Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/189

 XENOPHON AGAIN IMPLICATED. 167 from the Lacedsemonian admiral Anaxibius. Had the accidental warning been withheld, Xenophon would assuredly have fallen into this snare, nor could we reasonably have charged him with imprudence, so fully was he entitled to count upon straightfor- ward conduct under the circumstances. But the same cannot be said of Klearchus, who undoubtedly manifested lamentable credu- lity, nefarious as was the fraud to which he fell a victim. At the second interview with the other officers, Aristarchus, while he forbade the army to cross the water, directed them to force their way by land through the Thracians who occupied the Holy mountain, and thus to arrive at the Chersonese ; where (he said) they should receive pay. Neon the Lacedaemonian, with about eight hundred hoplites who adhered to his separate com- mand, advocated this plan as the best. To be set against it, how- ever, there was the proposition of Seuthes to take the army into pay; which Xenophon was inclined to prefer, uneasy at the thoughts of being cooped up in the narrow peninsula of the Cher- sonese, under the absolute command of the Lacedsemonian har- most, with great uncertainty both as to pay and as to provisions. 1 Moreover it was imperiously necessary for these disappointed troops to make some immediate movement ; for they had been brought to the gates of Perinthus in hopes of passing immediately on shipboard ; it was mid- winter, they were encamped in the open field, under the severe cold of Thrace, they had neither assured supplies, nor even money to purchase, if a market had been near. 2 Xenophon, who had brought them to the neighbor- hood of Perinthus, was now again responsible for extricating them from this untenable situation, and began to offer sacrifices, accord- ing to his wont, to ascertain whether the gods would encouragp him to recommend a covenant with Seuthes. The sacrifices were so favorable, that he himself, together with a confidential officer from each of the generals, went by night and paid a visit to Seuthes, for the purpose of understanding distinctly his offers and purposes. Maesades, the father of Seuthes, had been apparently a depend- ent prince under the great monarchy of the Odrysian Thracians ; 1 Xen. Anab. vii, 2, 15 ; vii, 3. 3 ; vii, 6, 13. 2 Xen. Anab. vii 6. 24 uecrof 6s xeipuv TJV, etc. Probably the month of December.