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near Sitace, a very great and populous city. After four day's march, they arrived at another city, very opulent also, called Opis. They found there a bastard brother of Artaxerxes, with a very considerable body of troops, which he was bringing from Susa and Ecbatana to his aid. He admired the fine order of the Greeks. From thence, having passed the deserts of Media, they came after a march of six days to a place called the lands of Parysatis; the revenues of which appertained to that princess. Tissaphernes, to insult the memory of her son Cyrus, so dearly beloved by her, gave up the villages to be plundered by the Greeks. Continuing their march through the desert, on the side of the Tygris, which they had on their left, they arrived at Cænæ, a very great and rich city, and from thence at the river Zabates.

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The occasions of distrust increased every day between the Greeks and Barbarians. Clearchus thought it incumbent on him to come to an explanation once for all with Tissaphernes. He began with observing upon the sacred and inviolable nature of the treaties subsisting between them." Can a man, said he, “conscious of the guilt of perjury, be capable of living "at ease? How would he shun the wrath of the gods, who are the witnesses of treaties, and escape their vengeance, "whose power is universal?" He added afterwards many things to prove, that the Greeks were obliged by their own interest to continue faithful to him, and that, by renouncing his alliance, they must first inevitably renounce not only all religion, but reason and common sense. Tissaphernes seemed to relish this discourse, and spoke to him with all the appearance of the most perfect sincerity; insinuating at the same time, that some persons had done him bad offices with him: "If you will bring your officers hither," said he, "I * will show you those who have wronged you by their re66 presentations." He kept him to supper, and professed more friendship for him than ever.

The next day Clearchus proposed in the assembly, to go with the several commanders of the troops to Tissaphernes. He suspected Menon in particular, whom he knew to have had a secret conference with the satrap in the presence of Ariæus; besides which, they had already differed several times with each other. Some objected, that it was not proper that all the generals should go to Tissaphernes, and that it was not consistent with prudence to rely implicitly upon the professions of a Barbarian. But Clearchus continued to insist upon his proposal, till it was agreed, that the four

very great obscurities, to explain which tully, would require a long dissertation. My plan does not admit me to enter into such discussions, which I must there fore reter to those who are more able than myself.

other commanders, with 20 captains, and about 200 soldiers, under the pretext of buying provisions in the Persian camp, where there was a market, should be sent along with him. When they came to the tent of Tissaphernes, the five commanders, Clearchus, Menon, Proxenus, Agias, and Socrates, were suffered to enter, but the captains remained without at the door. Immediately, on a certain signal, before agreed on, those within were seized, and the others put to the sword. Some Persian horse afterwards scoured the country, and killed all the Greeks they met, whether freemen or slaves. Clearchus, with the other generals, was sent to the king, who ordered their heads to be struck off. Xenophon describes with sufficient extent the characters of those officers.

Clearchus was valiant, bold, intrepid, and. of a capacity for forming great enterprises. His courage was not rash, but directed by prudence, and he retained all the coolness of his temper and presence of mind in the midst of the greatest dangers. He loved the troops, and let them want for nothing. He knew how to make them obey him; but out of fear. His mien was awful and severe; his language rough; his punishments instant and rigorous: he gave way sometimes to passion, but presently came to himself, and always chastised with justice. His great maxim was, that nothing could be done in an army without severe discipline; and from him came that saying, that a soldier ought to fear his general more than the enemy. The troops a esteemed his valour, and did justice to his merit; but they were afraid of his temper, and did not love to serve under him. In a word, says Xenophon, the soldiers feared him as scholars do a severe pedagogue. We may say of him with Tacitus, that by an excess of severity he made, what had otherwise been well done by him, unamiable; “ Cupidine severitatis “ in his etiam, quæ rite faceret, acerbus.”

Proxenus was of Boeotia. From his infancy he aspired at great things, and was industrious to make himself capable of them. He spared no means for the attainment of instruction, and was the disciple of Gorgias the Leontine, a celebrated rhetorician, who sold his lectures at a very high price. When he found himself capable of commanding, and of doing good to his friends, as well as of being served by them, he entered into Cyrus's service, with the view of advancing himself. He did not want ambition, but would take no other path to glory than that of virtue. He would have been a perfect captain, had he had to do with none but brave and disciplined men, and had it been only necessary

Manebat adira viri et fama; sed oderant. Tacit. Histor. l. ii. c. 69, Tacit. Annal, e. ixxv.

to make himself beloved. He was more apprehensive of being upon bad terms with his soldiers, than his soldiers with him. He thought it sufficient for a commander, to praise good actions, without punishing bad ones; for which reason he was beloved by the worthy; but those of a different character abused his easiness. He died at 30 years of age.

a Could the two great persons, we have here drawn, after Xenophon, have been moulded into one, something perfect might have been made of them; by retrenching their several defects, and retaining only their virtues: but it rarely happens, that the same man, as Tacitus says of Agricola, behaves, according to the exigency of times and circumstances, sometimes with gentleness, and sometimes with severity, without lessening his authority by the former, or the people's affection by the latter.

Menon was a Thessalian, avaricious and ambitious, but ambitious only to satiate his avarice, pursuing honour and estimation for the mere lucre of money. He courted the friendship of the great, and of persons in authority, that he might have it in his power to commit injustice and oppression with impunity. To obtain his ends, falsehood, fraud, perjury, cost him nothing; whilst sincerity and integrity of heart were, in his opinion, merely weakness and stupidity. He loved nobody; and if he professed friendship, it was only to deceive. As others make their glory consist in religion, probity, and honour, he valued himself upon injustice, deceit, and treachery. He gained the favour of the great by false reports, whispering, and calumny; and that of the soldiery by licence and impunity. In fine, he endeavoured to render himself terrible by the mischief it was in his power to do, and imagined he favoured those to whom he did

none.

I had thoughts of retrenching these characters, which interrupt the thread of the history. But as they are a lively image of the manners of men, which in all times are the same, I thought retaining them would neither be useless nor disagreeable to the reader.

a Egregium principatus temperamentum, si, demptis utriusque vitiis, solæ virtutes miscerentur. Tacit, Histor. 1. ii. c. 5.

b Pro variis temporibus ac negotiis severus et comis-nec illi, quod est rarissimum, aut facilitas authoritatem, aut severitas amorem, deminuit. Tacit. in Agric. c. ix.

END OF VOL. III.

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