might have her, or live with her, in wedlock,' the marriage ceremony having been, it would seem, previously performed at Babylon.]
[Footnote 100: [Greek: Plêgas eneteinon allêlois].] Whether this signifies that they actually inflicted blows on one another, or only threatened them, may admit of some doubt. The former notion is adopted by the Latin translators, by Sturz in his Lexicon, and by the commentators generally.]
[Footnote 101: See i. 7. 15.]
[Footnote 102: i. 2. 22.]
[Footnote 103: Zeune thinks that Xenophon may possibly mean himself; but this is mere conjecture.]
[Footnote 104: [Greek: Dielontes].] An excellent conjectural emendation of Holtzmann for the old reading [Greek: dielthontes].
[Footnote 105: i. 7. 15.]
CHAPTER V
After a three days' halt on the river Zabatus, Clearchus endeavours
to put an end to the distrust between the Persians and the Greeks
by an interview with Tissaphernes. He is received so plausibly that
he is induced to return on the following day, accompanied by five
other generals and twenty captains, in expectation of being
informed of the persons who had excited, by false reports, ill
feelings between the two armies. The generals are conducted into
the tent and put to death; the captains and those with them are
massacred on the outside, one only escaping to tell the tale.
Ariæus calls on the rest of the Greeks to surrender their arms, but
is answered with defiance.
1. Soon after, they arrived at the river Zabatus, the breadth of which was four plethra. Here they remained three days; during which the same suspicions continued, but no open indication of treachery appeared. 2. Clearchus therefore resolved to have a meeting with Tissaphernes, and, if it was at all possible, to put a stop to these suspicions, before open hostilities should arise from them. He accordingly sent a person to say, that he wished to have a meeting with Tissaphernes; who at once requested him to come. 3. When they met, Clearchus spoke as follows: 'I am aware, O Tissaphernes, that oaths have been taken, and right-hands pledged between us, that we will do no injury to each other: nevertheless, I observe you on your guard against us, as though we were enemies; and we, perceiving this, stand on our guard against you. 4. But since, upon attentive observation, I can neither detect you in any attempt to injure us, and since, as I am certain, we have no such intentions towards you, it seemed proper for me to come to a conference with you, that we may put an end, if we can, to our distrust of one another. 5. For I have, before now, known instances of men, who, being in fear of another, some through direct accusations, and others through mere suspicion, have, in their eagerness to act before they suffered, inflicted irremediable evils upon those who neither intended nor wished anything of the kind. 6. Thinking, therefore, that such misunderstandings may be best cleared up by personal communications, I have come here, and am desirous to convince you that you have no just ground for mistrusting us. 7. In the first and principal place, the oaths, which we have sworn by the gods, forbid us to be enemies to each other; and I should never consider him to be envied who is conscious of having disregarded such obligations; for from the vengeance of the gods I know not with what speed any one could flee so as to escape,[106] or into what darkness he could steal away, or how he could retreat into any stronghold, since all things, in all places, are subject to the gods; and they have power over all everywhere alike. 8. Such are my sentiments respecting the gods, and the oaths which we swore by them, in whose keeping we deposited the friendship that we cemented; but among human advantages, I, for my own part, consider you to be the greatest that we at present possess; 9. for with your assistance, every road is easy, every river is passable, and there will be no want of provisions; but without you all our way would lie through darkness, (for we know nothing of it,) every river would be difficult to pass, and every multitude of men would be terrible, but solitude most terrible of all, as it is full of extreme perplexity. 10. And even if we should be so mad as to kill you, what else would be the consequence, than that, having slain our benefactor, we should have to contend with the king as your most powerful avenger?[107] For my own part, of how many and how great expectations I should deprive myself, if I attempted to do you any injury, I will make you acquainted. 11. I was desirous that Cyrus should be my friend, as I thought him, of all the men of his time, the most able to benefit those whom he wished to favour. But I now see that you are in the possession both of the power and the territory of Cyrus, while you still retain your own province, and that the power of the king, which was opposed to Cyrus, is ready to support you, 12. Such being the case, who is so mad as not to wish to be your friend?
'But I will mention also the circumstances from which I derive hopes that you will yourself desire to be our friend. 13. I am aware that the Mysians give you much annoyance, and these, I have no doubt, I should be able, with my present force, to render subservient to you; I am aware also that the Pisidians molest you; and I hear that there are many such nations besides, which I think I could prevent from ever disturbing your tranquillity. As for the Egyptians, against whom I perceive you are most of all incensed. I do not see what auxiliary force you could use to chastise them better than that which I now have with me. 14. If, again, among the states that lie around you, you were desirous to become a friend to any one, you might prove the most powerful of friends; and if any of them gave you any annoyance, you might, by our instrumentality, deal with them[108] as a master, as we should serve you not for the sake of pay merely, but from gratitude, which we should justly feel towards you if we are saved by your means. 15. When I consider all these things, it appears to me so surprising that you should distrust us, that I would most gladly hear the name[109] of him who is so persuasive a speaker as to make you believe that we are forming designs against you.'
Thus spoke Clearchus. Tissaphernes replied as follows: 16. 'I am delighted, O Clearchus, to hear your judicious observations; for, with these sentiments, if you were to meditate anything to my injury, you would appear to be at the same time your own enemy. But that you may be convinced that you have no just cause for distrusting either the king or me, listen to me in your turn. 17. If we wished to destroy you, do we appear to you to be deficient in numbers either of cavalry or infantry, or in warlike equipments, with the aid of which we might be able to do you injury, without danger of suffering any in return? 18. Or do we seem to you likely to be in want of suitable places to make an attack upon you? Are there not so many plains, which, as the inhabitants of them are friendly to us,[110] you traverse with exceeding toil? See you not so many mountains before you to be crossed, which we might, by pre-occupying them, render impassable to you? Or are there not so many rivers, at which we might parcel you out [111] as many at a time as we might be willing to engage? Some of these rivers, indeed, you could not cross at all, unless we secured you a passage. 19. But even supposing that we were baffled in all these points, yet fire at least would prove its power over the produce of the soil; by burning which, we could set famine in array against you, which, though you were the bravest of the brave, you would find it difficult to withstand. 20. How then, having so many means of waging war with you, and none of them attended with danger to ourselves, should we select from amongst them all this mode, the only one that is impious in the sight of the gods, the only one that is disgraceful in the sight of men? 21. It belongs, altogether, to men who are destitute of means, deprived of every resource, and under the coercion of necessity, and at the same time devoid of principle, to seek to effect their purposes by perjury towards the gods, and breach of faith towards men. We, O Clearchus, are not so foolish or so inconsiderate; 22. or why, when we have the opportunity of effecting your destruction, have we made no such attempt? Be well assured, that the cause of this was my desire to prove myself faithful to the Greeks, and, in consequence of doing them service, to return supported by that very body of foreign troops, to whom Cyrus, when he went up, trusted only on account of the pay that he gave them. 23. As to the particulars in which you will be of service to me, some of them you have enumerated, but of the greatest of all I am myself fully conscious; for though it is permitted to the king alone to wear the turban upright on the head, yet perhaps another than he may, with your assistance, wear that upright which is on the heart.'[112]
24. Tissaphernes, in speaking thus, seemed to Clearchus to speak with sincerity, and he replied, 'Do not those, then, who endeavour by calumny to make us enemies, when there are such strong inducements to friendship between us, deserve the severest of punishment?' 25. 'Well, then,' said Tissaphernes, 'if you will come to me, as well generals as captains, in a public manner, I will inform you who they are that tell me that you are forming plots
