NEXT, they came to the river Zapatas,7 which was four hundred feet in breadth. They stayed three days here, and during this time, although suspicion persisted, there was no real evidence of treachery. Clearchus therefore decided to have an interview with Tissaphernes and do his best to put a stop to these suspicions before they ended in open hostility. He sent someone to say that he wanted an interview with him, and Tissaphernes readily invited him to come. When they met, Clearchus spoke as follows: ‘I know, Tissaphernes, that we have sworn oaths and exchanged guarantees that we will do no harm to each other; yet I observe that you are watching our moves as though we were enemies, and we, noticing this, are watching yours, too. On looking into things, I am unable to find evidence that you are trying to do us any harm, and I am perfectly sure that, as far as we are concerned, we do not even contemplate such a thing; and so I decided to discuss matters with you, to see if we could put an end to this mutual mistrust. I know, too, of cases that have occurred in the past when people, sometimes as the result of slanderous information and sometimes merely on the strength of suspicion, have become frightened of each other and then, in their anxiety to strike first before anything is done to them, have done irreparable harm to those who neither intended nor even wanted to do them any harm at all. I have come then in the conviction that misunderstandings of this sort can best be ended by personal contact, and I want to make it clear to you that you have no reason to distrust us. The first and most important point is that our oaths to the gods prevent us from being enemies of each other. A man who has his conscience burdened with neglect of such oaths is not a man whom I would ever consider happy. I do not see how one who is an enemy of the gods can run fast enough away, nor where he can flee to escape, nor what darkness could cover him, nor how he could find a position strong enough for a refuge. For all things in all places are subject to the gods, and the power of the gods extends equally over everything.
‘This, then, is what I feel about the gods, and about the oaths we swore, oaths which, for safe keeping, we deposited in the gods’ hands at the time when our friendship was compacted. And now, when it comes to our relations with men, I think that there you are, at the moment, the greatest advantage which we have. With your help every road is easy, every river passable, and there can be no shortage of supplies; but without your help our entire journey would be in the dark, since we know nothing about it; every river would be a difficult obstacle, every collection of people would inspire us with fear, but most fearful of all would be uninhabited places in which one is perplexed every way.
‘If we were really mad enough to kill you what else would that amount to except that we should kill our benefactor and then have to contend with the King, who would be there in waiting and in full force to avenge you? And as far as I am concerned, I can tell you of all the great expectation of which I should be depriving myself if I tried to do you any harm. The reason why I wanted Cyrus to be my friend was because I thought that of all his contemporaries he was the best able to help those he wished to help. But, now, I observe that you have Cyrus’s provinces and Cyrus’s power and retain your own as well; and the King’s power, which was opposed to Cyrus, is on your side. With all these advantages of yours, who could be such a fool as not to want to be your friend? I will tell you, too, the reason why I have good hopes that you also will want to be our friend. First, there are the Mysians, who, I know, cause you trouble and whom, I feel sure, I could bring to heel with the force I have at present. I know about the Pisidians, too, and I hear that there are a number of equally troublesome peoples, all of whom, I think, I could prevent from constantly interfering with your happy lot. I am aware that you are particularly angry with the Egyptians, and I do not see how you could get a better force than the one I have now to help you in bringing retribution on them. Yes, and to the states on your borders you could be, if you liked, the most valuable of friends or, if any of them gave you trouble, you could, with us in your service, behave like a dictator, and we would not be serving you merely for the sake of pay, but also because of the proper gratitude which we would feel to you for having saved our lives. When I think of all this, your lack of faith in us seems to me so incredible that I should much like to know the name of the man who can speak so persuasively as to get you to believe that we are intriguing against you.’
This was what Clearchus said. Tissaphernes replied as follows : ‘ I am really delighted, Clearchus, to hear your sensible speech. With the sentiments which you have, it seems to me that, if you were to contemplate doing me an injury, you would be simultaneously plotting against your own interests. But, now, you must listen in your turn so mat you may be convinced that you, too, would be wrong in entertaining any lack of confidence either in the King or in me.
‘If we really wanted to destroy you, do you think we are short in numbers of cavalry or infantry or in the right sort of equipment with which to be able to damage you, while incurring no risk of retaliation? Or do you think it likely that we could not find favourable ground on which to attack you? Remember all the flat country which you go through with great difficulty even when the inhabitants are friendly to you. Consider all the mountains you have to cross which we could occupy first and make impassable for you. Think of all the rivers where we could cut you into detachments and engage with as many at a time as we liked. And there are some of these rivers which you could not get across at all unless we brought you across. Even supposing we had the wont of it along all these lines, you can be sure, anyway, that fire is more powerful than crops, and if we burnt the crops we could bring famine into the battle against you; and, with all the courage in the world, you could not fight against that. With all these means of making war on you at our disposal, and with none of them entailing any risk on us, how can you imagine that out of them all we should choose the one method which involves wickedness in the sight of the gods and shame in the eyes of men? It is simply and solely among people who are without means and desperate and without any other way out (and even then they must be villains) that you will find men willing to secure their ends by perjury to the gods and faithlessness to men. It is not so with us, Clearchus. We are not such blockheads and simpletons.
