses—left between the hills are in the present day the seat of villages, as they were in the time of Xenophon, and the crags in front, and in the rear, bristle with the small and rude rock-forts of the Kurds.” Ainsworth, Travels in the Track, p. 153, 154.
177 Συνεώρων ἀλλήλους.] The lighted fires served as signals, by means of which the Carduchi could keep an eye on one another. Kühner.
178 Πλὴν εἴ τίς τι ἔκλεψεν, κ. τ. λ.] “Except if any one concealed anything, either coveting a youth or woman of the handsome ones”
179 Τῆς σπολάδος.] See note on iii. 3. 20.
180 Λοχαγοὺς καὶ πελταστὰς καὶ τῶν ὁπλιτῶν.] H. e. Centuriones et ex peltastis et ex militibus gravis armaturæ. Kühner. Πελταστὰς is to be taken as an epithet; compare γυμνητῶν ταξιαρχῶν, sect. 28.
181 Xenophon and Cheirisophus. Kühner.
182 Τὴν φανερὰν ἔκβασιν.] Xenophon calls the passage to the top of the mountain an ἔκβασις, or egress, with reference to the Greeks, to whom it was a way of escape from a disagreeable position. Kühner ad c. 5. 20. The same words are repeated by Xenophon in the next sect.
183 Ὁλοιτρόχους.] A word borrowed from Homer, signifying properly a round stone fit for rolling, or a stone that has been made round by rolling, as a pebble in the sea. It was originally an adjective, with πέτρος understood. Most critics suppose it to be from ὅλος and τρέχω, totus teres atque rotundus. Liddell and Scott derive it from εἴλω, volvo. See Theocr. xxii. 49.
184 Διεσφενδονῶντο.] “Shivered in pieces, and flew about as if hurled by a sling.”
185 Ὀρθίοις τοῖς λόχοις.] Each λόχος or company marching in file or column, so that the depth of the λόχος was equal to the number of soldiers of which it consisted. Sturz. This is the interpretation adopted by Kühner. Yet it Would be hard to prove that ὄρθιος λόχος always meant single file; the term seems to have included any form of a company in which the number of men in depth exceeded the number in front.
186 Τὰ ὅπλα ἔκειντο.] See sect. 16. The heavy-armed men had halted on the level piece of ground, and their arms were lying by them. See Kühner ad i. 5. 14.
187 A small town of Arcadia, to the north-west of Clitor.
188 Ἐν λάκκοις κονιατοῖς.] The Athenians and other Greeks used to make large excavations under ground, some round, some square, and, covering them over with plaster, laid up their wine and oil in them; they called them λάκκοι. Schol. ad Aristoph. Eccl., cited by Hutchinson. Spelman translates λάκκοι κονιατοί, “plastered cisterns,” a term which Ainsworth adopts. “The plastered cisterns noticed by Xenophon,” says he, “are also met with throughout Kurdistan, Armenia, and Syria. They are especially numerous around some of the ancient villages of the early Christians of those countries, as more especially between Semeïsát and Bireh-jik, and have frequently been a subject of discussion as to their former uses. This notice of Xenophon serves to clear up many doubts upon the subject, although, since the Kurds have become Mohommedans, and rejected the use of wine, there is no doubt they are sometimes used for depots for corn or hay, and even sometimes for water. They were generally closed by a single large stone.” Travels in the Track, &c. p. 164.
189 Ἐγγύθεν φεύγοντες.] “Fleeing from near,” i. e. when they were at no great distance before us.
190 Τῷ ἀριστερῷ ποδὶ προσβαίνοντες.] All the manuscripts have προσβαίνοντες: προσβαινοντες is a conjecture of Wesseling ad Diod. Sic. iii. 8, which all the recent editors have adopted, but by which it does not appear that anything is gained, as πρὸς τὸ κάτω του τόξου precedes. Spelman, who was himself an archer, has illustrated the passage very clearly by a quotation from Arrian, Indie. 16: “Resting one end of the bow upon the ground, and stepping forward with the left foot, (τῷ ποδὶ τῷ ἀριστερῷ ἀντιβάντες,) they thus discharge the arrow, drawing the string a long way back, the arrow being nearly three cubits long.” See also Diod. Sic. l. c., where he speaks of the archery of the Æthiopians; Strabo, xvi. p. 1117; Suidas in Ἄραβες, cited by Weiske. Schneider and Halbkart, strangely enough, think that Xenophon is speaking of cross-bows, which few besides themselves have supposed to have been known in Xenophon’s time.
