Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/185

 DISTRESS OF THE ARMY. 1G3 eaciifice. There followed in his train twenty men carrying sacks of barley-meal, twenty more with jars of wine, three bearing olives, and one man with a bundle of garlic and onions. All these pro- visions being laid down, Koeratadas proceeded to offer sacrifice, as a preliminary to the distribution of them among the soldiers. On the first day, the sacrifices being unfavorable, no distribution took place ; on the second day, Koeratadas was standing with the wreath on his head at the altar, and with the victims beside him, about tc renew his sacrifice, when Timasion and the other officers inter- fered, desired him to abstain, and dismissed him from the com- mand. Perhaps the first unfavorable sacrifices may have partly impelled them to this proceeding. But the main reason was, the scanty store, inadequate even to one day's subsistence for the army, brought by Koeratadas, and the obvious insufficiency of his means. 1 On the departure of Koeratadas, the army marched to take up its quarters in some Thracian villages not far from Byzantium, under its former officers ; who however could not agree as to their future order of march. Kleanor and Phryniskus, who had re- ceived presents from Seuthes, urged the expediency of accepting the service of that Thracian prince ; Neon insisted on going to the Chersonese under the Lacedaemonian officers in that peninsula (as Anaxibius had projected) ; in the idea that he, as a Lacedae- monian, would there obtain the command of the whole army ; while Timasion, with the view of re-establishing himself in his native city of Dardanus, proposed returning to the Asiatic side of the strait. Though this last plan met with decided favor among the army, it could not be executed without vessels. These Timasion had little or no means of procuring ; so that considerable delay took place, during which the soldiers, receiving no pay, fell into much distress. Many of them were even compelled to sell their arms in order to get subsistence ; while others got permission to settle in some of the neighboring towns, on condition of being disarmed. The whole army was thus gradually melting away, much to the satisfaction of Anaxibius, who was anxious to see the purposes of Pharnabazus accomplished. By degrees, it would probably have
 * Xen. Anab. vii, 1, 34-40.