Xenophon, Anabasis III

After the generals had been seized, and such of the captains and soldiers as accompanied them had been killed, the Greeks were naturally in great perplexity, reflecting that they were at the king's gates, that round about them on every side there were many hostile tribes and cities, that no one would provide them a market any longer, that they were distant from Greece, not less than ten thousand stadia, that they had no guide to show them the way, that they were cut off by impassable rivers which flowed across the homeward route, that the barbarians who had made the upward march with Cyrus had also betrayed them, and that they were left alone without even a single horseman to support them, so that it was quite clear that if they should be victorious, they could not kill anyone, while if they should be defeated, not one of them would be left alive. Full of these reflections, and despondent as they were, but few of them tasted food that evening, a few kindled a fire, and many did not come that night to their quarters, but lay down wherever they each chanced to be, unable to sleep for grief and longing for the native cities and parents, their wives and children, whom they thought they should never see again. Such was the state of mind in which they all lay down to rest. That's the opening of book three of Xenophon's Anabasis. Ten thousand stadia from Greece, that's about a thousand miles. You remember the last episode, the leaders of the ten thousand Greeks were invited to a banquet under the auspices of maybe securing their alliance more intimately with Antisephanes, and they were betrayed and arrested, and many of them were executed immediately, and others were executed later. And the rest of the Greeks are left there, they still have to figure out now, what are they going to do? I'm Alex Petkus, you're listening to The Cost of Glory. Our normal mission here is to retell the lives of the great Greek and Roman leaders following Plutarch's lives, and in the course of my research for the biographies of Plutarch, I read a lot of other great books, and so I'm sharing with you some notes from Xenophon's Anabasis, which is another great text for leaders, and doers, and people who like adventure stories also. So more of the same this week, book three, Anabasis. Now before we begin, I have a special announcement to make. Ancient Life Coach is organizing its first event. How would you like to hang out in Rome with me and other Cost of Glory fans, while learning about what the ancient Greeks and Romans both considered to be the most important skill for an ambitious man to master? Well, July 16th through 23rd, 2023, I'm going to be in Rome with my good friend Eric Hewitt, who is a longstanding colleague, and he happens to also be an incredible expert on everything Rome, from ancient to medieval, early modern, contemporary religion, culture, politics, and he lived there for 15 years. We are organizing a retreat, a leadership retreat in Rome. It's not a tour per se, but we will be seeing a lot of the best parts of the city. The event is titled Speak, Lead, Retreat, and in this retreat, we are going to do a deep dive on classical rhetoric. Rhetoric is usually thought of as the art of public speaking, but in the eyes of the Greeks and Romans, it was also the art of public writing as well. They considered learning rhetoric to be the best way to advance your career, whether it was because you thereby learn to speak more persuasively, make better friends, present yourself more effectively to people who can help you out in life, or convince customers to buy your products and services, or maybe most importantly, because studying persuasion gives you deep insight into human nature and the good life. That's what they thought at least, since it's a subject that's closely connected to philosophy and politics and even art. In fact, before I left academia and got into business and started retelling these stories for you and everything else, well, I was actually a scholar of classical rhetoric and I published a lot of articles on it. I taught beginning through advanced college classes on it. That study of classical rhetoric, the art of persuasion, public speaking, public writing, it hugely influenced my podcast work, my outlook on business and life in general. I'm excited about this. Eric has a PhD in medieval philosophy, but he's studied rhetoric very deeply. Not only that, he's used it extensively in his career as an entrepreneur and a business founder and a leader. He ran a successful startup enterprise in the classics field for about a decade. You can read more about him and about me if you want on the page that we've set up for this retreat. I'll put a link in the show notes. It's ancientlifecoach.com slash retreat. The point is, both of us have a whole lot of theory and practice under our belt in classical rhetoric and we want to share it with you while seeing some of the sights of one of the greatest cities in the world and eating some good food, discussing interesting ideas together with like-minded men. Yes, there is a catch. This is a men's-only retreat. We do hope that this will be the first of many and that we'll do other mixed gender and family-friendly even events sometime. For this event, we're aiming to do something pretty specific here and that's recreate an environment of Roman otium, which is their word for, I think you might translate it as serious leisure. In those situations, they didn't mix genders. If this piques your interest, click the link in the show notes or go to ancientlifecoach.com slash retreat. In that page, I go into a little more depth on what we're doing. It's going to be a lot of fun and we're going to do some physical activities together. We think it could be a game changer