IT was decided that an inquiry should be held also into the conduct of the generals during the past. As a result of this inquiry Philesius and Xanthicles were fined twenty minae for their inefficient watch over the cargoes of the merchant ships, and Sophaenetus was fined ten minae, because he had been given a position of responsibility and had neglected it.
Some people brought charges against Xenophon, alleging that they had been beaten by him and making the basis of their accusations that he had acted in an overbearing manner. Xenophon asked the man who had spoken first to say where the incident had taken place. ‘It happened,’ he said, ‘in the place where we were dying of cold and when there was all that snow.’
‘Well,’ said Xenophon, ‘when the weather was like you say it was, when our food was giving out and we had not even a smell of wine, when a lot of us were sinking under all our hardships and the enemy were following us up behind, if I really acted then in an overbearing way, then I admit that I must have a more overbearing character even than the donkey has; and they say that donkeys are so overbearing that they never get tired. All the same, tell us what was the reason why you were beaten. Did I ask you for something, and then strike you because you did not give it to me? Was I getting something back from you? Was it a fight over some good-looking boy? Or did I ill-treat you when I was drunk?’
He said that it was not a case of any of these things, and Xenophon then asked him whether he was one of the hoplites. He said ‘no’. Was he a peltast? He said ‘no’ again; he was a free man who had been given the job of driving a mule by his comrades.
Xenophon then recognized him and asked: ‘You’re the man, then, who was carrying one of the casualties?’
‘Yes, I certainly am,’ he said, ‘and you made me do it And you scattered all my comrades’ equipment all over the place.’
‘As for scattering the equipment about,’ said Xenophon, ‘this was how it was. I gave it to other men to carry and I ordered them to hand it in to me. When I got it from them, I handed it all back to you safe and sound, after you had produced the man whom you were carrying. But you all ought to hear what actually happened. It is worth listening to. A man was being left behind, because he could no longer go on marching. All I knew of the man was that he was one of us. I compelled you to carry him so that his life might be saved. The enemy, I think, were following close on us.’
The man corroborated all this and Xenophon continued. ‘I sent you forward,’ he said, ‘and did I not then come up to you again with the rearguard and find you digging a hole in order to bury the man? I stood by you, did I not, and commended you for it? Then, when we were standing by, the man drew in his leg and the people there shouted out that he was alive; but you said, “He can be as much alive as he likes, I am not going to carry him.” It was at this point that I struck you, and you are quite right about that. It was because I had the impression that you looked as though you knew that the man was alive.’
“What about it?” the man replied. ‘He died all the same, did he not, after I had shown him to you?’
‘No doubt we shall all die,’ said Xenophon. ‘Is that any reason why we should all be buried alive?’
They then all shouted the man down, saying that Xenophon had not beaten him half enough.
Xenophon then asked anyone else to give the reasons why he had been beaten; but, as no one stood up, he went on speaking himself. ‘I admit, soldiers,’ he said, ‘that I have struck men in cases where there has been lack of discipline – the sort of people who were quite content to have their lives saved by you marching in formation and fighting when it was called for, but who left the ranks themselves and ran ahead and wanted to get more than their fair share of booty. If we had all behaved like this, we should all have been wiped out. Then, too, in cases where a man was losing his grip on himself and refused to stand up and was giving himself up to the enemy, I have both struck people and forced them to continue marching. This was because I myself on one occasion during the intense cold, while I was waiting for some men who were packing their kit, sat down for a long time and then found that I could hardly stand up and stretch my legs. So afterwards, as a result of my own personal experience, I used to drive on other people when I saw them sitting down and slacking. Moving about and being energetic kept one’s body fairly warm and one’s limbs fairly supple; but I saw that sitting down and doing nothing had a lot to do with the freezing of the blood and mortification of the toes, from which, as you know, a lot of people suffered. And then perhaps, when there were cases of people loitering behind because they were lazy and so prevented both you in the front and us in the rearguard from getting on with the march, I have struck a man or two with my fist, but that was to stop them being struck by an enemy’s spear-blade. Yes, and now that they are in safety they have an opportunity of getting redress, if they have had any unjust treatment from me. If, on the other hand, they had fallen into the hands of the enemy, whatever their sufferings might have been, what sort of legal redress do they think they would have got? My case is really quite simple. If I have punished anyone for his own good, then I think I should answer for it in just the same way as parents in the case of their children and schoolmasters in the case of their pupils. Doctors too use knives and hot irons for the good of their patients. But if you think that my actions are the result of an overbearing character, then please reflect that at the present moment I am, thank God, more confident than I was then, and I am now bolder than I was then, and drink more wine too, and yet, in spite of this, I never strike anybody. That is because I see that you are now enjoying fine weather. But as soon as a storm gets up and the sea runs high, you must have noticed how the officer in the prow gets angry with his men merely for a movement of the head, and so does the steersman with those under him. This is because even small mistakes at such a time are capable of upsetting everything. And you yourselves have admitted that I was right in striking these men. You were standing by me at the time, and you had swords in your hands, not voting pebbles; you could have come to their help if you had wanted. In point of fact you did not come to their help, nor did you join with me in punishing people who were behaving in a disorderly way. The result is that, by turning a blind eye to them, you have given the worst elements among them a chance of becoming insufferable. My opinion is that, if you care to look around you, you will find that the men whose behaviour was worst then are at this moment the most insufferable characters. Take the case of Boiscus, the Thessalian boxer. In those days he made a great song about being too ill to carry his shield; and now, I hear, he has already robbed many of the people of Cotyora. If you are sensible, you will treat him quite differently from the way people treat dogs. They keep bad-tempered dogs on the chain during the day, and let them loose at night; but, if you are sensible, you will chain him up at night, and let him loose during the day.
‘All the same,’ Xenophon added, ‘I am surprised at the fact that, in cases where I offended any of you, you remember it and talk about it, but as for the times when I helped you during the cold weather, or kept off the enemy, or made my contribution to relieving anybody who was ill or in want – no one remembers any of this; nor do you remember any of the occasions when I have praised a man for some good bit of work, or given all the honour I could to a soldier who behaved gallantly. Yet it is an honourable thing, and a just and upright thing, and more pleasant too to remember what is good rather than what is bad.’
People then got up and gave examples of some of these things, and the final result was that it all ended satisfactorily.