gain that satisfaction which is the sweetest and the best, and be saved from the bitterest of sorrows; since to fail of good altogether is not so hard as to lose the good that has once been ours. [83] And let us ask ourselves what excuse we could offer for being unworthy of our past. Shall we say it is because we have won an empire? Surely it is hardly fitting that the ruler should be baser than the ruled. Or is it that we seem to be happier to-day than heretofore? Is cowardice, then, an adjunct of happiness? Or is it simply because we have slaves and must punish them if they do wrong? But by what right can a man, who is bad himself, punish others for badness or stupidity? [84] Remember, too, that we have arranged for the maintenance of a whole multitude, to guard our persons and our houses, and it would be shameful for us to depend for safety on the weapons of others and refuse to carry weapons for ourselves. Surely we ought to know that there can be no defence so strong as a man's own gallantry. Courage should be our companion all our days. For if virtue leave us, nothing else whatever can go well with us. [85] What, then, would I have you do? How are we to remember our valour and train our skill? Gentlemen, I have nothing novel to suggest; at home in Persia the Peers spend their days at the public buildings and here we should do the same. Here we are the men of rank and honour, as we are there, and we should hold to the same customs. You must keep your eyes on me and watch whether I am diligent in my duty, and I shall give heed to you, and honour him who trains himself in what is beautiful and brave. [86] And here too let us educate our sons, if sons are born to us. We cannot but become better ourselves if we strive to set the best example we can to our children, and our children could hardly grow up to be unworthy, even if they wished, when they see nothing base before them, and hear nothing shameful, but live in the practice of all that is beautiful and good.'
NOTES
C1. Notice the epic tone now adopted, or rather swum into, or rather which floats the writer up of its own motion.
C1.2 ff. On the whole this description of the battle is, for Xenophon, obscure.
C1.5-6. Xenophon, Artist. This military criticism and technical discussion juxtaposed to the epic prelude and the epic sequel is a clever device enough. We are pleased.
C1.8-9. Final injunctions somewhat obscure, I think.
C1.24 ff. The epic and Homeric vein.
C1.33. The Egyptians have the advantage. This is noticeable in reference to Cyrus' criticisms of their arms before battle. That is not a slip, but a dramatic touch on the part of the author, I think. And Cyrus is speaking of cavalry there, and anticipates the result.
C1.34 fin. A singular feature this in ancient battles. Is it simply and solely Oriental, or general, and Hellenic also? Has it any analogue nowadays anywhere? Probably with Egyptian troops in the Soudan it has (hgd. 1884).
C2.6-7. The archic man through an act of bad discipline makes good discipline more acceptable.
C2.13. The civilised method of dealing with a conquered city. Instead of pillage and rapine, an indemnity, which will bring in to the conquerors wealth, and yet not destroy the arts of the population, which are the fountain-heads of beauty. || Modern. So the archic man asserts his superiority once more.
C2.24. Is this also Xenophon's view? If so, it throws light on his theory of rank and caste.
C3.2. Curious Cyrus should be so little suspicious of Abradatas' death, is it not? Because the victory was not bloodless. Notice, too, how little is said of the bloodshed; that is Hellenic as well as Xenophontine, I fancy.
C3.7. Something epic in all this. Cf. Archilles sacrificing at the tomb of Patroklos.
C3.8 ff. The pathos of the situation and the /Eironeia/ at its maximum. 'Euripidean' touches throughout.
C3.16. [This is bracketed in most editions, no doubt rightly, as an interpolation. It was not translated in Mr. Dakyns' manuscript, but his marginal note is characteristic, and evidently he would have translated the section in a footnote. It may be rendered thus: 'It is said that a monument was raised above the eunuchs and is in existence to this day. On the upper slab the names of the husband and the wife are written in Syrian letters, and below are three other slabs, inscribed 'To the chamberlains.'']
C3.16. Interesting, especially if of later insertion, and perhaps given the historical basis of the story in some monument on the Pactolus, known to Xenophon. I wish a new Schliemann would find it. hgd.
C4. Semi-historical? The version is to be found, I think, in C4.2, which is the /pièce justicative/. The episode itself is full of humour, as good as a play: Xenophon has seen these duplicities often. Brer Fox outwitted by Brer Rabbit.
