two continents. They were upon the point of plundering that rich and powerful city, to revenge a fraud and injury which had been done them, and from the hope of enriching themselves once for all, when Xenophon made all possible haste thither. He admitted the justness of their revenge, but he made them sensible of the fatal consequences which would attend it. • After your plundering this city, and destroying the Lacedæmonians established in it, you will be deemed the mortal enemies of their republic, and of all their allies. Athens, my country, that had four hundred galleys at sea and in the arsenals, when it took up arms against them, great sums of money in its treasury, a revenue of a thousand talents, and was in possession of all the isles of Greece, and of many cities in Europe and Asia, of which this was one, has nevertheless been reduced to yield to their power, and submit to their sway. And can you hope, who are but a handful of men, without generals, provisions, allies, or any resource, either from Tissaphernes, who has betrayed you, or the king of Persia, whom you have attempted to dethrone; can you hope, I say, in such a condition to make head against the Lacedæmonians? Let us demand satisfaction from the Byzantines, and not avenge their fault by a much greater of our own, which must draw upon us inevitable ruin.' He was believed, and the affair

accommodated.

d From thence he led them to Salmydessa, to serve Seuthes prince of Thrace, who had before solicited him by his envoys to bring troops to his aid, in order to his reestablishment in his father's dominions, of which his enemies had deprived him. He had made Xenophon great promises for himself and his troops; but when he had done him the service he wanted, he was so far from keeping his word, that he did not give him the pay agreed upon. Xenophon keenly reproached him with this breach of faith; imputing his perfidy to his minister Heraclides, who thought to make his court to his master, by saving him a sum of money at the expense of justice, faith, and honesty ; qualities which ought to be dearer than all others to a prince, as they contribute the most to his reputation, as well as to the success of affairs, and the security of a state. But that d Xenoph. 1. vii.

treacherous minister, who looked upon honour, probity, and justice, as mere chimeras, and that there was nothing real but the possession of much money, thought only of enriching himself by any means whatsoever, and robbed his master first with impunity, and all his subjects along with him. 'However,' continues Xenophon, every wise man, especially if vested with authority and command, ought to regard justice, probity, and the faith of engagements, as the most precious treasure he can possess; and as an assured resource, and an infallible support in all the events that can happen.' Heraclides was the more in the wrong for acting in this manner towards the troops, as he was a native of Greece, and not a Thracian; but avarice had extinguished all sense of honour in him.

Whilst the dispute between Seuthes and Xenophon was warmest, Charminus and Polynices arrived, as ambassadors from Lacedæmon, and brought advice, that the republic had declared war against Tissaphernes and Pharnabasus; that Thimbron had already embarked with troops, and promised a darick a month to every soldier, two to each officer, and four to the colonels, who should engage in the service. Xenophon accepted the offer, and having obtained from Seuthes, by the mediation of the ambassadors, part of the pay due to him, he went by sea to Lampsacus with the army, which amounted at that time to almost six thousand men. From thence he advanced to Pergamus, a city in the Troad. Having met near Parthenia, where ended the expedition of the Greeks, a great nobleman returning into Persia, he took him, his wife and children, with all his equipage, and by that means found himself in a condition to bestow great largesses upon the soldiers, and to make them a satisfactory amends for all the losses they had sustained. Thimbron at length arrived, who took upon him the command of the troops, and having joined them with his own, marched against Tissaphernes and Pharnabasus.

Such was the event of Cyrus's expedition. e Xenophon reckons from the first setting out of that prince's army from the city of Ephesus to their arrival where the battle was fought, five hundred and thirty parasangas or leagues, and fourscore and thirteen days' march; and in their return from the place Xenoph. de Exped. Cyr. 1. ii. p. 276. Ibid. 1. v. p. 355.

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of battle to Cotyora, a city upon the coast of the Euxine or Black sea, six hundred and twenty parasangas or leagues, and a hundred and twenty-two days' march. And adding both together, he says, the way, going and coming, was eleven hundred and fifty* five parasangas or leagues, and two hundred and fifteen days' march; and that the whole time the army took to perform that journey, including the days of rest, was fifteen months.

It appears by this calculation, that the army of Cyrus marched daily, one day with another, almost six parasangas† or leagues in going, and only five in their return. It was natural, that Cyrus, who desired to surprise his brother, should use all possible diligence for that purpose.

This retreat of the ten thousand Greeks has always passed amongst judges in the art of war, as I have already observed, for a perfect model in its kind, which has never had a parallel. Indeed, no enterprise could be formed with more valour and bravery, nor conducted with more prudence, nor executed with more success. Ten thousand men, five or six hundred leagues from their own country, who had lost their generals and best officers, and find themselves in the heart of the enemy's vast empire, undertake, in the sight of a victorious and numerous army, with the king at the head of it, to retire through the seat of his empire, and in a manner from the gates of his palace, and to traverse a vast extent of unknown countries, almost all in arms against them, without being dismayed by the prospect of the innumerable obstacles and dangers, to

8 Xenoph. 1. vii. P. 427.

* I add five, which are left out in the text, to make the total agree with the two parts.

