So the soldiers found out that the whole question was being stirred up again, and Neon made out that Xenophon had talked over the other generals and was thinking of deceiving the soldiers and taking them back again to the Phasis.7 The soldiers were angry when they heard this : meetings were held : they got together in crowds, and gave every reason to fear that they might act as they had acted in the case of the Colchian heralds and the officials of the market. Xenophon, when he became aware of how matters stood, decided to call a meeting of the army at once rather than let them get together on their own authority, and so he instructed the herald to call an assembly. As soon as they heard the herald’s voice, they flocked to the meeting and were evidently eager for it. Xenophon made no accusations against the generals for having approached him on the matter. Instead he spoke as follows: ‘Soldiers, I hear that someone is accusing me of wanting to deceive you and take you to the Phasis. I must beg you therefore to give me a hearing. If it is proved that I am doing you wrong, then I ought not to leave this place without suffering for it. If, on the other hand, it is proved that it is my accusers who are doing the wrong, then you must treat them just as they deserve. Now I feel sure that you know in what quarter the sun rises and where it sets, and that if one is going to go to Greece one has to travel westwards, whereas, if one wants to go towards native territory, one has to go in the opposite direction, towards the east. Now is it conceivable that anyone could deceive you into thinking that the sun rises over there and sets here, or sets here and rises there? And then you know this well enough too – that the north wind is the wind for taking us out of the Euxine towards Greece, and it is the south wind that takes us towards the Phasis. When the north wind blows, the saying goes round that it is good sailing weather for Greece. Is it, then, really possible that anyone could deceive you into going on board when the south wind is blowing? You may say that I would get you on board during a calm. But I shall be sailing in one ship, and you in at least a hundred. How then could I possibly force you to sail with me against your will, or deceive you into following me? But let us imagine that you have been deceived, or rather bewitched, by me and that we reach the Phasis. We then go ashore, and you will have a pretty clear idea that you are not in Greece. I, who have deceived you, shall be just one man and you will be nearly ten thousand, with arms in your hands. How could a man hand himself over to justice more effectively than by making this sort of arrangement for himself and for you? No, all these stories come from silly people or from people who are jealous of me, because I am treated with distinction by you. Though they can have no possible reason for being jealous. When have I stopped any of them from speaking in front of you, if he has anything valuable to say, or from fighting, if he wants to fight for you and for himself, or from staying awake at night thinking out plans for your safety? Do I stand in anyone’s way when it is a question of electing officers? I am quite prepared to resign and let him take my place. Only I should like to be sure that he is the sort of man who will do you good service. But really, as far as I am concerned, I have said enough on this subject. If any one of you thinks that he could himself have been deceived in this way, or that anyone else could have deceived him in it, let him speak and tell us all about it.
‘But when this is settled satisfactorily, do not break away from the meeting before listening to what I have to say about a certain tendency which I notice in the army. If this persists and becomes what it looks like being, the time has come for us to think seriously about our own position, and see that we are not shown up before mankind and before heaven, before friend and enemy, as a most worthless and dishonourable crowd of people.’
When the soldiers heard this, they wondered what he meant and asked him to continue. He then began speaking again. ‘I am sure that you remember that there were some places in the mountains which belonged to the natives and which were on friendly terms with the people of Cerasus. Some of the inhabitants used to come down and sell us animals for sacrifice and other things of theirs; and I think that some of you too went to the nearest of these settlements and came back again after making your purchases. Clearatus, one of the captains, found out that this place was a small one and, because its people assumed that we were their friends, was unguarded. So he went against them by night with the intention of sacking the place and without telling any of us about it. His plan was that, if he took the place, he would not return to the army, but would embark on a ship in which his friends were sailing along the coast, put on board any plunder he got and sail right away outside the Euxine. Those friends of his in the ship had made this arrangement with him, as I now know. So he called together those whom he had induced to go with him and led them against the place. The sun had risen, however, before he got there, and the inhabitants formed into a body, hurled down missiles from their strongholds, fought back and killed Clearatus with a number of the others, though some of them got back to Cerasus.