potentially for your career and your life. Back to Xenophon. This is book three of the Anabasis and Xenophon in this book, three of seven, he starts to become the main character here in the story. He begins by introducing himself properly at last. Of course, again, he's writing in the third person about himself here. I'm going to read you what he says. This is the Loeb translation, L-O-E-B, which I like it and I think you should get it, especially if you want to get the facing ancient Greek. I'll put links to the books in the show notes if you want to use an Amazon affiliate link. This is an interesting passage to start out with because I think it gives you insight into Xenophon's character and also into Socrates' character. This is the famous Socrates, the Athenian philosopher. Here's what Xenophon says about himself. There was a man in the army named Xenophon, an Athenian who was neither general nor captain common soldier, but had accompanied the expedition because Proxenos, an old friend of his, had sent him at his home an invitation to go with him. He sent him a letter. Proxenos, by the way, is dead now. He's been apprehended and probably they all realize he's on his way to being executed. There's a little bit of poignancy here. Proxenos had also promised him that if he would go, if Xenophon would go, he would make him a friend of Cyrus whom he himself regarded, so he said, as worth more to him than was his native state. After reading Proxenos' letter, Xenophon conferred with Socrates, the Athenian, about the proposed journey. Socrates, suspecting that his becoming a friend of Cyrus might be a cause for accusation against Xenophon on the part of the Athenian government for the reason that Cyrus was thought to have given the Spartans zealous aid in their war against Athens. And by the way, you can listen to the life of Lysander on that. Socrates advised Xenophon to go to Delphi and consult the god in regard to this journey. And here's the part I think is pretty interesting here. So here, this is, listen to what Xenophon does. So Xenophon went and asked Apollo, remember he's, Socrates told him, get Apollo's advice on what you should do with this invitation that you've received from Proxenos. And Xenophon goes, Xenophon went and asked Apollo to what of the gods he should sacrifice and pray in order best and most successfully to perform the journey which he had in mind. And after meeting with good fortune to return home in safety, and Apollo in his response told him to what gods he must sacrifice. When Xenophon came back from Delphi, he reported the Oracle to Socrates. And upon hearing about it, Socrates found fault with him. He blamed him because he did not first put the question whether it were better for him to go or to stay, but decided for himself that he was to go and then asked the god as to the best way of going. However, Socrates added, since you did put the question in that way, you must do all that the god directed. So, okay, going on just a little bit more here. Xenophon accordingly, after offering the sacrifices to the gods that Apollo's Oracle prescribed, he set sail, overtook Proxenos and Cyrus at Sardis, which is in Asia, in Lydia, as they were on the point of beginning the upward march. And he was introduced to Cyrus. And not only did Proxenos urge him to stay with them, but Cyrus also joined in this request, adding that as soon as the campaign came to an end, he would send Xenophon home once again. And the report, once again here, was that the campaign was against the Pisidians. So end quote. And so that's Xenophon's background. And these were the kind of students, you know, that Socrates attracted. You think of Socrates as a philosopher. He's looking at the heavens, maybe. He's talking about kind of abstruse arguments. What is the nature of virtue? And it kind of sounds nerdy to us, maybe. But Xenophon and Alcibiades, these are the kinds of people that Socrates attracted to himself. These are really active and energetic and ambitious, smart people. They're adventure-loving types. They're hungry to make something of themselves. And so I think that's interesting to keep in mind about Socrates and who he was in Athenian society. And also an interesting note here, Proxenos, this friend of Xenophon's, blessed memory, he was a Theban. Xenophon is an Athenian. In the Peloponnesian War, which just ended right around this time, it's been over for like a year or two, maybe, Xenophon, well, Athens and Thebes were mortal enemies. And there was a vote, a resolution on the part of the Thebans, in fact, that the Spartans, once they defeated the Athenians, the Thebans recommended the Spartans to annihilate Athens from the face of the earth. So these cities were really mortal enemies. And yet Xenophon and Proxenos are friends and they're willing to do interesting things together. So I think that's interesting. Do you make friends with people in your industry, despite the fact that they're competitors? Are you reaching out across the aisle? Because whether in business, war, politics, I think a lot of great people do that because they recognize that alliances shift sometimes. All right. So Xenophon goes on here and I mentioned this a couple of episodes ago. This is kind of the moment where he rises up and becomes a leader. There are a lot of speeches that he gives at the beginning here that we're going to go through selectively. And we talked a few minutes ago about the art of public speaking, making a career, right? Well, this is the moment where Xenophon, he's really ready to speak because say what you will about Socrates being a lover of truth, a proto-scientist, a philosopher, but he was also regarded as somebody who could teach you how to speak well. And Xenophon makes a point of mentioning that he had studied