classical journal -'xenophon's ten thousand' by max radin, 1911

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Xenophon's Ten ThousandAuthor(s): Max RadinSource: The Classical Journal, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Nov., 1911), pp. 51-60Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South

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XENOPHON'S TEN THOUSAND

BY MAX RADIN

NewtownHigh School,New YorkCity

Thalatta! Thalatta!

Sei mirgegriisst,duewigesMeerlSeimirgegriisst ehntausendmalAusjauchzendemHerzen,Wie einst dichbegriisstenZehntausendGriechenherzen,

UnglUickbektimpfende,eimatverlangende,WeltberiihmteGriechenherzen.

-HEINE, Die Nordsee, I.

The episode is trite enough and by dint of constant use is a

little threadbare,but that moment on the mountain-top,when theword ran down the line, and the very baggage-trainrolled and

tumbled forward n breathlesseagerness,has still all the shiverof adramatic climax. And when we read how captains and men fell

into each other's armsin unashamedemotion,we should be ungra-cious indeed if we begrudged hem any part of the great fame their

adventuresbrought them. It is desperatelyunfortunate that formost of us so fascinating and human a narrative is indissolublyassociated with the principal parts of MXXvit, nd the rules of

IndirectDiscourse. Thoseof us who returnto the story with otherends in view than the discovery of illustrations of syntactical

principles cannot fail to feel a personaland kindly interest in allthe actors of that most romantic of expeditions.

Who werethey, these"brave hearts" of Greece,whofoughttheir

way to the home they loved throughmanifoldperils? The intro-ductions to our texts and our manuals of history present all thesalient facts, with due emphasisupon the important and abidingresults of the expedition. And the chief figure, the modest Xeno-

phon with his '3v 't'

'di73 rpar-t, has received quite his due

measureof honor from his connectionwith it.PerhapsClearchus,also, and Proxenus and Meno have a personal existence for some

5'







52 THE CLASSICALJOURNAL

who know the story of theAnabasis. But what of the rest? What

mannerof menwerethey? Where did they come from? Whatdidthey seek there?

In the earlier part of his narrative, Xenophon mentions the

originof the troops quite casually and by no means fully. Levies

of Peloponnesianswere made by the captains of Cyrus in the

Ionian towns. Meno's peltasts were Dolopians, Aenianians, and

Olynthians. But, for the mostpart,it is the generalwhoseethnicon

we learn, and his alone. Verymuchlater, a division of peltasts is

spoken of as belongingto the Arcadiantroops (iv. 8. I8), and we

hear of the rb orrXrt ov 'Apia8to'v. Still later, when the splitoccurredin the ranks, the Arcadiansand Achaeansare expresslysaid to form over half of the remainingtroops (vi. 2. Io). There

were then four thousandof them. Xenophon does not otherwise,

exceptin connection with individuals,referto the nationalmake-upof his Ten Thousand. His references o Lacedaemoniansand the

privileged position he insists on accordingthem are meant quite

generally and have no special application to the circumstances

about him.ARCADIANS

Taking up the various nationalities separately, it is apparentthat the Arcadiansformedeasily the largest contingent. We are

not told expressly how large a proportionthey did form of the

'ApKd'&E4Kal'AXaioL,but the fact that there was a division explicitly

called To'ApKcaKtodvand the striking predominance of individual

Arcadiansamplywarrantthe statement above. Indeed the whole

group of 'Apcd&4eIcal 'AXatotis referred to briefly as 'Aplcd'E8

(vi. 3. 2).A relatively largenumberof Arcadiansare namedin the course

of the narrative. They are Xenias, Callimachus,and Arexio of

Parrhasia, Sophaenetus, Agasias, and Aeneas of Stymphalus,Cleanorof Orchomenus,Aristonymusof Methydrium,Eurylochusof Lusi, and, finally, Agias, Arystas, Basias, Nicarchus, Pyrrhias,

Smicres,and probablyHegesander, n the case of all of whom the

city or district is not mentioned. The Mantineans must have

been present in sufficientforce to be groupedtogether (vi. i. ii),

but no one of that city is named. Three Arcadiansare among







XENOPHON'S TEN THOUSAND 53

the original generalsof the up-march,Xenias, Sophaenetus,and

Agias.'Xenias deserted early. Agias was entrappedand killed at the

Great Zab. Xenophon's brief ob;vd ab'Trb de/j~erTO (ii. 6. 30)

is at once his biography and his epitaph. Sophaenetus saw the

expeditionthroughto the end and survived to write an account of

the retreat--which may or may not have been in completeaccord-

ance with that of Xenophon. By way of Ephorus, his versionis

probably present to us in the pages of Diodorus.

