A Smaller History of Greece

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For the next few years the only memorable event in the history of
Athens is the death of Socrates. This celebrated philosopher was
born in the year 468 B.C., in the immediate neighbourhood of
Athens. His father, Sophroniscus, was a sculptor, and Socrates
was brought up to, and for some time practised, the same
profession. He was married to Xanthippe, by whom he had three
sons; but her bad temper has rendered her name proverbial for a
conjugal scold. His physical constitution was healthy, robust,
and wonderfully enduring. Indifferent alike to heat and cold the
same scanty and homely clothing sufficed him both in summer and
winter; and even in the campaign of Potidaea, amidst the snows of
a Thracian winter, he went barefooted. But though thus gifted
with strength of body and of mind, he was far from being endowed
with personal beauty. His thick lips, flat nose, and prominent
eyes, gave him the appearance of a Silenus, or satyr. He served
with credit as an hoplite at Potidaea (B.C. 432), Delium (B.C.
424), and Amphipolis (B.C. 422); but it was not till late in
life, in the year 406 B.C., that he filled any political office.
He was one of the Prytanes when, after the battle of Arginusae,
Callixenus submitted his proposition respecting the six generals
to the public Assembly, and his refusal on that occasion to put
an unconstitutional question to the vote has been already
recorded. He had a strong persuasion that he was intrusted with
a divine mission, and he believed himself to be attended by a
daemon, or genius, whose admonitions he frequently heard, not,
however, in the way of excitement, but of restraint. He never
WROTE anything, but he made oral instruction the great business
of his life. Early in the morning he frequented the public
walks, the gymnasia, and the schools; whence he adjourned to the
market-place at its most crowded hours, and thus spent the whole
day in conversing with young and old, rich and poor,--with all in
short who felt any desire for his instructions.

That a reformer and destroyer, like Socrates, of ancient
prejudices and fallacies which passed current under the name of
wisdom should have raised up a host of enemies is only what might
be expected; but in his case this feeling was increased by the
manner in which he fulfilled his mission. The oracle of Delphi,
in response to a question put by his friend Chaerephon, had
affirmed that no man was wiser than Socrates. No one was more
perplexed at this declaration than Socrates himself, since he was
conscious of possessing no wisdom at all. However, he determined
to test the accuracy of the priestess, for, though he had little
wisdom, others might have still less. He therefore selected an
eminent politician who enjoyed a high reputation for wisdom, and
soon elicited by his scrutinising method of cross-examination,
that this statesman's reputed wisdom was no wisdom at all. But
of this he could not convince the subject of his examination;
whence Socrates concluded that he was wiser than this politician,
inasmuch as he was conscious of his own ignorance, and therefore
exempt from the error of believing himself wise when in reality
he was not so. The same experiment was tried with the same
result on various classes of men; on poets, mechanics, and
especially on the rhetors and sophists, the chief of all the
pretenders to wisdom.

The first indication of the unpopularity which he had incurred is
the attack made upon him by Aristophanes in the 'Clouds' in the
year 423 B.C. That attack, however, seems to have evaporated
with the laugh, and for many years Socrates continued his
teaching without molestation. It was not till B.C. 399 that the
indictment was preferred against him which cost him his life. In
that year, Meletus, a leather-seller, seconded by Anytus, a poet,
and Lycon, a rhetor, accused him of impiety in not worshipping
the gods of the city, and in introducing new deities, and also of
being a corrupter of youth. With respect to the latter charge,
his former intimacy with Alcibiades and Critias may have, weighed
against him. Socrates made no preparations for his defence, and
seems, indeed, not to have desired an acquittal. But although he
addressed the dicasts in a bold uncompromising tone, he was
condemned only by a small majority of five or six in a court
composed of between five and six hundred dicasts. After the
verdict was pronounced, he was entitled, according to the
practice of the Athenian courts, to make some counter-proposition
in place of the penalty of death, which the accusers had
demanded, and if he had done so with any show of submission it is
probable that the sentence would have been mitigated. But his
tone after the verdict was higher than before. Instead of a
fine, he asserted that he ought to be maintained in the Prytaneum
at the public expense, as a public benefactor. This seems to
have enraged the dicasts and he was condemned to death.

