Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/43

Rh phon himself considered that in the hour of panic he received a special inspiration and a divine impulse to act. He tells us that in the dreadful night following the murder of the generals he was visited by a dream. He dreamed that his father's house had been set on fire by lightning. Full of Greek superstition, he asked himself the interpretation of this dream. On the one hand, he thought that it might be interpreted favourably, as indicating "a light from Jupiter." On the other hand, he reflected that, as Jupiter is King, it might portend "destruction from the King of Persia." With practical good sense he adds, in his account of the matter, that a dream can best be interpreted by what follows it; and what actually followed in this case was that Xenophon sprang up, awoke the surviving generals and captains of the Greek force, and in spirited language addressed them.

He reminded his countrymen of their late easy victory over the King's troops at Cunaxa, and of the glorious resistance made by their forefathers to the armies of Darius and Xerxes at Marathon and Salamis. He pointed out the utter perfidy and falseness of every one of the Persians, now that Cyrus was dead, and he earnestly impressed upon them that they must trust to no one but themselves, and to nothing but their own swords for deliverance. The circumstances under which he spoke were peculiar: the removal of Clearchus had reduced the army to a democracy, and in such a body fair reasoning and skilful oratory were sure to be effective. By means of them, Xenophon, in this midnight debate, turned the hearts of all like one man, and they