The others are the generalsCleanor,Hegesander,and Smicres;the captains Aeneas, Agasias, Aristonymus, Callimachus, and

Nicarchus; the taxiarch Pyrrhias; the hoplites Arystas, Basias,and Eurylochus, and the soothsayer Arexio. If we except the

deserter Nicarchusand the glutton Arystas, these men may all be

said to be gazetted for conspicuous gallantry. In Xenophon's

story, Agasiasand Cleanoreasily rank first in ability and courage.While we cannot assiune in Xenophon a complete freedom from

eitherpersonalor nationalbias, we have no reason to supposethat

thesemenwereother thanhe describes hem. Hemay

havepassedover others who were their equals,but his roll of honor is generous

enoughto indicate that he possessedat least one quality of a good

commander, he ability to discern and rewardmerit. Indeed he is

charged with coddling his men: 7a pcv LXXaEL•e'

oib caicl,

tXloo-rpartd7~re', Heraclides tells the Spartan generals at Seuthes'

conference,and that Xenophon repeats this reportedutterance of

an unfriendlycritic shows that he considered t as a compliment.On the whole, in spite of the mutiny at Heraclea (vi. 2. 1o)

the Arcadiansproducea distinctly favorableimpression. And yetthey were undoubtedly the most thoroughly professional merce-

naries in the army. In Hellenistic times it was in the mountains

of Aetolia that the responseto the recruitingsergeantwas quickestand completest, and this fact contributed largely to the positionAetolia held in the history of that time. But in 400 B.C., it was

Arcadia that had for centuries been sending out its children to

fight other men's battles, without, however,any noticeableenrich-ment of the home country throughreturningbravos. It is surely

I

The correction f Sophaenetus i. 2.9) to Agias s generally ccepted.








unnecessaryto insist on the tradition of rugged simplicity which

presupposesa certain rudeness of manners and unsettledness ofculture in Arcadia-two very commonconditionsin a mercenary-

breedingcountry.Arcadiansprobably had their share in most of the fighting of

the Greek world during the fifth century, and with completerrecordswe shouldprobablyfind them even better represented han

we know they were. It does not quitefit in with ournotions of the

time to find men of the same nation on both sides of the same battle-

field,unless n actualcivil war. Yet, at Syracuse,Arcadians ought

with both the Spartansand the Athenians (Thucydides,vii. 57. 9and 58. 3) and Thucydides speciallymentionsthem as mercenaries

by long custom--dr' 7Tob0v A 7roXElovo/V oTtv aroecrtKvvuevov

Lo orTETe'vaL.

It is not strange therefore to find Arcadiansin plenty in the

motley throngthat gatheredat Sardis,nor yet to learnthat amongthem were the most eficient soldiers and officers. For most of

them warfaremust have been almost a hereditary rade.

ACHAEANS

Next to the Arcadians the Achaeans ought to receive most

frequentmention. As a group, however, they are spoken of onlyin connectionwith the Arcadians. The followingindividuals are

referredto by name: Philoxenusof Pellene, Socrates,Xanthicles,

Philesius, Phryniscus, Lyco, Samolas. Socrates was one of the

originalten generalsand is includedwith Agiasthe Arcadian n the

terse characterizationof ii. 6. 30. After the GreatZab,Xanthicles

succeeded Socrates,and Philesius succeeded Meno.

Phryniscusappearsat Byzantium as general,when and where elected we are

not told. Besides Samolas,the taxiarch,the rest are hoplites.It will be noticed that the city nameis given only in the case of

Philoxenus,one of the least importantof the seven. We can only

guess at the reason for its absence in the others. The cities of

Achaea,whilenoneof them reachthe fameorwealth of many cities

of continentalGreece,were none the less realcities andparticularlycontrasted as WrSxEL ith the Ionian icKLat (Strabo, sec. 386).