+ The parasanga is a road measure peculiar to the Persians, and consists of thirty stadia. The stadium is a Grecian measure, and contains, according to the most received opinion, one hundred and twenty-five geometrical paces; twenty of which in consequence are required to the common French league, which consists of 2500 paces. And this has been my rule hitherto, according to which the parasanga is a league and a half.

But I observe here a great difficulty. According to this calculation we should find, the ordinary days' marches of Cyrus, with an army of more than a hundred thousand men, would have been one day with another nine leagues, during so long a time, which according to the judges in military affairs is absolutely impossible. This is what has determined me to compute the parasanga at no more than a league. Several authors have remarked, and indeed it is not to be doubted, that the stadium, and all the other road measures of the ancients, have differed widely according to times and places, a, they still do amongst us.

which they were every moment exposed; the passage of rivers. of mountains and defiles; open attacks, or secret ambuscades from the people upon their route; famine, almost inevitable in vast and desert regions; and above all, the treachery they had to fear from the troops, who seemed to be employed in escorting them, but in reality had orders to destroy them. For Artaxerxes, who was sensible how much the return of those Greeks into their country would cover him with disgrace, and discredit the majesty of the empire in the opinion of all nations, had left nothing undone to prevent it; and he desired their destruction, says Plutarch, more passionately than to conquer Cyrus himself, or to preserve his dominions. Those ten thousand men, however, notwithstanding so many obstacles, carried their point, and arrived, through a thousand dangers, victorious and triumphant in their own country. Antony long after, when pursued by the Parthians almost in the same country, finding himself in like danger, cried out in admiration of their invincible valour, Oh the retreat of the ten thousand!'

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And it was the good success of this famous retreat, which filled the people of Greece with contempt for Artaxerxes, by demonstrating to them, that gold, silver, luxury, voluptuousness, and a numerous seraglio of women, were the sole merit of the Great King; but that, as to the rest, his opulence and all his boasted power were only pride and vain ostentation. It was this prejudice, more universal than ever in Greece after this celebrated expedition, that gave birth to those bold enterprises of the Greeks, of which we shall soon treat, that made Artaxerxes tremble upon his throne, and brought the Persian empire to the very brink of destruction.

SATIS.

SECT. VII. CONSEQUENCES OF CYRUS'S DEATH IN THE COURT OF ARTAXERXES. CRUELTY AND JEALOUSY OF PARYSTATIRA POISONED. I return to what passed after the battle of Cunaxa in the court of Artaxerxes. As he believed that he had killed Cyrus with his own hand, and looked upon that action as the most glorious of his life, he desired that all the world should think the same; as it was wounding him in the most tender part, to dispute that honour, or endeavour h Piut. in Anto. p. 937. púgios. i Plut. in Artax. p. 1018-1021.

to share it, with him. The Carian soldier, whom we mentioned before, not contented with the great presents the king had made him upon a different pretext, perpetually declared to all that would hear him, that none but himself had killed Cyrus, and that the king did him great injustice in depriving him of the glory due to him. The prince, upon being informed of that insolence, conceived a jealousy equally base and cruel, and had the weakness to cause him to be delivered to Parysatis, who had sworn the destruction of all those that had any share in the death of her son. Animated by a barbarous spirit of vengeance, she commanded the executioners to take that unfortunate wretch, and to make him suffer the most exquisite tortures during ten days; then after they had torn out his eyes, to pour melted brass into his ears, till he expired in that cruel agony; which was accordingly executed.

Mithridates also, having boasted in an entertainment where he had heated his brain with wine, that it was he who gave Cyrus his mortal wound, paid very dear for that absurd and imprudent vanity. He was condemned to suffer the punishment of the troughs, one of the most cruel that was ever invented, and after having languished in torment seventeen days, died at last in exquisite misery.

There only remained, for the final execution of Parysatis's project, and fully to satiate her vengeance, the punishment of the king's eunuch Mesabates, who by his master's order had cut off the head and hand of Cyrus. But as there was nothing to take hold of in his conduct, Parysatis laid this snare for him. She was a woman of great address, had abundance of wit, and excelled in playing at a certain game with dice. After the war, she had been reconciled with the king, played often with him, was of all his parties, had an unbounded complaisance for him, and far from contradicting him in any thing, anticipated his desires, did not blush at indulging his passions, and even at supplying him with the means of gratifying them. But she took especial care never to lose sight of him, and to leave Statira as little alone with him as she could, desiring to gain an absolute ascendant over her son.

One day seeing the king entirely unemployed, and with

See the description of this torture, as before given in vol. ii.