Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/87

Rh the army; and renewed promises, not likely now to find much credit, of a fort and a grant of lands."

But the troubles of Xenophon were now over, and a run of good-luck for himself closes his account of the Expedition of Cyrus. He would have gone straight to Athens, but the soldiers, who were now on the best terms with him, begged him not to leave them till they should be handed over to Thimbron. They all crossed the sea of Marmora to Lampsacus, celebrated for its wine. Here Xenophon met an old acquaintance, one Euclides, a soothsayer, who asked him how much gold he had. Xenophon replied, that so far from having anything, he was just going to sell his horse to pay his travelling expenses. The soothsayer, on inspection of the victims, said that evidently Xenophon had spoken the truth, but "had he sufficiently propitiated Jupiter the Gracious?" Xenophon admitted that he had not sacrificed to this deity, whom he seemed to think it natural to regard as quite distinct from Jupiter the King, to whom he had made frequent offerings. He at once repaired the deficiency, and the very same day the Lacedæmonian paymasters, hearing that he had sold a favourite horse, repurchased it for him at the price of about £55.

Marching through the Troas, they arrived at Pergamus, famous for its library of 200,000 volumes, afterwards transferred to Alexandria; for the invention of parchment (the name of which is derived from Pergamena); for its painting and architecture; and for being the seat of one of the Seven Churches of Asia. Here