with Socrates. So Socrates can kind of give you insight into training and how to address your words to the situation. So you start to see this with Xenophon. And I covered this again a few episodes ago. Xenophon has this dream where he's despairing, he's having trouble sleeping, and he sees this vision where a lightning bolt comes out of the sky and it falls on his father's house and it sets the thing ablaze and he tries to make sense of it, but he eventually decides it's a good omen. And then he wakes up and that's when he decides it's a good omen. And then he has this inner monologue that he records here. And I'm going to read it for you once again. I'm actually going to read the English here for this little inner monologue. And then I'm just going to give you the Greek after that. I'm going to read for you the ancient Greek so you can hear what it sounded like. It's not too long and it's really like one of the most famous passages, I think, in the Anabasis. So it's worth dwelling on a little bit. All right, here he goes. Firstly, on the moment of his awakening, the thought occurred to him. Why do I lie here? The night is wearing on, and at daybreak it is likely that the enemy will be upon us. And if we fall into the king's hands, what is there to prevent our living to behold all the most grievous sights and to experience all the most dreadful sufferings, and then being put to death with insult? As for defending ourselves, however, no one is making preparations or taking thought for that. But we lie here just as if it were possible for us to enjoy our ease. What about myself then? From what state am I expecting the general to come who is to perform these duties? And what age must I myself wait to attain? For surely I shall never be any older if this day I give myself up to the enemy. And here's the Greek. Nowadays, I usually use the modern pronunciation if you're savvy to these things when I read. But I'm going to read for you with the reconstructed classical pronunciation, the ancient pronunciation, which is probably more like what this would have sounded like when Xenophon wrote it. All right, here's his speech. So, Xenophon gets up and he goes and he's camped with the soldiers now of Proxenus, who's, of course, captured and soon to be dead now. And he calls them together. He calls together the captains of Proxenus, the leaders of this little contingent. Proxenus has brought maybe, I think it's like 2,000 soldiers, a pretty big contingent. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's a lot of soldiers. And so, he gets the captains together, a handful of guys, and he makes a little speech to them. And I won't read it all for you or really any of it. He basically convinces them that, look, we're on our own now. And surrendering to King, in my opinion, is basically choosing either slavery or death. He does not intend, he does not have any noble intentions. We obviously cannot trust anything that these people say. And now, justice is on our side, right? If we want to fight our way out and plunder as we go, well, they've broken their oaths. So, the gods are going to be on our side, and we have nothing to be ashamed of in just chopping our way out of Mesopotamia. And more importantly, you, the captains of Proxenus, are now in a position to make the decision, to take the initiative. Nobody else is doing anything. Do you see anybody stepping up around us? No. So, we have to do something. And so, it's cool. Well, I'll get to my analysis of this literary sequence in a second. But so, he finishes his speech, and they all ask him to lead them. And that's Xenophon's moment of stepping up into a leadership position. It's not official yet, and it's not the whole army yet. It's just Proxenus's guys. And there's a funny scene here, actually, before they ask him to lead them. So, there's this guy, this other man stands up, and his name is Apollonides, who spoke in the Boeotian dialect. And this Greek, basically, is a naysayer. And he says, anyone who says that they can gain safety in any other way besides gaining the king's consent through persuasion, if possible, is talking nonsense. We have no chance, he's basically saying. Xenophon, you're a fool, you're trying to get us all killed. And so, Xenophon stands up and interrupts him in the middle of his talking. And he says, you amazing fellow, you have eyes, but still do not perceive. You have ears, but still do not remember. You were present, surely, with the rest of these officers at the time when the king, after the death of Cyrus, and in his elation over that event, sent and ordered us to give up our arms. And he goes on here, don't you remember what the king did? He chopped off his brother's head and hands, and he's deceived us. I mean, the king is not somebody to be trusted. We cannot hand ourselves over to him. And he says to the other captains there, he said, in my opinion, gentlemen, we should not simply refuse to admit this fellow to companionship with us, but should deprive him of his captaincy, lay packs on his back and treat him as that sort of creature. For this fellow is a disgrace to Greece and a disgrace to his native state. So then one of the other captains with the proxies as men stands up and he says, for that matter, this fellow has nothing to do, he's agreeing with Xenophon here, this fellow has nothing to do either with Boeotia or any part of Greece at all. For I have noticed that he has both his ears pierced like a Lydian's. In fact, it was so, Xenophon remarks. He was therefore driven away. So they just chased this guy away from the camp. I don't know, maybe he fades back into the ranks, but anyway, they're all with Xenophon there and they ask him to take the lead. So if you stand up and propose a bold plan, expect to get some doubters. And