191 Ἐναγκυλῶντες.] “Fitting them with ἀγκύλαι.” The ἀγκύλη is generally supposed to be the same with the Latin amentum, a strap or loop fastened to the middle of a javelin, or the shaft of a spear, that it might be hurled with the greater force. The writer of the article Ansa in Smith’s Dict. of G. and R. Ant. thinks, however that the two were not the same.
192 Yet “the Carduchian mountains,” observes Rennell, “in effect presented an asylum to the Greeks, who could no other way have escaped, at least, the reiterated attacks of such a host of enemies, whose numbers also were augmenting instead of diminishing. But as a Persian army could not subsist, or their cavalry act, within the wide range of these mountains, the Greeks, by ascending them, got rid of their dreaded enemy. And although, in the mean time, they had to contend with an enemy much more brave and persevering, their numbers were fewer, and they might reasonably expect an earlier escape from them than from the Persians. Had they known that the Tigris was fordable under the Zaco hills, and passed into Mesopotamia, they would still have had the Euphrates to cross, a yet more difficult river, in the line which they must have pursued. Therefore, according to our limited view of things, it appears that nothing less than such a barrier as these mountains presented, could have saved the Greeks from eventual destruction, from the attacks of the Persians.” Illustrations of the Exp. of Curas, p. 173.
193 Orontes was satrap of Armenia, iii. 5. 17; Artuchas is nowhere else mentioned.
194 Διαβαίνειν.] “Ingredi, pedem proferre.” Kühner. His fetters being removed, he was able to put his legs apart, and walk with stability; as is indicated, says Weiske, by the preposition διά.
195 Ἐγχεῖν.] This passage is commonly taken thus: κέλευε τοῖς νεανίσκοις ἐγχεῖν, “he ordered the young men to pour (wine) into (the cup for themselves),” for the purpose of making a libation. Kühner, however, makes it ἐκελευε (τοὺς περὶ αὐτὸν) ἐγχεῖν τοῖς νεανίσκοις, he ordered those about him (the attendants) to pour into the cup for the young men. The former mode is the more simple, κελεύω being sometimes found with the dative, and agrees better with what follows.
196 Στεφανωσάμενος.] According to the custom of the Lacedæmonians, of which Xenophon speaks de Repub. Lacedæm. 13. 8; Hellen. iv. 2. 12; see also Plutarch, Lycurg. c. 22. Schneider.
197 Τοὺς λόχους ὀρθίους.] See iv. 2. 11.
198 Ἐσφαγίζουτο εἰς τὸν ποταμόν.] Offering a sacrifice to the gods inhabiting the river, as Alexander in the middle of the Hellespont sacrificed a bull to Neptune and the Nereids: see Arrian i. 11. 10, cited by Hutchinson. “They slew the animals so as to allow the blood to flow into the river.” Poppo.
199 Τὸν πόρον.] The ford mentioned in sect. 5, 6.
200 Behind the enemy. Kühner. Or behind the cavalry that were pursuing the enemy.
201 Those mentioned in sect. 3.
202 Ἐπὶ φάλαγγος.] This disposition of a company was in opposition to λόχοι ὄρθιοι (iv. 2. 11): see c. 8, sect, 10. The expression ἐπὶ φάλαγγος, says Kühner, properly means for a phalanx, or so that a phalanx (or acies) might be formed.
203 Διηγκυλωμένους.] The verb διηγκυλοῦσθαι is rightly interpreted by Hesychius τὸ ἐνεῖραι τοῦς δακτύλους τῇ ἀγκύλη (h. e. amento) τοὺ ἀκοντίου. Sturz. The following ἐπιβεβλημένους must be similarly explained.
204 Ἀσπὶς ψοφῇ.] From the enemy’s missiles striking upon it. Kühner. Hutchinson, Weiske, and Zeune think that a clashing of shields on the part of the Greeks is meant, preparatory to an onset; but, without doubt, erroneously.
205 Or, sound a charge. The design of it was to precipitate the enemy’s flight. Compare sect. 32.
206 Orontes: iii. 5. 17; 4. 3, 4. He was the satrap, as Krüger thinks, of Eastern Armenia; Tiribazus being called satrap of Western Armenia, sect. 4.
207 Τύρσεις.] Apparently intended for a sort of defences, should the people be attacked by any of their neighbours. Compare v. 2. 5.