It happened that the vessel which proceeded to Delos on the
annual deputation to the festival had sailed the day before his
condemnation; and during its absence it was unlawful to put any
one to death. Socrates was thus kept in prison during thirty
days, till the return of the vessel. He spent the interval in
philosophical conversations with his friends. Crito, one of
these, arranged a scheme for his escape by bribing the gaoler;
but Socrates, as might be expected from the tone of his defence,
resolutely refused to save his life by a breach of the law. His
last discourse, on the day of his death, turned on the
immortality of the soul. With a firm and cheerful countenance he
drank the cup of hemlock amidst his sorrowing and weeping
friends. His last words were addressed to Crito:--"Crito, we owe
a cock to AEsculapius; discharge the debt, and by no means omit
it."

Thus perished the greatest and most original of the Grecian
philosophers, whose uninspired wisdom made the nearest approach
to the divine morality of the Gospel. His teaching forms an
epoch in the history of philosophy. From his school sprang
Plato, the founder of the Academic philosophy; Euclides, the
founder of the Megaric school; Aristippus, the founder of the
Cyrenaic school; and many other philosophers of eminence.

CHAPTER XV.

THE EXPEDITION OF THE GREEKS UNDER CYRUS, AND RETREAT OF THE TEN
THOUSAND, B.C. 401-400.

The assistance which Cyrus had rendered to the Lacedaemonians in
the Peloponnesian war led to a remarkable episode in Grecian
history. This was the celebrated expedition of Cyrus against his
brother Artaxerxes, in which the superiority of Grecian to
Asiatic soldiers was so strikingly shown.

The death of Darius Nothus, king of Persia, took place B.C. 404,
shortly before the battle of AEgospotami. Cyrus, who was present
at his father's death, was charged by Tissaphernes with plotting
against his elder brother Artaxerxes, who succeeded to the
throne. The accusation was believed by Artaxerxes, who seized
his brother, and would have put him to death, but for the
intercession of their mother, Parysatis, who persuaded him not
only to spare Cyrus but to confirm him in his former government.
Cyrus returned to Sardis burning with revenge, and fully resolved
to make an effort to dethrone his brother.

From his intercourse with the Greeks Cyrus had become aware of
their superiority to the Asiatics, and of their usefulness in
such an enterprise as he now contemplated. The peace which
followed the capture of Athens seemed favourable to his projects.
Many Greeks, bred up in the practice of war during the long
struggle between that city and Sparta, were now deprived of their
employment, whilst many more had been driven into exile by the
establishment of the Spartan oligarchies in the various conquered
cities. Under the pretence of a private war with the satrap,
Tissaphernes, Cyrus enlisted large numbers of them in his
service. The Greek in whom he placed most confidence was
Clearchus, a Lacedaemonian, and formerly harmost of Byzantium,
who had been condemned to death by the Spartan authorities for
disobedience to their orders.

It was not, however, till the beginning of the year B.C. 401 that
the enterprise of Cyrus was ripe for execution. The Greek levies
were then withdrawn from the various towns in which they were
distributed, and concentrated in Sardis, to the number of about
8000; and in March or April of this year Cyrus marched from
Sardis with them, and with an army of 100,000 Asiatics. The
object of the expedition was proclaimed to be an attack upon the
mountain-freebooters of Pisidia; its real destination was a
secret to every one except Cyrus himself and Clearchus. Among
the Greek soldiers was Xenophon, an Athenian knight, to whom we
owe a narrative of the expedition. He went as a volunteer, at
the invitation of his friend Proxenus, a Boeotian, and one of the
generals of Cyrus.

The march of Cyrus was directed through Lydia and Phrygia. after
passing Colossae he arrived at Colaenae, where he was joined by
more Greek troops, the number of whom now amounted to 11,000
hoplites and 2000 peltasts. The line of march, which had been
hitherto straight upon Pisidia, was now directed northwards.
Cyrus passed in succession the Phrygian towns of Peltae, Ceramon
Agora, the Plain of Cayster, Thymbrium, Tyriaeum, and Iconium,
the last city in Phrygia. Thence he proceeded through Lycaonia
to Dana, and across Mount Taurus into Cilicia.

On arriving at Tarsus, a city on the coast of Cilicia, the Greeks
plainly saw that they had been deceived, and that the expedition
was designed against the Persian king. Seized with alarm at the
prospect of so long a march, they sent a deputation to Cyrus to
ask him what his real intentions were. Cyrus replied that his
design was to march against his enemy, Abrocomas, satrap of
Syria, who was encamped on the banks of the Euphrates. The
Greeks, though they still suspected a delusion, contented
themselves with this answer in the face of their present
difficulties, especially as Cyrus promised to raise their pay
from one Daric to one Daric and a half a month. The whole army
then marched forwards to Issus, the last town in Cilicia, seated
on the gulf of the same name. Here they met the fleet, which
brought them a reinforcement of 1100 Greek soldiers, thus raising
the Grecian force to about 14,000 men.