They areeven creditedwith havingservedas models for the highly







XENOPHON'STEN THOUSAND 55

developed civic communitiesof Magna Graeciawhich were their

colonies,suchas Crotona,Sybaris,etc. We do not hear of Achaeanmercenariesto any especial extent, nor indeed does Achaea playmuch of a part in the annals of Hellasup to that time. Achaeawas

not involved in the Peloponnesianwar. Parts of it were occupied

by the Athenians under Pericles in 460 B.c. and were ceded to

Sparta,or at least evacuatedby Athens, later. But activepartici-

pation in the internecinewarsof Greecebegan for Achaeawith the

invasion by Epaminondas. And yet we find a considerablenum-

ber of trained Achaean soldiers and leaders of evident experience

and capacity, at the end of the fifth century. It is not at all

unlikelythat our sources are faulty and that Achaeanswere better

representedin the warfare of the entire century than is expressly

stated, since trainedarmiesdo not grow up out of nothing.It will be noticed that the Achaean Philesius takes the place

of Meno. While the nationalities of generaland troopsneed have

no relationto eachother, thereis a particularreason to believethat

the soldiers themselveswere largelyAchaeansand that these must

have formed,therefore,a large percentageof thetroops

which the

AleuadAristippuscollectedand kept in Thessaly.One of the Achaean generals,Philesius, appearsas Xenophon's

bitter opponent at Cotyora. Both he and Xanthicles were cen-

sured and fined there when the generals gave in their accounts.

All in all, Xenophonfindsmuchless occasionto commentfavorablyon the Achaeans than upon their fellow-Peloponnesians. This

fact, however,may be due to a personalanimus.

ATHENIANS

We do not think of the Ten Thousand as containing any notice-

able contingent of Athenians. Xenophon represents his own

presencethere as somethingquite exceptional. We hear from the

murmuringsof the Arcadiansat Heracleathat Athenianswerefew

in the army (vi. 2. io): ApXeweva

'AOrvaiov IHEXoWrovln-Alv Ical

Aaic•E8atuoviov krq.taV&, va/t.,LV raPeXd,'aEvoV El? rTv arpa'rtdv.

Nevertheless, a relatively large number of Athenians are markedfor special mention. Besides Xenophon himself, there are Theo-

pompus (unless,indeed,we adopt the rathergratuitoustheory that








in ii. I. 12 Xenophonrefersto himselfundera pseudonym), Polyc-

rates, Aristo, Phrasias, Gnesippus, Cephisodorusson of Cephiso-phon,"Amphicratesson of Amphidemus,and Lycius son of Polys-tratus. The patronymics of only the last three are given-of

Lycius captain of the cavalry, and of two hopliteskilled in action

againstthe Carduchi.

In the case of Lycius, Xenophon may have desired by the

insertionof the patronymicto distinguishhim from the Syracusanof the same name. It can hardlybe that he intended it as a mark

of honor, for the captains Gnesippus,with his aristocratic-hippos,

Polycrates, and Phrasias, and the envoy Aristo, would seem tohave at least an equal claim to their full appellation.

It is evident that Xenophondid not let his Spartanpredilections

prejudicehim against his own countrymen.

LACEDAEMONIANS

There were Lacedaemoniansin considerablenumbers in the

army. The words of the Arcadians (supra) indicate that. We

know that Cyrus asked Sparta for troops and received 700 under

Chirisophus. But we should go too far if we assumedthat all, or

even many, of these were full Spartiates. Clearchusand Chiriso-

phus, of course, were. Dracontius is especially so designated.

But the latter'spresencethereis deemedworthyof specialexplana-

tion, and the choice of him to conduct the games at Trapezus

shows the respectin which he was held. The very resentment of

Agasias(vi. I. 30) is a proofof the generalfeeling that a full Spar-

tiate, as such, was a man of rankwhereGreekswereassembled.

Ofthe other

Lacedaemonians," Cleonymusis characterized

simplyaso AdacovndDexippusis expresslystated to be a Laconian

perioecus. It would not be a bold conjectureto supposethat the

mass of Chirisophus'700 and the great majority of the Lacedae-

rA Cephisophon son of Cephisodorus is mentioned in an Attic inscription of

426 B.c. (C.I.A., I, 129, 1. 3). He may have been the father of the man mentioned

or a member of the same family. Still the name cannot have been uncommon in Attica.

