Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/76

66 must have a single commander-in-chief to lead them. Their thoughts at once turned towards Xenophon, and they unanimously deputed their captains to request him to accept the command. Xenophon was in some degree tempted by so flattering a proposal; but, on the other hand, he reflected on the difficulties and precariousness of the position offered to him; and being in doubt, he resolved, as usual, to lay the matter before the gods. "Jupiter the King," to whom he sacrificed, showed nothing but warning and dissuasive omens. So when the army was assembled, and Xenophon had been formally proposed for election as commander, he rose and deprecated such a step on the ground that it would be a slight to Sparta, as the leading state of Greece, if an Athenian should be chosen commander, when a Lacedæmonian general was present. Several speakers opposed this excuse as invalid. But when Xenophon plainly told them that the omens had been unfavourable to his accepting the chief command, they acquiesced, and chose for their chief Cheirisophus the Lacedæmonian, who had commanded the vanguard in the retreat from Persia.

The army now pursued its voyage over waters which were said to have of old borne the Argo, the symbolic precursor of Greek nautical enterprise. They soon arrived at Heraclea, which had been colonised from Megara, a city not far from Athens. Here they were hospitably received by the inhabitants, who sent them out presents of oxen, barley-meal, wine, and other things. The soldiers, however, being still in a discontented and greedy frame of mind, began