Abrocomas, who commanded for the Great King in Syria and
Phoenicia, alarmed at the rapid progress of Cyrus, fled before
him with all his army, reported as 300,000 strong; abandoning the
impregnable pass situated one day's march from Issus, and known
as the Gates of Cilicia and Syria. Marching in safety through
this pass, the army next reached Myriandrus, a seaport of
Phoenicia. From this place Cyrus struck off into the interior,
over Mount Amanus. Twelve days' march brought him to Thapsacus
on the Euphrates, where for the first time he formally notified
to the army that he was marching to Babylon against his brother
Artaxerxes, The water happened to be very low, scarcely reaching
to the breast; and Abrocomas made no attempt to dispute the
passage. The army now entered upon the desert, where the Greeks
were struck with the novel sights which met their view, and at
once amused and exhausted themselves in the chase of the wild ass
and the antelope, or in the vain pursuit of the scudding ostrich.
After several days of toilsome march the army at length reached
Pylae, the entrance into the cultivated plains of Babylonia,
where they halted a few days to refresh themselves.

Soon after leaving that place symptoms became perceptible of a
vast hostile force moving in their front. The exaggerated
reports of deserters stated it at 1,200,000 men; its real
strength was about 900,000. In a characteristic address Cyrus
exhorted the Greeks to take no heed of the multitude of their
enemies; they would find in them, he affirmed nothing but numbers
and noise, and, if they could bring themselves to despise these,
they would soon find of what worthless stuff the natives were
composed. The army then marched cautiously forwards, in order of
battle, along the left bank of the Euphrates. They soon came
upon a huge trench, 30 feet broad and 18 deep, which Artaxerxes
had caused to be dug across the plain for a length of about 42
English miles, reaching from the Euphrates to the wall of Media.
Between it and the river was left only a narrow passage about 20
feet broad; yet Cyrus and his army found with surprise that this
pass was left entirely undefended. This circumstance inspired
them with a contempt of the enemy, and induced them to proceed in
careless array; but on the next day but one after passing the
trench, on arriving at a place called Cunaxa, they were surprised
with the intelligence that Artaxerxes was approaching with all
his forces. Cyrus immediately drew up his army in order of
battle. The Greeks were posted on the right, whilst Cyrus
himself, surrounded by a picked body-guard of 600 Persian
cuirassiers, took up his station in the centre. When the enemy
were about half a mile distant, the Greeks engaged them with the
usual war-shout. The Persians did not await their onset, but
turned and fled. Tissaphernes and his cavalry alone offered any
resistance; the remainder of the Persian left was routed without
a blow. As Cyrus was contemplating the easy victory of the
Greeks, his followers surrounded him, and already saluted him
with the title of king. But the centre and right of Artaxerxes
still remained unbroken; and that monarch, unaware of the defeat
of his left wing, ordered the right to wheel and encompass the
army of Cyrus. No sooner did Cyrus perceive this movement than
with his body-guard he impetuously charged the enemy's centre,
where Artaxerxes himself stood, surrounded with 6000 horse. The
latter were routed and dispersed, and were followed so eagerly by
the guards of Cyrus, that he was left almost alone with the
select few called his "Table Companions." In this situation he
caught sight of his brother Artaxerxes, whose person was revealed
by the flight of his troops, when, maddened at once by rage and
ambition, he shouted out, "I see the man!" and rushed at him
with his handful of companions. Hurling his javelin at his
brother, he wounded him in the breast, but was himself speedily
overborne by superior numbers and slain on the spot.

Meanwhile Clearchus had pursued the flying enemy upwards of three
miles; but hearing that the king's troops were victorious on the
left and centre, he retraced his steps, again routing the
Persians who endeavoured to intercept him. When the Greeks
regained their camp they found that it had been completely
plundered, and were consequently obliged to go supperless to
rest. It was not till the following day that they learned the
death of Cyrus; tidings which converted their triumph into sorrow
and dismay. They were desirous that Ariaeus who now commanded
the army of Cyrus, should lay claim to the Persian crown, and
offered to support his pretensions; but Ariaeus answered that the
Persian grandees would not tolerate such a claim; that he
intended immediately to retreat; and that, if the Greeks wished
to accompany him, they must join him during the following night.
This was accordingly done; when oaths of reciprocal fidelity were
interchanged between the Grecian generals and Ariaeus, and
sanctified by a solemn sacrifice.