maybe at that moment, Xenophon thought, oh, this is what they're all thinking. They're all saying, let's take the coward's route. But in fact, it was only this one guy, or he was the only guy who spoke up and the other captains shout him down with Xenophon there. But Xenophon first had to rebuke him himself. He had to stare the man down and fight back with words. Xenophon's got a good point here. They've defeated the Persian king in a battle, which is a great shame upon the king of Persia. And Xenophon is saying what probably a lot of them are thinking, look, the Persians have been just waiting for their excuse to go Middle Eastern on us. Have you ever been to the British museum or maybe the Penn, UPenn's Near Eastern collection? I think there's a great museum at Chicago too. Well, anyway, have you ever seen, maybe Google this, the Assyrian reliefs that show what the Assyrians did when they captured a city, when they conquered somebody who had resisted, who had dared to resist the king of Assyria. Well, you know, they depict these scenes of sacking cities and torturing people and ripping men in half and beheading people and impaling them on spikes. I mean, it's just these horrifically gruesome scenes that I'm sure that they did this, but they also wanted you to know that they were the kind of people who did this because by this point, and we're dealing with a period, maybe three, 400 years after that, so not that long. And the Persians aren't quite that bad, but you see a lot of this in Herodotus' depiction of Xerxes. I mean, they do have an image to uphold that the Near Eastern ruler, the ruler of Mesopotamia and these parts, they need to project power and justice. And anybody who resists them is by definition, wicked and insolent. So Xenophon's got a good point here that the Persian king, it's worth spending a lot of his resources to make these 10,000 Greeks reproach in a byword and a cautionary tale. So the captains of Proxenus then, they go out and they summon together all the captains from the army. And one of them, this takes a little while, it's still in the night, they're doing this by torchlight. One of them, about a hundred or so Greek captains are there assembled. One of them asks Xenophon, hey, Xenophon, tell them what you told us. And so Xenophon gives another speech and he points out his perspective here. Surrender is not an option. And he reiterates some of the points that we've already made. And I'm going to read you just a couple of little sections here that I thought are interesting. Okay. The first quote is, I think it comes under the heading of how to motivate your managers. And so he says, it is for us then, in my opinion, to make every effort that we may never fall into the power of barbarians, but that if we can accomplish it, they may rather fall into our power. Be sure therefore that you who have now come together in such numbers have the grandest of opportunities. The Greek there is, you have the greatest kairos, which is, this is a Greek word that means the right time. This is the time, the turning point in time for you, is what he's saying. For all our soldiers here are looking to you. If they see that you are faint-hearted, all of them will be cowards. But if you not only show that you are making preparations yourselves against the enemy, but call upon the rest to do likewise, be well assured that they will follow you and will try to imitate you. And so he's really encouraging them, I think, with extreme ownership here. He's saying it all comes down to you, really the success, that the like survival of all of us comes down to you motivating your men and you taking the initiative. And your energy level, your confidence really, is what this all comes down to, he's saying. And confidence is contagious, isn't it? And this is a big problem for the Greek army. They've just got this horrifying news. The people that they thought were their friends with this giant army and control of the land and all these resources are actually their enemies. And so they're facing despondency, they're athumos in Greek, they've lost their thumos, they've lost their pep and their confidence, their courage. And so Xenophon gives them a suggestion, more specifics on how to motivate the men under them, these captains. And he says, for as matters stand now, perhaps you have observed for yourselves in what dejection they came to their quarters, the soldiers, and in what dejection they proceeded to their guard duty. And so long as they are in this state, I know not what use one could make of them. If there should be need of them, either by night or day. If, however, we can turn the current of their minds so that they shall be thinking not merely of what they are to suffer, but likewise of what they are going to do, they will be far more cheerful. So this is a crisis, right? And one way to build confidence in yourself and your subordinates or in others that you're working with is to focus on what you can do and to start not just trying to say, okay, it's not so bad, but to just start making a plan to start getting into action. And I can certainly relate to this, whenever I'm faced with a difficult problem that I don't know how to solve and I'm stressed about it, what I find is really helpful is to sit down, take a deep breath, get out a pencil and a sheet of paper, a notebook, and to just start writing out what I'm faced with first. What's the problem? And try to ask a question. And I often find that once I start doing that and take the time to think about what I can do, the answers really click into place pretty quickly of what needs to happen now. And I can start focusing on action and get that energy back. And it doesn't even require necessarily making a plan. Sometimes you just have to find the next action. And