‘This took place on the day when we were starting on our march here, but there were still in Cerasus some of those who were going by sea and had not yet weighed anchor. Afterwards, according to the people of Cerasus, three of the older men from the place arrived at Cerasus and asked for an interview with our general assembly. When they found that we had gone, they told the people of Cerasus that they were surprised that we had thought of attacking them, and when the people of Cerasus told them that the action had been unauthorized, they were glad to hear it, and intended to sail here to tell us what had happened and to give permission to those concerned to come and recover their dead for burial. However, some of the Greeks who had escaped happened to be still in Cerasus. When they found out where these natives were going they committed the outrage of stoning them and of calling on the rest to follow their example. So these men, the three ambassadors, were stoned to death. After this had taken place, the people of Cerasus came to us and told us of it, and, when we generals heard their story, we were much upset by what had happened and we discussed with the people of Cerasus the question of how the dead bodies of the Greeks could be given burial. We were sitting together outside the place where the arms are kept, when we suddenly heard a great disturbance and shouts of “Strike them down! Throw your stones!” and the next thing we saw was numbers of men running up with stones in their hands and others picking up stones. The people of Cerasus, who had seen what had happened in their own city, were naturally enough frightened and made their way to their ships. Yes, and there were some of us too who were frightened. I, however, went up to them and asked them what it was all about; and there were some of them who had no idea what it was, but still had stones in their hands. In the end I found someone who did know, and he told me that the officials of the market were treating the army disgracefully. At this point someone caught sight of the official Zelarchus making his way down to the sea, and raised a shout. As soon as the others heard it, they rushed at the man, as though it was a wild boar or stag that had appeared. The people of Cerasus, seeing the soldiers coming in their direction, felt sure that they were the object of their attack and ran away fast, throwing themselves into the sea. There were actually some of us too who jumped into the sea with them, and those who did not know how to swim were drowned. Now why do you imagine they acted like this? They had done us no harm, but they feared that we had suddenly gone raving mad, like dogs. Now if this sort of thing goes on, just think what the state of our army will be like. You, the whole body of the army, will lose the power both of making war on whoever you like and of ending hostilities: anyone who cares to will go off on his own and lead a force against any objective that takes his fancy. And when the ambassadors come to you to sue for peace or for any other purpose, anyone who likes can kill them and so prevent you from hearing the pleas of those who apply to you. And then those whom you, in a general assembly, elect as officers will have nowhere to stand, while any self-elected general who wants to shout out “Throw your stones at him!” will have sufficient authority to put an officer or any private soldier among you to death without trial, if he feels inclined to do so, and if there are people prepared to obey him, as there certainly were on this occasion.
‘Now consider what these self-made generals have actually done for you. If the official Zelarchus has done you any injury he has sailed right away and given you no satisfaction for it. If, on the other hand, he was guiltless, he has fled from the army in terror of being unjustly put to death without a trial. Those who stoned the ambassadors to death have brought it about that you are the only Greeks for whom it is unsafe to enter Cerasus, unless you go there in force. As for the dead, though previously those who killed them gave you an opportunity of burying them, now these people have made it unsafe for you to go and recover the bodies even if you have an official herald’s staff with you. Who will go as a herald if he has killed heralds himself? We have, however, requested the people of Cerasus to give them burial.
‘Now if these actions are right, then give them your approval, so that we may know that things are going to go on like this in future and so that every man can watch out for himself and try to pitch his tent in some unassailable position. If, however, you think that this sort of conduct is more like that of wild beasts than of human beings, then let us consider how we can put a stop to it. Unless we do, how, in heaven’s name, can we go on sacrificing to the gods with an easy conscience when we are doing wicked things? And how can we fight our enemies if we kill our own people? What city will give us a friendly welcome when it sees this state of lawlessness among us? Who will feel any confidence in giving us facilities for buying our food if we are known to be guilty of acts of such great gravity? At home, certainly, we expect to win praise from everyone; but who will praise us if this is going to be our character? I am sure that we ourselves would have no good to say of people who do such things.’
Then they all stood up and said those who had taken the lead in these goings-on should be punished, and in future there should be no chance of starting lawless behaviour, and those who did should be put to death; the generals should hold a legal inquiry into all these cases, and there should also be inquiries into any other cases where anyone had been wronged since Cyrus’s death. They appointed the captains to act as jurymen.
On Xenophon’s recommendation, which had the support of the soothsayers, it was decided to purify the army, and the ceremony of purification took place.