On the following day a message arrived from the Persian King,
with a proposal to treat for peace on equal terms. Clearchus
affected to treat the offer with great indifference, and made it
an opportunity for procuring provisions. "Tell your king," said
he to the envoys, "that we must first fight; for we have had no
breakfast, nor will any man presume to talk to the Greeks about a
truce without first providing for them a breakfast." This was
agreed to, and guides were sent to conduct the Greeks to some
villages where they might obtain food. Here they received a
visit from Tissaphernes, who pretended much friendship towards
them, and said that ha had come from the Great King to inquire
the reason of their expedition. Clearchus replied--what was
indeed true of the greater part of the army--that they had not
come hither with any design to attack the king, but had been
enticed forwards by Cyrus under false pretences; that their only
desire at present was to return home; but that, if any obstacle
was offered, they were prepared to repel hostilities. In a day
or two Tissaphernes returned and with some parade stated that he
had with great difficulty obtained permission to SAVE the Greek
army; that he was ready to conduct them in person into Greece;
and to supply them with provisions, for which, however, they were
to pay. An agreement was accordingly entered into to this
effect; and after many days delay they commenced the homeward
march. After marching three days they passed through the wall of
Media, which was 100 feet high and 20 feet broad. Two days more
brought them to the Tigris, which they crossed on the following
morning by a bridge of boats. They then marched northward,
arriving in four days at the river Physcus and a large city
called Opis. Six days' further march through a deserted part of
Media brought them to some villages belonging to queen Parysatis,
which, out of enmity to her as the patron of Cyrus, Tissaphernes
abandoned to be plundered by the Greeks. From thence they
proceeded in five days to the river Zabatus, or Greater Zab,
having previously crossed the Lesser Zab, which Xenophon neglects
to mention. In the first of these five days they saw on the
opposite side of the Tigris a large city called Caenae, the
inhabitants of which brought over provisions to them. At the
Greater Zab they halted three days. Mistrust, and even slight
hostilities, had been already manifested between the Greeks and
Persians, but they now became so serious that Clearchus demanded
an interview with Tissaphernes. The latter protested the
greatest fidelity and friendship towards the Greeks, and promised
to deliver to the Greek generals, on the following day, the
calumniators who had set the two armies at variance. But when
Clearchus, with four other generals, accompanied by some lochages
or captains, and 200 soldiers, entered the Persian camp,
according to appointment; the captains and soldiers were
immediately cut down; whilst the five generals were seized, put
into irons, and sent to the Persian court. After a short
imprisonment, four of them were beheaded; the fifth, Menon, who
pretended that he had betrayed his colleagues into the hands of
Tissaphernes, was at first spared; but after a year's detention
was put to death with tortures.

Apprehension and dismay reigned among the Greeks. Their
situation was, indeed, appalling. They were considerably more
than a thousand miles from home, in a hostile and unknown
country, hemmed in on all sides by impassable rivers and
mountains, without generals, without guides, without provisions.
Xenophon was the first to rouse the captains to the necessity for
taking immediate precautions. Though young, he possessed as an
Athenian citizen some claim to distinction; and his animated
address showed him fitted for command. He was saluted general on
the spot; and in a subsequent assembly was, with four others,
formally elected to that office.

The Greeks, having first destroyed their superfluous baggage,
crossed the Greater Zab, and pursued their march on the other
bank. They passed by the ruined cities of Larissa and Mespila on
the Tigris, in the neighbourhood of the ancient Nineveh. The
march from Mespila to the mountainous country of the Carduchi
occupied several days in which the Greeks suffered much from the
attacks of the enemy.