‘You may ask why, since we have the power to destroy you, we have not proceeded to do so. Let me tell you that what is responsible for this is my own desire that I should earn the confidence of the Greeks and that I should, by doing good to them, return to the coast with the support of that mercenary army on which Cyrus, in his journey inland, relied only because he gave them their pay. As to the ways in which your help is useful to me, you have mentioned some of them yourself. The most important of them, though, is one that I know of. I mean, that it is for the King alone to wear the crown upright on his head; but, with your help, someone who is not the King might easily, perhaps, have the crown in his heart.’
Clearchus thought that in this he was speaking sincerely. ‘Those people, then,’ he said, ‘who try by their slanders to make us enemies, when we have all these reasons for friendship, – do they not deserve the worst that can happen to them?’
‘Yes,’ said Tissaphernes, ‘and if you are prepared, generals and captains, to come to me, I will name openly those who told me that you were in a conspiracy against me and my army.’
‘I will bring them all,’ said Clearchus, ‘and I on my side will let you know where I get my information about you.’
After this conversation Tissaphernes behaved with great affection towards Clearchus, urged him to stay with him for the time being and had him as his guest at supper.
Next day, on his return to camp, Clearchus made it clear that he considered that he was on very good terms with Tissaphernes, and that those Greeks who were proved to have been spreading slanders should be punished as traitors and disaffected to the Greek cause. It was Menon whom he suspected of spreading the slanders, as he knew that he and Ariaeus had had an interview with Tissaphernes, and also that he was secretly forming a party of opposition against him with the idea of getting the whole army on to his side and becoming a friend of Tissaphernes. Clearchus wanted to have the loyalty of the whole army himself and to have grumblers put out of his way.
Some of the soldiers opposed Clearchus, saying that all the captains and generals ought not to go, and that they ought not to trust Tissaphernes; but Clearchus insisted strongly, until in the end he succeeded in getting five generals and twenty captains to go. About two hundred of the other soldiers went with them, too, as though to buy provisions.8
When they arrived at the entrance of Tissaphernes’ tent, the generals were invited inside. They were Proxenus the Boeotian, Menon the Thessalian, Agias the Arcadian, Clearchus the Spartan and Socrates the Achaean. The captains waited at the entrance. Not long afterwards, at one and the same signal, those who were inside were seized and those who were outside were massacred. After that contingents of native cavalry rode over the plain and killed all the Greeks they could find, slaves and free-men alike. The Greeks saw with surprise these cavalry manoeuvres from their camp and were in doubt about what they were doing until Nicarchus the Arcadian escaped and came there with a wound in his stomach and holding his intestines in his hands. He told them everything which had happened.
As a result the Greeks ran to arms. There was general dismay and they expected that the enemy would march immediately on the camp. However, they did not come in full force, only Ariaeus and Artaozus and Mithridates, men who had been most in Cyrus’s confidence. The Greek interpreter said that he saw with them, and recognized, Tissaphernes’ brother also. Other Persians, about three hundred strong, wearing breastplates, came with them.
When they were near the camp they asked that any Greek general or captain who might be there should come out to them so that they could deliver a message from the King. Then, taking every precaution, the Greek generals Cleanor of Orchomenus and Sophaenetus of Stymphalus went out, and Xenophon the Athenian went with them so as to find out what had happened to Proxenus. Chirisophus happened to be out of camp with a party collecting provisions in some village.
When they had halted within hearing of each other, Ariaeus spoke as follows: ‘Greeks, Clearchus has been found guilty of perjury and of breaking the truce. He has got what he deserved, and is dead. But Proxenus and Menon,9 since they reported his conspiracy, are held in great honour. As for you, the King asks you to surrender your arms. He says that they are his property, as they used to be the property of Cyrus, who was his servant.’
To this the Greeks made their reply, with Cleanor of Orchomenus as their spokesman. ‘Ariaeus, you utter villain,’ he said, ‘and you others who used to be Cyrus’s friends, do you feel no shame before the gods and before men? You took an oath that you would have the same friends and enemies as we had, and then you betrayed us with that godless and criminal Tissaphernes. You have killed the very people with whom you swore the oath, and now, after abandoning the rest of us, you come against us with our enemies.’
Ariaeus said: ‘The fact is that it was first proved that Clearchus was forming a conspiracy against Tissaphernes and Orontas and all of us who were with them.’
Xenophon replied to this and said : ‘Then, so far as Clearchus is concerned, he has got what he deserved, if he did break his oath and contravene the truce. It is right that perjurers should be destroyed. But as for Proxenus and Menon, since they are benefactors of yours and our generals, send them to us. It seems clear that, being friends to both parties, they will try to give the best advice both for your interests and for ours.’
The natives took a long time to discuss this among themselves, and then went away without making any reply to the suggestion.