2Pythagoras, the admiral of the Spartan fleet, is mentioned (i. 2. 4), but obviously

did not accompany the expedition. The fleet was originally under the command of

Samius (Xenophon Hell. iii. I. i),who was evidently superseded. It is just possible

that the two names refer to the same man.








monians scattered throughout the army were rather perioeci or

perhaps even Helot neodamodeis,as were so many of the troopswhich Spartasent to the aid of Syracuse (Thucydidesvii. 58. 3).

Neo of Asine is called a Laconian (vii. 2. 29), but the positionof Asine is not quite determinable. Kiepert puts it in Messene.

However,Adacovs not a term of very great definiteness.

No othercity or countryfurnishesmore than a smallnumberof

men who are individuallymentioned. From Elis came the heralds

Tolmidesand the young Silanusof Macestis, the soothsayerBasias

and the captain Hieronymus. Aeschines, captain of peltasts,hailed from Acarnania, and the grafting soothsayer, Silanus,from Ambracia across the gulf. Sicyon had a representative in

that Soteriadeswhose little escapadeis related by Xenophon with

such evidentrelish(iii.4.47-49). FromMegaracame the recreant

general Pasio; from Locri, the captain Theogenes. The captain

Archagorascame from Argos. Boeotia sent not only Proxenus,but Xenophon's adversary,Thorax,and that unfortunateApollo-nides whose thick Boeotian accent did not prevent him frombeing

ignominiously ejected from the council as an ear-boredLydian.FromThessalycameMeno,whose characterXenophonhasdepictedwith an enthusiasmof vituperation that can only have been due

to personal animosity, and the hard-fistedBoiscus who receives

scarcelya better letter to posterity. Nicomachusof Oeta,captainof peltasts, faresbetter, but in generalAthenianopinionof Thessalyand Thessalians was probablynot very high. (Cf.Plato Crito53D:eicet yap 8

7r"XEt'Trfl aTa5ta icac tcoXaota.)

From farther west came Antileon of Thurii. FromSyracusecame the hoplite Lycius and the general Sosis, who is mentioned

but once in the whole A nabasis. If the Themistogenesof Syracuse,who as Xenophon tells us (Hell. iii. I. 2) wrote an account of the

retreat, is a real personage,and not a mask for Xenophon himself,there was still anotherrepresentativefrom Syracuseof some note

in the army. The scout Democratesmay have come from Syra-cuse or Argolis or Aeolis.

The far north sent the two Episthenes,the onefromAmphipolis,

the other from Olynthus,both of them of a rather easy morality.








It is surprising o note the curious ndulgenceXenophonmanifests

in their case to practiceswhich earned for Meno such severity ofanimadversion. OtherOlynthiansserved as peltasts under Meno.

The islands, too, furnishedmen. That most ancient mother

of mercenaries,Crete, gave Clearchustwo hundred of her famous

archers. Under their captain, Stratocles,they earnedXenophon'scommendation iv. 2. 28). Slingers romRhodes werealsopresent,but as Xenophon only accidentallylearns of the fact (iii. 3. 16),

they cannot have been many. It is an unnamed Rhodian who

proposes to march the troops across the Tigris on an ingenious

pontoon of skins. The captain Aristeas came from Chios; theexile Gaulitesfrom Samos. From Dardanus in Asia Minor came

the general, Timasio, who succeeded no less a personagethan

Clearchus,and the quarrelsomeEurymachus.

Finally,of unspecifiednationalitieswerethe captainsCleaenetus,

Clearetus,and Euodeus (unless the text is corrupt n vii. 4. 18),as well as the commissaryZelarchus.

The musteris completedwith half-GreekDolopians and Aenia-

nians who came with Meno.

The relationof generalsto their men deservesspecialattention.

The original ten generals who brought their troops to Cyrus

undoubtedlycollected them themselves, and stood in the relation

of employers toward them. There is, accordingly,no reason to

supposethat generalsand men wereof the same nationality. The

formerwere probably experiencedcondottieri,who had taken uparmsas a profession. Some of them were men of renown,so that

to haveservedunderthem was aguaranty

ofefficiency cf.

v. 6.24).Suchwas, aboveall, Clearchus. There must have beena numberof

themwho, like Coeratadesthe Theban,had beenjourneyingabout

in search of employment (cf. vii. I. 33: ECt'•Lt

i97rdXVL?q Ovo4

o-rparnryo6 e'o0to). They eitherpicked their own captains,or else

these XhoXayolere themselves subcontractors,and brought with

them a groupof Lanzknechten hich they had themselvesgathered.It is probablethat, after the GreatZab, the nationality of the

soldiers helped to determine the nationality of the general they

chose. So an Arcadian s chosento take the

placeof the murdered








Agias. The Achaean Socrates is succeeded by the Achaean

Xanthicles, and instead of Meno, anotherAchaean,Philesius, isselected. This would give the Achaeansa representationamong

general officers more in proportion to their numbers. But we

notice among the captains of Proxenus the Theban, the Arcadian

Agasias and the Elean Hieronymus. In general, there was prob-

ably no relation whatever between the nationalities of the various

officers.

