Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/35

Rh whelming masses of inferior troops. And yet, after all, the attempt, however boldly devised and ably carried out, was only an act of treason without any adequate justification. The expedition of Cyrus was prompted by no patriotic or public motive, but solely by personal ambition of the most selfish kind, and was nothing short of fratricidal in its intent, being directed against a brother, who, as far as we know, had done Cyrus no wrong, except that of being his senior, and of having been chosen for the throne. In the guilt of these motives the Greeks were not implicated; they were engaged on a false pretence, and were not informed of the real nature of the service on which they were to be employed till it was virtually too late to withdraw from it. On the other hand, they were not fighting for a cause, but for pay; they were not like the Jacobites of "the '45," but were mercenaries, whom Cyrus had retained, just as an Indian prince might retain a body of European soldiers, as likely to beat a very disproportionate number of his countrymen. And yet there was something fine in the relationship between Cyrus and the Greeks; it was not entirely based upon considerations of money, but consisted greatly in personal attachment. Cyrus, young as he was, had sufficient greatness of character to inspire many of the Greek captains with an enthusiasm for his person. They served him, as Xenophon tells us, partly from regard, and partly because they had an imaginative notion that great things were to be achieved in his service. Cyrus, unlike most Orientals, had the good sense to see the