Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/24

14 padocia, towards Cilicia, he sent Epiaxa with a Greek escort under Meno, a Thessalian captain, to go by a direct route over the mountains into her own country. Cyrus himself found the pass over Mount Taurus, which was called the Cilician Grates, occupied by Syennesis. This pass being a narrow defile between rocks, 3600 feet above the sea, might easily have been held; but Syennesis (who was probably acting all along in collusion with Cyrus) had now the excuse that his flank had been turned by Meno, and that he was threatened on the other side by the fleet of Cyrus; so he evacuated the pass, and the invading army, without resistance, marched through the Gates of Cilicia. Descending into a beautiful plain, they came to Tarsus, even then a large and rich city, afterwards the rival in wealth, literature, and science of Athens, Antioch, and Alexandria, and famous for all time as the birthplace of St Paul.

Here it seemed as if the expedition would come to an end. For it was now clear that Pisidia (which they had passed) was not the object of the march; the Greek soldiers suspected that they were being led against the King; they said that they had not been engaged for this service, and that they would go no farther. Clearchus, the Lacedæmonian, the sternest disciplinarian and harshest officer in the army, tried to force his men to proceed. They at once mutinied, and he narrowly escaped being stoned. Laying aside all his usual imperiousness of manner, he stood before his men weeping, while they regarded him in tacit astonishment. He then broke silence, and said "Do not wonder, soldiers,