Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/160

 138 HISTORY OF GREECE. that ? Can any one cheat you into going on shipboard with a vind which blows you away from Greece ? Suppose even that I put } ou aboard when there is no wind at all. How am I to force you to sail with me against your own consent, I being only in one ship, you in a hundred and more ? Imagine, however, thav I could even succeed in deluding you to Phasis. When we land there, you will know at once that we are not in Greece ; and what fate can I then expect, a detected impostor in the midst of ten thousand men with arms in their hands ? No, these stories all proceed from foolish men, who are jealous of my influence with you ; jealous, too, without reason, for I neither hinder them from outstripping me in your favor, if they can render you greater service, nor you from electing them commanders, if you think fit. Enough of this, now ; I challenge any one to come forward and say how it is pos- sible either to cheat, or to be cheated, in the manner laid to my charge." 1 Having thus grappled directly with the calumnies of his ene- mies, and dissipated them in such manner as doubtless to create a reaction in his own favor, Xenophon made use of the opportunity to denounce the growing disorders in the army ; which he de- picted as such that, if no corrective were applied, disgrace and contempt must fall upon all. As he paused after this general remonstrance, the soldiers loudly called upon him to go into par- ticulars ; upon which he proceeded to recall, with lucid and impres- sive simplicity, the outrages which had been committed at and near Kerasus, the unauthorized and unprovoked attack made by Kle- aretus and his company on a neighboring village which was in friendly commerce with the army, the murder of the three elders of the village, who had come as heralds to complain to the generals about such wrong, the mutinous attack made by disorderly sol- diers even upon the magistrates of Kerasus, at the very moment when they were remonstrating with the generals on what had oc- curred ; exposing these magistrates to the utmost peril, and putting the generals themselves to ignominy. 2 " If such are to be our pro- ceedings, (continued Xenophon), look you well into what condition the army will fell. You, the aggregate body, 3 will no longer be 1 Xen. Anab v, 7, 7-11. * Xen. Anab. v, 7, 13-26. 3 Xen. Anab. v 7, 26-27. El ovv ravra roiavrd ttrra: deuaaade ola 9