I got that from a book, How to Get Things Done by David Allen, which if you haven't read, you need to. It's great. Just going to finish this little speech of his so you get a sense of what they're up against. For you understand, I am sure, that it is neither numbers nor strength which wins victories in war but whichever of the two sides it be whose troops, by the blessings of the gods, advance to the attack with stouter hearts, against those troops their adversaries generally refuse to stand. And in my own experience, gentlemen, I've observed this other fact that those who are anxious in war to save their lives in any way they can are the very men who usually meet with a base and shameful death. While those who have recognized that death is the common and inevitable portion of all mankind and therefore strive to meet death nobly are precisely those who are somehow more likely to reach old age and who enjoy a happier existence while they do live. End quote there. That's a characteristically Greek sentiment for sure. It's actually kind of true, at least in the context of the way that they do battle, which is hoplite battles and most of the casualties in ancient warfare are suffered by the people who are running away because they don't have their shields in front of them. They're just easier to pick off with a spear. But it's a sentiment that I think probably applies to most businesses, right? If you're so focused on surviving at all costs, on mitigating all risk, maybe, and you don't go out and invest in product development, sales and growth, well, chances are you're more likely to shrink and wither and die on the vine. So that's all about confidence. And this is really important at this point because the odds are very bad and they have a very good reason to be dejected, right? As I don't need to elaborate. So after Xenophon's speech, they elect him, the captains elect him to replace Proxenus. So he's basically taken the place of his friend, commanding however many, I think 2,000 men. So he's not in charge of the whole army of 10,000, but he's one of the leaders now. And the captains then decide to, they like what he says, and they call all the troops together for a meeting. Basically, this is the assembly of the entire army. And so notice here, the circle keeps widening for Xenophon. First, he starts speaking with just the captains of Proxenus. And then he is speaking in front of a bigger crowd with the assembled captains of the whole army. And now he's about to speak, because they're going to call on him, he's about to speak in front of the whole army of 10,000 men, which is a lot of people to speak in front of, especially if you're a Greek and living in that world. But notice how it all began with his speech to himself after his dream. That was for him the first key rhetorical moment, the first key speaking moment. And he had to have his mind, his heart bright to think upon maybe lessons that he learned from Socrates first, before he grew into this quick ladder up of speaking in bigger and bigger contexts. But there's another lesson here. First, that speaking well in smaller circles often leads to speaking well, or speaking opportunities, at least in bigger circles. And also that you should never let a crisis go to waste, because this kind of opportunity to really ramp up, level up quickly in terms of the context in which you are presenting your advice, it's really not that common and usually takes a crisis. So never let those go to waste. All right. And so he's addressing the assembled troops finally. And there's a funny scene here. So Xenophon has put on, he says, here upon Xenophon arose, arrayed for war in his finest dress. He just got called on to speak and he's all decked out. For he thought that if the gods should grant victory, the finest raiment was suited to victory. And if it should be his fate to die, it was proper. He thought that in as much as he had counted his office worthy of the most beautiful attire, in this attire, he should meet death. And then he begins talking. He began his speech as follows. The perjury and faithlessness of the barbarians has been spoken of by Cleonor, the guy who spoke before him, and is understood, I imagine, by the rest of you. If then is our desire to be again on terms of friendship with them, we must need to feel great despondency when we see the fate of our generals who trustingly put themselves in their hands. So if you want peace with these people, then you should be sad. But if our intention is to rely upon our arms and not only to inflict punishment upon them for their past deeds, but henceforth to wage implacable war with them, we have the God's many fair hopes of deliverance. And as he was saying this, a man sneezed. And when the soldiers heard it, they all with one impulse made obeisance to the God. So he says the word deliverance, soteria in Greek. And then a guy sneezes and everybody's like, ah, because actually that was a sign from the gods that commonly regarded. So in Greek culture, because I guess, because a sneeze isn't something that you can necessarily control. But if somebody sneezes at an opportune moment, you know, maybe there's a divine presence trying to give you a message. So they take this as a sign that Zeus soter, Zeus, the deliverer is on their side. And so Xenophon just, he runs with this and he says, I move gentlemen, since at the moment when we were talking about deliverance and omen from Zeus, the savior was revealed to us that we vow and make a sacrifice to the God. And so they, you know, he says, let's make a sacrifice to the God. And then at this moment, everybody shouts an approval and they strike up a hymn together. They make a vow and they start singing the pion, which is a hymn to a God in Greek. And they all, I guess they