208 Καλὸς μὲν, μέγας δ’ οὔ.] I have, with Bornemann and Poppo, restored this reading, in which all the manuscripts concur. Muretus, from Demetrius Phalereus, sect. 6 and 121, has given έγας μὲν οὔ, καλὸς δέ, and Hutchinson and all other editors down to Bornemann have followed him. It cannot be denied that this is the usual order in such phrases; as in iv. 8. 2; vi. 4. 20; but passages are not wanting in which the contrary order is observed; see iv. 6. 2. Kühner. As the piece attributed to Demetrius Phalereus is not genuine, little attention need be paid to it.
209 It would seem to have been the palace of Tiribazus, as the one mentioned in sect. 2 was that of Orontes. Schneider.
210 See Diod. Sic. xiv. 28.] Ainsworth speaks of the cold in the nights on these Armenian uplands, p. 173. “When Lucullus, in his expedition against Mithridates, marched through Armenia, his army suffered as much by the frost and snow as the Greeks under Xenophon; and, when Alexander Severus returned through this country, many of his men lost their hands and feet through excessive cold. Tournefort also complains that at Erzeroum, though situated in a plain, his fingers were so benumbed with cold, that he could not write till an hour after sunrise. (See Plutarch in Lucull., and Zonaras’s Annals.)” Spelman.
211 There being no cause to apprehend the approach of an enemy during such deep snow.
212 Διαιθριάζειν.] The commentators rightly interpret this word disserenascere, “to clear up.” Kühner; who, however, prefers συναιθριάζειν, for which there is good manuscript authority. He translates it, with Bornemann, simul disserenascere, “to clear up at the same time;” so that the one word has little advantage over the other. Sturz disapproves of the interpretation disserenascere, and would have both verbs to signify sub dio agere, “to bivouack in the open air;” but the other sense appears preferable.
213 See note on i. 2. 22. Oil made of sesamum, or sesama, is mentioned, says Kühner, by Plin. H. N. xiii. 1, xviii. 10; Q. Curt. vii. 4. 23; Dioscorid. 2. 119-121; Theophrast. de Odoribus, p. 737, ed. Schneid.; Salmas. Exercit. Plin. p. 727; Interp. ad Aristoph. Pac. 865.
214 Rennell, p. 214, and Kinneir, p. 485, think this distance too great for troops marching through deep snow. Πέντε occurs in one manuscript, and Kühner has admitted it into his text.
215 Ὀργυιά.] A great depth. We cannot suppose the snow to have been of that depth everywhere. None of the commentators make any remark.
216 Ἐβουλιμίασαν.] Spelman quotes a description of the βουλιμία or βούλιμος from Galen Med. Def., in which it is said to be “a disease in which the patient frequently craves for food, loses the use of his limbs, falls down, turns pale, feels his extremities become cold, his stomach oppressed, and his pulse feeble.” Here, however, it seems to mean little more than a faintness from long fasting.
217 That this number is corrupt is justly suspected by Weiske, and shown at some length by Krüger de Authent. p. 47. Bornemann, in his preface, p. xxiv., proposes ἑπτὰ καὶ ἑκατὸν, a hundred and seven. Strabo, xi. 14, says that the satrap of Armenia used to send annually to the king of Persia twenty thousand horses. Kühner. Krüger, 1. c., suggests that Xenophon may have written Σ’ two hundred, instead, of ΙΖ’, seventeen. In sect. 35 we find Xenophon taking some of these horses himself, and giving one to each of the other generals and captains; so that the number must have been considerable.
218 “This description of a village on the Armenian uplands applies itself to many that I visited in the present day. The descent by wells is now rare, but is still to be met with; but in exposed and elevated situations, the houses are uniformly semi-subterraneous, and entered by as small an aperture as possible, to prevent the cold getting in. Whatever is the kind of cottage used, cows, sheep, goats, and fowls participate with the family in the warmth and protection thereof.” Ainsw. Travels, p. 178.
219 Οἶνος κρίθινος.] Something like our beer. See Diod. Sic. i. 20, 34; iv. 2; Athenæus i. 14; Herod, ii. 77; Tacit. Germ. c. 23. “The barley-wine I never met with.” Ainsw. p. 178.
