Greece Volume 9; I. Legendary Greece. II. Grecian History to the Reign of Peisistratus at Athens - Livres de poche

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER LXX. RETREAT OF THE TEN THOUSAND GREEKS The first triumphant feeling of the Greek troops at Kunaxa Wm exchanged, as soon as they learnt the death of Cyrus, for dismay and sorrow; accompanied by unavailing repentance for the venture into which he and Klearchus had seduced them. Probably Kle- archus himself too repented, and with good reason, of having displayed, in his manner of fighting the battle, so little foresight, and so little regard either to the injunctions or to the safety of Cyrus. Nevertheless he still maintained the tone of a victor in the field, and after expressions of grief for the fate of the young prince, desired Prokles and Glus to return to Ariaeus, with the reply, that the Greeks on their side were conquerors without any enemy remaining; that they were about to march onward against Artaxerxes; and that if Ariaeus would join them, they would place him on the throne which had been intended for Cyrus. While this reply was conveyed to Ariaeus by his particular friend Menon along with the messengers, the Greeks procured a meal as well as they could, having no bread, by killing some of the baggage animals; and by kindling fire, to cook their meat, from the arrows, the wooden Egyptian shields which had been thrown away on the field, and the baggage carts.1 Before any answer could be received from Ariaeus, heralds appeared coming from Artaxerxes; among them being Phalinus, a Greek from Zakynthus, and the Greek surgeon Ktesias of Knidus, who was in the service of the Persian king.2 Phalinus, an officer 1 Xen. Anab. ii, 1, 5-7 ' We know from Plutarch (Artaxer. c. 13) that Ktesias distinctly ns serted himself to have hcen present at this interview, and I see no reason why we should not believe him. Pluturch indeed rejects his testimony an false...