all know it, which is really not that hard to imagine. They've been fighting together for a while here. So I think this is, it must've been an incredible scene. Don't you think? I mean, 10,000 desperate men, middle of the night assembly by torchlight, their enemies are, you know, right over the hill there and they're, they've got death or slavery on the doorstep. And this is where they all resolve, give God the glory, let's fight or die. Let's do this. And so after this, this incredible energy that Xenophon's got built up here, he gives this kind of long speech that reiterates a lot of the same points, but you know, he's got to make them in front of the assembled men here. The first of course, being that we're not going to surrender. We're going to fight our way out of here and I won't go into all of it, but there are a couple of points I found interesting. And I kind of think of this moment as sort of maybe like a company going through a big painful shift of direction, a restructuring, a change in leadership and objectives, you know, thinking about what needs to happen in that situation. And so, you know, Xenophon's dealing with this. Okay. We really got to reorient here. And he gives the assembly a couple of interesting and potentially controversial suggestions in this situation. Okay. So first he says, I must go on to another point. How can we march most safely? And if we have to fight, can fight to the best advantage? In the first place then, Xenophon proceeded, I think we should burn up the wagons, which we have so that our cattle may not be our captains, but we can take whatever route may be best for the army. Secondly, we should also burn up our tents for these again are a bother to carry and no help at all, either for fighting or for obtaining provisions. Furthermore, let us abandon all other superfluous baggage, keeping only such articles as we may use for war or in eating and drinking in order that we may have the largest possible number of men under arms and the least number carrying baggage. For when men are conquered, you are aware that all their possessions become the property of others. But if we are victorious, we may regard the enemy as our pack bearers. So if you were looking to cut costs, a crisis is a good time to do that. And then he gives another potentially controversial suggestion here to the men. Note how he reiterates here in the passage I'm about to read, the danger that they're facing before he lays down this hard, potentially controversial suggestion. He says, it remains for me to mention the one matter, which I believe is really of the greatest importance. You observe that our enemies did not muster up the courage to begin hostilities against us until they had seized our generals, for they believe that so long as we had our commanders and were obedient to them, we were able to worst them in war. But when they had got possession of our commanders, they believed that the want of leadership and of discipline would be the ruin of us. Therefore our present commanders must show themselves far more vigilant than their predecessors and the men in the ranks must be far more orderly and more obedient to their commanders now than they used to be. We must pass a vote that in case anyone is disobedient, whoever of you may be at hand at the time shall join with the officer in punishing him. In this way, the enemy will find themselves mightily deceived for today they will behold not one Clearchus, but 10,000 who will not suffer anybody to be a bad soldier. So that's an interesting point he makes that the Persians kind of dropped the issue of trying to get the Greeks to surrender and to get the whole army at their mercy until they had their leaders. Because remember at the end of the last episode, we talked about how after this deceit and capture of the leaders of Clearchus and friends, that the Persians sent a little detachment, an embassy to try to get them in hand over their arms again. So they thought that basically the key to the success as Xenophon points out of the Greek army is discipline and obedience to leaders and having good leadership. And so he says, well we got to double down on discipline. And they thought that they were dealing with people like them, that they have a few in the leadership class and everybody else is kind of a follower slave peon, but we have a lot of good leaders left. And I love the way that he brings up Clearchus again. And isn't that sharp? I mean, maybe these guys didn't all love everything about Clearchus, but now that he's been captured by the enemy, maybe he's already dead, maybe he's soon to be dead. Xenophon plays on their admiration for the man and the good qualities and their sorrow for the terrible circumstances. And he's bringing out these latent emotions to direct them to what he thinks are the best decisions and also just to have the right mindset for going forward. They really need to be disciplined. And he's brought out the fear of the danger and emotions are such a powerful key in rhetoric. Some of the first psychological treatises are handbooks of rhetoric. Aristotle's book on rhetoric has a long section on the most important emotions that a speaker needs to master to carry his point. Okay. Anyway, so moving on here, the soldiers all take a vote to ratify Xenophon's proposals. And Xenophon says it was unanimous. So that's very Greek, by the way, to have an assembly of fighting men to make resolutions by a majority vote. That's basically how most of their city states work. They're kind of like a moving Greek city right now. And the leader here who emerges really of the whole army is actually a guy named Kairisophus. He's a Spartan. He's the oldest, but he seems to prefer to be more of a first among equals. He's the guy who calls Xenophon up to