Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/106

 84 HISTORY OF GREECE. office as one of the generals, but was also a native of Spart*, whose supremacy and name was at that moment all-powerful, Kleanor had been before, not indeed a general, but a lochage, or one in the second rank of officers ; he was an elderly man, and he was an Arcadian, while more than the numerical half of the army consisted of Arcadians and Achaeans. Either of these two, therefore, and various others besides, enjoyed a sort of pre- rogative, or established starting-point, for taking the initiative in reference to the dispirited army. But Xenophon was compara- tively a young man, with little military experience ; he was not an officer at all, either in the first or second grade, but simply a volunteer, companion of Proxenus ; he was, moreover, a native of Athens, a city at that time unpopular among the great body of Greeks, and especially of Peloponnesians, with whom her recent long war had been carried on. Not only, therefore, he had no advantages compared with others, but he was under positive disad- vantages. He had nothing to start with except his personal quali- ties and previous training; in spite of which we find him not merely the prime mover, but also the ascendent person for whom the others make way. In him are exemplified those peculiarities of Athens, attested not less by the denunciation of her enemies than by the panegyric of her own citizens, 1 spontaneous and forward impulse, as well in conception as in execution, confi- dence under circumstances which made others despair, persua- 1 Compare the hostile speech of the Corinthian envoy at Sparta, prior to the Peloponnesian war, with the eulogistic funeral oration of Perikles, in the second year of that war (Thucyd. i, 70, 71 ; ii, 39, 40). Ol fj.iv ye (slat), veurepoTroiol (description of the Athenians by the Corinth- ian speaker) Kal kirivofjaai b^elf Kal in irehecrai lpy*J u av yvu- eiv vftdf 6e (Lacedaemonians), TU vnapxavra re oufriv Kal imyvuvai pySev. Kal epyu oi>6e TuvayKala igiKeadai. Aitftf 6e, ol fiev, not irapii dvvajj.iv roX- ftriTal Kal irapa yvuftrjv Kivdvvevral Kal knl rot? deivolg eie/lTrtdef rd 6e vfiS- Tepov, Trjf redwufieu^ kvdeu. 7rpucu, r^f re yvuttrjc /*t}6s ': olf f3e(3alotf Triarev- aai, TUV TE detvuv fj,r)6eiroTE oleotiai aTroXv&fiaea-&ai. Kal fiftv Kal UOKVOI irfbf itftaf fj.e?iXj)Taf, Kal unodTjfirjTal npbf ivdrifj.oTurovf, etc. Again, in the oration of Perikles Kal avrol qroi Kpivopev T) kv&vfiov- ue&a op&uf TU irpdy 'tiara, oil roilf /loyowf rolf epyois jJhafiTjv qyovfievoi., a^d HT/ irpodidax^vai fiaXhov Aoyi^, nporepov TJ knl a del Ipyv k^.&elv. Aiaep- vvruf fiev dr) Kal rode e^caev, uare ro^ttpv r e ol aiirol (i a hi a TO f, Ao] tafibf 6e OKV )v, yepei.
 * at Trepl uv tirixif pr, :opt v ii Ao yi f <n?a f 8 role uAAoif a