Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/165

 INFLUENCE OF XENOPHON. 143 by having the power of working on the minds of the soldiers col- lectively ; and we see that he had the good sense, as well as the spirit, not to shrink from telling them unpleasant truths. In spite of such frankness or rather, partly by means of such frankness, his ascendency as commander not only remained unabated, as compared with that of the others, but went on increasing. For whatever may be said about the flattery of orators as a means of influence over the people, it will be found that though particular points may be gained in this way, yet wherever the influence of an orator has been steady and long-continued (like that of Peri- kles 1 or Demosthenes) it is owing in part to the fact that he has an opinion of his own, and is not willing to accommodate himself constantly to the prepossessions of his hearers. Without the ora- tory of Xenophon, there would have existed no engine for kindling or sustaining the sensus communis of the ten thousand Cyreians assembled at Kotyora, or for keeping up the moral authority of the aggregate over the individual members and fractions. The other officers could doubtless speak weU enough to address short encouragements, or give simple explanations, to the soldiers ; with- out this faculty, no man was fit for military command over Greeks. But the oratory of Xenophon was something of a higher order. Whoever will study the discourse pronounced by him at Kotyora, will perceive a dexterity in dealing with assembled multitudes, a discriminating use sometimes of the plainest and most direct ap- peal, sometimes of indirect insinuation or circuitous transitions to work round the minds of the hearers, a command of those fun- damental political convictions which lay deep in the Grecian mind, but were often so overlaid by the fresh impulses arising out of each successive situation, as to require some positive friction to draw them out from their latent state lastly, a power of expan- sion and varied repetition such as would be naturally imparted both by the education and the practice of an intelligent Athenian, but would rarely be found in any other Grecian city. The energy and judgment displayed by Xenophon in the retreat were doubt- less not less essential to his influence than his power of speaking ; but in these points we may be sure that other officers were moifl nearly his equals. 1 See the striking remarks of Thucydides (ii, 65) upon Periklcs.