Their future route was now a matter of serious perplexity. On
their left lay the Tigris, so deep that they could not fathom it
with their spears; while in their front rose the steep and lofty
mountains of the Carduchi, which came so near the river as hardly
to leave a passage for its waters. As all other roads seemed
barred, they formed the resolution of striking into these
mountains, on the farther side of which lay Armenia, where both
the Tigris and the Euphrates might be forded near their sources.
After a difficult and dangerous march of seven days, during which
their sufferings were far greater than any they had experienced
from the Persians the army at length emerged into Armenia. It
was now the month of December, and Armenia was cold and exposed,
being a table-land raised high above the level of the sea.
Whilst halting near some well-supplied villages, the Greeks were
overtaken by two deep falls of snow, which almost buried them in
their open bivouacs. Hence a five days' march brought them to
the eastern branch of the Euphrates. Crossing the river, they
proceeded on the other side of it over plains covered with a deep
snow, and in the face of a biting north wind. Here many of the
slaves and beasts of burthen, and even a few of the soldiers,
fell victims to the cold. Some had their feet frost-bitten; some
were blinded by the snow; whilst others, exhausted with cold and
hunger, sunk down and died. On the eighth day they proceeded on
their way, ascending the banks of the Phasis, not the celebrated
river of that name, but probably the one usually called Araxes.

From thence they fought their way through the country of the
Taochi and Chalybes. They next reached the country of the
Scythini, in whose territory they found abundance in a large and
populous city called Gymnias. The chief of this place having
engaged to conduct them within sight of the Euxine, they
proceeded for five days under his guidance; when, after ascending
a mountain, the sea suddenly burst on the view of the vanguard.
The men proclaimed their joy by loud shouts of "The sea! the
sea!" The rest of the army hurried to the summit, and gave vent
to their joy and exultation in tears and mutual embraces. A few
days' march through the country of the Macrones and Colchians at
length brought them to the objects for which they had so often
pined, and which many at one time had never hoped to see again
--a Grecian city and the sea. By the inhabitants of Trapezus or
Trebizond, on the Euxine, where they had now arrived, they were
hospitably received, and, being cantoned in some Colchian
villages near the town, refreshed themselves after the hardships
they had undergone by a repose of thirty days.

The most difficult part of the return of the Ten Thousand was now
accomplished, and it is unnecessary to trace the remainder of
their route. After many adventures they succeeded in reaching
Byzantium, and they subsequently engaged to serve the
Lacedaemonians in a war which Sparta had just declared against
the satraps Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus.

In the spring of B.C. 399, Thimbron, the Lacedaemonian commander,
arrived at Pergamus, and the remainder of the Ten Thousand Greeks
became incorporated with his army. Xenophon now returned to
Athens, where he must have arrived shortly after the execution of
his master Socrates. Disgusted probably by that event, he
rejoined his old comrades in Asia, and subsequently returned to
Greece along with Agesilaus.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE SUPREMACY OF SPARTA, B.C. 404-371.

After the fall of Athens, Sparta stood without a rival in Greece.
In the various cities which had belonged to the Athenian empire
Lysander established an oligarchical Council of Ten, called a
DECARCHY or Decemvirate, subject to the control of a Spartan
HARMOST or governor. The Decarchies, however, remained only a
short time in power, since the Spartan government regarded them
with jealousy as the partisans of Lysander; but harmosts
continued to be placed in every state subject to their empire.
The government of the harmosts was corrupt and oppressive; no
justice could be obtained against them by an appeal to the
Spartan authorities at home; and the Grecian cities soon had
cause to regret the milder and more equitable sway of Athens.

On the death of Agis in B.C. 398, his half-brother Agesilaus was
appointed King, to the exclusion of Leotychides, the son of Agis.
This was mainly effected by the powerful influence of Lysander,
who erroneously considered Agesilaus to be of a yielding and
manageable disposition and hoped by a skilful use of those
qualities to extend his own influence, and under the name of
another to be in reality king himself.

Agesilaus was now forty years of age, and esteemed a model of
those virtues more peculiarly deemed Spartan. He was obedient to
the constituted authorities, emulous to excel, courageous,
energetic, capable of bearing all sorts of hardship and fatigue,
simple and frugal in his mode of life. To these severer
qualities he added the popular attractions of an agreeable
countenance and pleasing address. His personal defects at first
stood in the way of his promotion. He was not only low in
stature, but also lame of one leg; and there was an ancient
oracle which warned the Spartans to beware of "a lame reign."
The ingenuity of Lysander, assisted probably by the popular
qualities of Agesilaus, contrived to overcome this objection by
interpreting a lame reign to mean not any bodily defect in the
king, but the reign of one who was not a genuine descendant of
Hercules. Once possessed of power, Agesilaus supplied any defect
in his title by the prudence and policy of his conduct; and, by
the marked deference which he paid both to the Ephors and the
senators, he succeeded in gaining for himself more real power
than had been enjoyed by any of his predecessors.

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