Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/50

 28 HISTORY OF GREECE. sively abandoned ; the Persians have no confidence, except in vasl numbers, or when numbers fail, in treachery. Five parasangs, or one day's march from this pass, Cyrus reached the Phoenician maritime town of Myriandrus ; a place of great commerce, with its harbor full of merchantmen. While he -ested here seven days, his two generals Xenias and Pasion de- serted him ; privately engaging a merchant vessel to carry them away with their property. They could not brook the wrong which Cyrus had done them in permitting Klearchus to retain under his command those soldiers who had deserted them at Tarsus, at the time when the latter played off his deceitful manoeuvre. Perhaps the men who had thus deserted may have been unwilling to return to their original commanders, after having taken so offensive a step. And this may partly account for the policy of Cyrus in sanctioning what Xenias and Pasion could not but feel as a great wrong, in which a large portion of the army sympathized. The general be- lief among the soldiers was, that Cyrus would immediately despatch some triremes to overtake and bring back the fugitives. But in- stead of this, he summoned the remaining generals, and after com- municating to them the fact that Xenias and Pasion were gone, added, "I have plenty of triremes to overtake their merchant- men if I chose, and to bring them back. But I will do no such thing. No one shall say of me, that I make use of a man while he is with me, and afterwards seize, rob, or ill-use him, when he wishes to depart. Nay, I have their wives and children under guard as hostages, at Tralles j 1 but even these shall be given up to them, in consideration of their good behavior down to the present day. Let them go if they choose, with the full knowledge that they behave worse towards me than I towards them." This beha- vior, alike judicious and conciliating, was universally admired, and produced the best possible effect upon the spirits of the army ; imparting a confidence in Cyrus which did much to outweigh the 1 Xen. Anab. i, 4, 6. To require the wives or children of generals in service, as hostages for fidelity, appears to have been not unfrequent with Persian kings. On the other hand, it was remarked as a piece of gross obsequiousness in the Argeian Nikostratus, who commanded the contingent of his countrymen serving under Artaxerxes Ochus in Egypt, that he vol nntecred to bring up his son to the king as an hostage, without being de- manded (Theopompus, Frag 135 [ed. Wichers] g|>. Athenae. vi, p. 252).