Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/184

 162 HISTORY OF GREECE. doubtless essential conditions of success. But none of his col- leagues in command would have been able to accomplish the like memorable change on the minds of the soldiers, or to procure obe- dience for any simple authoritative restraint ; nay, it is probable, that if Xenophon had not been at hand, the other generals would have followed the passionate movement, even though they had been reluctant, from simple inability to repress it. 1 Again, whatever might have been the accomplishments of Xenophon, it is certain that even he would not have been able to work upon the minds of these excited soldiers, had they not been Greeks and citi- zens as well as soldiers, bred in Hellenic sympathies and accustomed to Hellenic order, with authority operating in part through voice and persuasion, and not through the Persian whip and instruments of torture. The memorable discourse on the Thra- kion at Byzantium illustrates the working of that persuasive agency which formed one of the permanent forces and conspicuous charms of Hellenism. It teaches us that if the orator could sometimes accuse innocent defendants and pervert well-disposed assemblies, a part of the case which historians of Greece often present as if it were the whole, he could also, and that in the most trying emergencies, combat the strongest force of present passion, and bring into vivid presence the half-obscured lineaments of long- sighted reason and duty. After conducting the army out of the city, Xenophon sent, through Kleander, a message to Anaxibius, requesting that he himself might be allowed to come in again singly, in order to take his departure by sea. His request was granted, though not with- out much difficulty ; upon which he took leave of the army, under the strongest expressions of affection and gratitude on their part, 2 and went into Byzantium along with Kleander ; while on the next day Kceratadas came to assume the command according to agree- ment, bringing with him a prophet, and beasts to be offered in 1 So Tacitus says about the Roman general Spurinna (governor of Pla- centia for Otho against Vitellius), and his mutinous army who marched out to fight the Vitellian generals against his strenuous remonstrance " Fit temeritatis alienee comes Spurinna, primo coactus, mox velle simulans, quo plus auctoritatis inesset consiliis, si seditio mitesceret" (Tacitus, Hist, ii, 18).
 * Xen Anab. vii, 6, 33.