speak. He's the guy who proposes that they take a vote on Xenophon's proposal. So he's kind of the MC. Anyway, so they get underway. They burn the wagons and the tents. And now the hard work begins. And in the morning, the next morning after this assembly and all these events, the Persians send a nobleman leader of theirs. Well, I mean, they don't know that the Persians sent him. He's a friend of Cyrus. He was one of the Persians on Cyrus's army, so they know him. And he says, hey, I'm on your side. Cyrus is my friend and your friend. We're friends. I want to join with you if you're taking reasonable action. If you guys have a good plan, I want to be on your team. And he said, well, what is your plan exactly? And so they tell him that they're planning on striking up land on their own. And he says, oh, that's a terrible idea. You should surrender to the king. I think we should all surrender to the king. And at that point, they realize, oh, this guy is not really on our side. They're just trying to find a different way to get us to lay down arms. So they tell them to scram. And so they start up along the Tigris River. And later that very same day, this guy, Mithridates is his name. It's a common name. He attacks and it doesn't go well. Xenophon is in charge of the forces that are in the rear guard that are tasked with repelling assaults from the enemy. And basically Mithridates has slingers and bowmen and cavalry. And the Greeks have like spear throwers who don't have great range and they don't have any cavalry. They've got some bowmen, but the bows that these Cretan archers that they have, they're not really as far ranging as the Persians' bows. So Xenophon, the Persians attack, Xenophon chases, and it doesn't go well. The Persians shoot them with arrows as they're being chased. And then the Greeks retreat and they get shot with more arrows and attacked by horses. And they take a lot of casualties and it's bad. And Xenophon goes and explains what happens to Chirysiphus, the Spartan, the leader. And Chirysiphus blames him for giving chase. You shouldn't do that. You knew that that was, you had to know that was bad ideas. And Xenophon says, yes, well, I had to do something. But at least we learned that we're in a terrible predicament and that we can't really do this unless we find a way to have artillery, basically, and horses. And he says, actually, I looked into the matter and we have a number of Rhodian troops in our army. Rhodians are famous for their ability to hurl sling stones. That's just something that they do a lot in Rhodes. It's a mountainous territory. They're legendary slingers. And he said they have about 200 of these Rhodians kind of scattered amongst the units. They're now, you know, carrying shield and spears, but we could re-equip them. And we actually, you know, we don't have a proper cavalry, but we have captured about 50 horses and we're using them as pack animals now. So we have a kind of a formation, the beginnings of a makeshift cavalry. And so why don't we form up some new units? And Chirysiphus says, yeah, that's a great idea. And, you know, they knew that the Persians had better slingers and cavalry already. So it's kind of, it seems kind of silly. Like why didn't they think of this before if they had these people? But I think that really does illustrate a lot of times how we don't know the resources that we have at our disposal until we give it a hard think. Often a crisis or facing a lot of pain and the defeat will cause us to reconsider and regroup. But I mean, wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to face a crisis before we realized what we could do? Sometimes all it takes is just sitting down and thinking, maybe with a pen and paper. And sure enough, the next day, this guy Mithridates shows up again with a lot more horses and a lot more slingers. And yet the Greeks are able to repel him, partly because he's kind of gotten contemptuous of them. He thinks that he could just push them around and not be too careful. And he attacks them in a sort of not favorable spot with a gorge behind him. And partly just, there's just the element of surprise. The Greeks just, they pull out this, these like really talented slingers and they're able to outshoot the Persians. And they managed to actually chase away the troops of Mithridates and they inflict more casualties than they incur. So this is very encouraging. So they managed to patch things up and they're, they're moving quickly along the Tigris up Northwest, trying to get out of Mesopotamia. And I mentioned this before, they're traveling in an ancient land. And this is the heartland of the ancient Babylonians and the Assyrian empire. Think Marduk, Gilgamesh, think Tiglath-Pileser, Nebuchadnezzar, Sargon, now the Persian empire founded by Cyrus. And there's so much ancient ruins there. So much ancient history already, like the Sumerians, for example, nearby civilization. They're way earlier than all the names I just mentioned. There've been kingdoms in that area that were as, as far before Xenophon, as Xenophon is before us. Kind of amazing to think about it. So they're in this strange land and they, they come upon a deserted city. And here's what Xenophon says. Here was a large deserted city. Its name was Larissa. It was inhabited in ancient times by the Medes. Its wall was 25 feet in breadth and a hundred in height. And the whole circuit of the wall was two parasangs. A parasang is maybe three miles. That's a Persian unit of measurement. It was built of clay bricks and rested upon a stone foundation 20 feet high. This city was besieged by the King of the Persians at the time when the Persians were seeking to wrest from the Medes their empire, but he could in no way capture it. A cloud, however, overspread the sun and hid it from