220 The reeds were used, says Krüger, that none of the grains of barley might be taken into the mouth.
221 Xenophon seems to mean grape-wine, rather than to refer to the barley-wine just before mentioned, of which the taste does not appear to have been much liked by the Greeks. Wine from grapes was not made, it is probable, in these parts, on account of the cold, but Strabo speaks of the οἶνος Μοναρίτης of Armenia Minor as not inferior to any of the Greek wines. Schneider.
222 Σκηνοῦντας.] Convivantes, epulantes. Comp. v. 3. 9; vii. 3. 15. Kühner. Having no flowers or green herbs to make chaplets, which the Greeks wore at feasts, they used hay.
223 This is rather oddly expressed; for the guide and the chief were the same person.
224 Not the Colchian Phasis, which flows into the Euxine, but a river of Armenia (Ἀράξης, now Aras) which runs into the Caspian. See Ainsworth, Travels, p. 179, 247. However Xenophon himself seems to have confounded this Phasis with that of Colchis. See Rennell, p. 230. Kühner.
225 Ἐπὶ φάλαγγος.] See on iv. 3. 26.
226 Τῶν ὁμοίων.] The ὅμοιοι at Sparta were all those who had an equal right to participate in the honours or offices of the state; qui pari inter se jure gaudebant, quibus honores omnes æqualiter patebant. Cragius de Rep. Lac. i. 10, cited by Sturz in his Lex. Xenoph. See Xenophon De Rep. Lac. 13. 1 and 7; Aristot. Polit. 5. 7. 8. “A similar designation to that of ὁμότιμοι in the Cyropædia,” Schneider. See Hellen. iii. 3. 5.
227 A native of the country about Mount Œta in Thessaly. There was also however a town of that name in the south of Thessaly: Thucyd. iii. 92.
228 Ἀντὶ τῶν πτερύγων.] That this is the true sense of this word appears from Xen. de Re Equest. 12. 4.
229 Having one iron point at the upper end, as in v. 4. 12, and no point at the lower for fixing the spear in the ground. Schneider.
230 The word ἱερόν, which precedes ὄρος in the older editions, is enclosed in brackets, as being probably spurious, by most of the modern editors, and actually ejected by Dindorf. Yet something seems to be wanting in connexion with ὄρος, for the guide (sect. 20) says merely that he will bring them to α χωρίον, and on the fifth day after it is said that they come to the mountain.
231 They appear to be the hides of oxen offered up as a sort of sacrifice to the gods. Balfour.
232 In order, says Krüger, to render them useless, so that they might not be carried off by any of the neighbouring people.
233 i. 1. 9.
234 A stream running into the Tchórúk-sú, according to Ainsworth, Travels, p. 189.
235 The Greeks cut down the trees in order to throw them into the stream, and form a kind of bridge on which they might cross. Schneider.
236 They threw stones into the river that they might stand on them, and approach nearer to the Greeks, so as to use their weapons with more effect. Bornemann.
237 Kárá Kapán, or Kóhát Tágh, according to Ainsw. p. 190.
238 Κατὰ φάλαγγα.] See on iv. 3. 26.
239 Λόχους ὀρθίους.] See on iv. 2. 11.
240 Ὠμοὺς —— κατάφαγεῖν.] “Eat up raw,” without waiting to cook them; a metaphorical expression for to extirpate utterly and at once, taken from Homer, Il. v. 35: Ὠμὸν βεβρώθοις Πρίαμον Πρίαμοιό τε μαῖδας.
241 See the payment of these vows in sect. 25.
242 That there was honey in these parts with intoxicating qualities, was well known to antiquity. Pliny, H. N. xxi. 44, mentions two sorts of it, one produced at Heraclea in Pontus, and the other among the Sanni or Macrones. The peculiarities of the honey arose from the herbs to which the bees resorted, the first came from the flower of a plant called ægolethron, or goats’-bane; the other from a species of rhododendron. Tournefort, when he was in that country, saw honey of this description. See Ainsworth, Travels in the Track, p. 190, who found that the intoxicating honey had a bitter taste. See also Rennell, p. 253. “This honey is also mentioned by Dioscorides, ii. 103; Strabo, xii. p. 826; Ælian, H. A. v. 42; Procopius, B. Goth. iv. 2.” Schneider.
243 Lion and Kühner have a notion that these skins were to be given as prizes to the victors, referring to Herod, ii. 91, where it is said that the Egyptians, in certain games which they celebrate in honour of Perseus, offer as prizes cattle, cloaks, and δέρματα, hides. Krüger doubts whether they were intended for prizes, or were given as a present to Dracontius.