C4.4. Can these rival fastnesses of the Carians be identified? All this country is well known to Xenophon (/vide Hellenica/, III. c. 4, etc.).
C4.6. Beautiful renewal of the peaceful arts, festivals, and merry- makings after the internecine party strife.
C4.9. This again is a district Xenophon is well acquainted with. Has he one eye on the old insurrection against Persia, /tempore/ Histiaeus, and another on the new arrangements, /tempore/ Antalcidas?
C4.12-13. Croesus and his bills of lading. Some humour. It also brings out the archic man in opposition to the shop-keeper man of the mere business type. But still the bills of lading are needed. Croesus only doesn't 'twig' the right persons to check. It's the opposition between Despot and true Ruler.
C5.9. Cyrus has an idea, the nature of which we shall discover later.
C5.15. Belshazzar's feast, /vide/ Daniel, cf. Hdt. Why plural, 'the trenches'? Is Xenophon obscure? His obscurity is mostly this: he expects his reader intelligently to follow him.
C5.32. Jars somewhat on our feelings, perhaps, in its thirst for revenge: but cf. the feeling against the assassins of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke. [Written at the time of the Phoenix Park murders.]
C5.37. Is a turning-point in the rise of the archic man (and yet hardly yet, but at C5.58 we shall come to bodyguards and eunuchs). At this highest pinnacle of {arkhe} Cyrus desires to furnish himself as befits a king. It is an historical difficulty which Xenophon has to get over or round, or is Xenophon himself in the same condemnation, so to speak? Does he also desire his archic man to be got up in a manner befitting royalty at a certain date? Consider.
C5.42-47. These sections pose the difficulty well, and it is a difficulty, and no mistake.
C5.42 ff. Xenophon-Hellenic theory of life. The leisure to invite one's own soul and see one's friends which is needed to make life worth living, versus /negotia/, /negotia/, /negotia/. How far are we to be consciously self- regarding? Cyrus versus Buddha. The Hellenic hero is not equal to absolute non-self-regarding devotion to mere work. The Buddha might be.
C5.48. Perhaps nothing is cleverer in the neat and skilful mosaic work of this composition than the fitting-in here of Artabazus' personal view with the--at last necessary--impersonal or public theory of leadership. It is pretty also that Artabazus should at length get his reward, and humorous that he doesn't, after all, get it in the old form.
C5.49 ff. He keenly remembers each tantalizing moment of approach and separation. A splendid speech of the humorous type. Xenophon himself must be credited with so much fun, and real fun it is.
C5.56 ff. Curious on this page (a) Xenophon's domestic hearth theory without which {arkhe} is a tinkling cymbal and empire no burthen to be borne. His feeling for the sweetness of home || modern. In this the secret of his happiness, || hgd. (b) His /justification/ or /raison d'être/ explanation of the eunuch system. Why doesn't he point out its hollowness also? Not from any lack of sympathy with this barren mankind. Cf. Gadatas. I think this all logically follows if the {arkhon} is to rule political enemies as well as friends: to do so {epistamenos} ['asian expert'] some strange devices must be resorted to--what think you, Dakyns?
C5.58. The need of a bodyguard. The dragon-fly must wing his flight in armour cased: that is the law of his development. So Cyrus must be in the end an ideal 'tyrannus,' the one spoken of by Simonides the poet to Hiero [/vide/ the dialogue /Hiero/, and the notes thereto in Mr. Dakyns' translation, Vol. III.].
C5.64. The faithfulness of the eunuch has its parallel in that of the old negro slave.
C5.67. These are the sort of fellows Xenophon would have chosen himself, I take it. Again the historical basis has to be taken account of. Xenophon has to explain to himself the existence of their body and how the archic man came to invent it. Throughout we must compare the /Hiero/ for Xenophon's own political theory apart from his romantic and philosophical interest in Cyrus.
C5.69. Not a pleasant picture of subject and ruling race. Cf. the Austrians in Italy.
C5.73. The Hellenic || the modern theory, but more rudely expressed. The conquerors right to the land he has taken, and what Cyrus proceeds to say is quite up to the modern mark.
C5.74. Of course this is precisely what the Persians as they degenerated did come to, nor did the good example