In discussing the Lacedaemoniancontingent, it has been sug-

gested that most of them were probably perioeci or enfranchised

helots. That they were not Spartiates of full rank is furtherevidencedby the fact that they did not put themselvesunder the

ordersof the duly accreditedSpartan generals,when they finallymet them,but had,longbeforethe death of theirleaderChirisophus,been lost in the mass of the troops. Were the others relatively in

the same position?

The end of the Peloponnesianwar must have thrown out of

employment a numberof men who had fought all their lives and

were fit for little else. It is generallytaken forgrantedthat manyof the Ten Thousand were exiles from their native states, havingbecome so after one or another of the many political revolutions

which werepart of the incidentsof that war. But, as a matter of

fact, the fact of suchexile is often specificallymentioned,andwould

seem to confer a certain superiority of rank. Relatively few

came fromstates actuallyengaged n the war.

The Arcadiansand possibly the Achaeanshad been mercenaries

for generations. For the body of the troops Xenophonmakes one

or two casual allusions thatmay

have considerablesignificance.In the country of the Macronians he retreatis materiallyassisted

by one of the peltasts (iv. 8. 4): 'v•vp'A0rvro-'t do'cow,eovXev-ce'vat,who recognized n the people of the countryhis compatriots.This Macronian, who makes no attempt to conceal his servile

origin, is thereforeserving as a full-fledgedsoldier even if in the

light infantry-a sign of poverty, and without bearing upon his

claim to be considereda Greek. The statement is made by Xeno-

phon without a word of comment. But surelyit was not all in the

day's work for Greeks to march and bivouac side by side with







60o THE CLASSICALJOURNAL

runawayslaves. Either men on campaignwerenot very squeam-

ish, or many another of these "hearts of Greece" had a similartaint in his escutcheon.

The Macronianslave was not the only example of this type.A brave and efficientsoldier, who acted as a sort of sergeant or

orderly,was a certainMysus, Mysian in originas well as in name.

(Cf. v. 2. 29: cKa'vi)p Mvco\•o

ye'vo; icat-oivoloa oio70 x•CXOv.)

It is evident fromthe contextthat his languagewas Greek,andit is

equally obvious that the name was one given to him by Greeks.

If that is so, it is almost as surelyservile as the Syrus,Davus, etc.,

which Roman comedy borrowed from Greek. And again, if

Apollonideswas a Lydian, ear-boredor otherwise,he had attained

a rather high rank in the army, and if he had been foresighted

enoughto be in the majority,he might have retainedunchallengedhis position and his Boeotian accent. There was also in the army

a distinct groupof out-and-outbarbarians. Even if the Scythians

of iii. 4. 15 are more than dubious, there were Thracians. Miltocy-

thes, to be sure, deserted to the king (ii. 2. 7), but the languageindicates that some at least remained with the Greeks. To be

commandedby Lydian and Mysian refugeesmay not offend our

ideas of propriety, but it is surely strange that it did not seem

worthy of note to a Greekwith morethan slight pretensionto real

gentility.These "zehntausendGriechenherzen,"hen, were mercenaries,

coheringby the hope of loot, and recruitedwith somewhat less

fastidiousness hanwerethe membersof the Areopagus. Romance-

loving centurieshave spreada kindly glamorover them, which it

would be in thehighest degree ungenerous

toattempt

todispel.Onecannothelp feelingthat the majorityof them wouldhave been

in hearty accordwith the protest of Kipling'sTommyAtkins that

they were no "thin red 'eroes"but just single men on the march,"most remarkable ike you." And they chaffedeach other in the

face of imminentperil, fought, intrigued, lied and cheated, saved

and betrayed each other, much as other men of their type have

continuedto do for centuriessince then, under similarconditions.

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