Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/178

 156 HISTORY OF GREECE. the soldiers. " Take what supplies you want (said Anaxibius) from the neighboring Thracian villages, which are well furnished with wheat, barley, and other necessaries. After thus providing yourselves, march forward to the Chersonesus, and there Kyniskus will give you pay." 1 This was the first distinct intimation given by Anaxibius that he did not intend to perform his promise of finding pay for the sol- diers. Who Kyniskus was, we do not know, nor was he probably known to the Cyreians ; but the march here enjoined was at least one hundred and fifty English miles, and might be much longer. The route was not indicated, and the generals had to inquire from Anaxibi as whether they were to go by what was called the Holy Mountain (that is, by the shorter line, skirting the northern coast of the Propontis), or by a more inland and circuitous road through Thrace ; also whether they were to regard the Thracian prince, Seuthes, as a friend or an enemy. 2 Instead of the pay which had been formally promised to them by Anaxibius if they would cross over from Asia to Byzantium, the Cyreians thus found themselves sent away empty-handed, to a long march, through another barbarous country, with chance supplies to be ravished only by their own efforts, and at the end of it a lot unknown and uncertain ; while, had they remained in Asia, they would have had at any rate the rich satrapy of Phar- nabazus within their reach. To perfidy of dealing was now added a brutal ejectment from Byzantium, without even the commonest manifestations of hospitality ; contrasting pointedly with the treat- ment which the army had recently experienced atTrapezus, Sinope, and Herakleia ; where they had been welcomed not only by com- pliments on their past achievements, but also by an ample present of flour, meat, and wine. Such behavior could not fail to provoke the most violent indignation in the bosoms of the soldiery ; and Anaxibius had therefore delayed giving the order until the last toldiers were marching out, thinking that the army would hear nothing of it until the generals came out of the gates to inform them ; so that the gates would be closed, and the walls manned to resist any assault from without. But his calculations were no4 realized. Either one of the soldiers passing by heard him give th ' Xen. Anab. rii, 1, 13. * Xen. Anab. rii. 1. 14