sight until the inhabitants abandoned their city. And thus it was taken. Nearby the city was a pyramid of stone, a plethora in breadth, a plethora is about a hundred feet, and two plethora in height. And upon this pyramid were many barbarians who had fled away from the neighboring villages. So that's probably a ziggurat that they've encountered there. And archaeologists now identified this city as the great now ruined Assyrian city of Nimrud, which is mentioned in Genesis 10. Abandoned. And then another day's journey up the Tigris, they find another deserted city. Here's what Xenophon says. From this place, they marched one stage, six parasangs to a great stronghold, deserted and lying beside a city. The name of this city was Mesbila, and it was once inhabited by the Medes. The foundation of its wall was made of polished stone, full of shells, and was 50 feet in breadth and 50 in height. Upon this foundation was built a wall of brick, 50 feet in breadth and a hundred in height. And the circuit of the wall was six parasangs, 18 miles. Here, as the story goes, Medea, the king's wife, took refuge at the time when the Medes were deprived of their empire by the Persians. To this city also, the king of the Zeus, however, rendered the inhabitants thunderstruck, and thus the city was taken. I don't really know what he means when he says thunderstruck. There's some story that they're probably hearing from the locals. Now, but that is the great Assyrian city of Nineveh from the Book of Jonah. And it is believed by some that for a time period, Nineveh was once the largest city in the world. It is basically the modern city of Mosul in Iraq now. And so as they're going on, they're making progress, but it's difficult going. And the king's armies are harrying them as they go. They're taking casualties. At one point they stop and rest and they appoint eight men of the to be doctors. They appoint doctors. I mean, imagine that. That's a big problem that they're facing, right? Like how do you deal with all these wounded? And you hope that these eight men were experienced in some kind of first aid at least, but basically they have to just pick some guys to be the official doctors to tie up wounds or supervise people on stretchers. And as they're traveling, they are getting increasing number of their soldiers that are becoming unfit for combat. They're either injured or they're carrying the injured. And so it's a very challenging progress. And I'm going to skip a few interesting interactions here. It's starting to get hilly. There's a cool scene where Xenophon leads a detachment to occupy some high ground ahead of the enemy. And they kind of have a race and the Greeks win. But they get to this point where they either have to cross a very wide, deep river, namely the Tigris, or face a very high and forbidding mountain range. And they're looking at this river and the mountains and they're kind of getting down and not knowing what to do. And the captains and the generals are having a council. And then this guy comes up. And I'm just going to read you what Xenophon says. In the midst of their perplexity, a Rhodian came to them and said, I stand ready, gentlemen, to set you across the river, 4,000 hoplites at a time, if you will provide me with the means that I require and give me a talent for pay. That's a lot of money. Upon being asked what his requirements were, he replied, I shall need 2,000 skins. Many are these sheep and goats and cattle and asses that I see. Take off their skins and blow them up. And they would easily provide the means of crossing. I shall want also the girths which you use on the beasts of burden. With these I shall tie the skins to one another and also more each skin by fastening stones to the girths and letting them down into the waters like anchors. Then I shall carry the lines of skins across the river, make it fast at both ends and pile on brushwood and earth. As for your not sinking then, you may be sure in an instant on that point, for every skin will keep two men from sinking. And as regards slipping, the brushwood and the earth will prevent that. After hearing these words, the generals thought that while the idea was a clever one, the execution of it was impossible. And Xenophon explains, for there were people on the other side of the river to thwart it, a large force of horsemen namely, who at the very outset would prevent the first comers from carrying out any part of the plan." So I think that Xenophon just includes that because it's hilarious. And I mean, this guy wants to slaughter all of their pack animals and turn them into balloons. But you know, that's a good reason to be a leader, right? Just so you can hear all of the crazy ideas people have to solve your problems. So they go on another day and they're still at this kind of crossroads here and they talk to some prisoners that they've taken from the region. And they learn about the lay of the land. They can go south, back from where they came, back to Babylonia and Media. They could go east to Susa and Ekbatana, which is where the king of Persia spends his summers and his springs. They could go west to Lydia and Ionia, and that would probably mean crossing the river. And also a lot more exposed territory where they could easily get attacked by Tissafernes, who's not going to have any trouble crossing that river. And finally, they could go north through the rugged mountains, through the land of the Carduchians. And here's what they learn about the Carduchians. These Carduchians, they said, the men that they're talking to, these locals who are actually their prisoners, these Carduchians, they said, dwelt up among the mountains, were a warlike people, and were not subjects of the king. In fact, a royal army of 120,000 men had once invaded them. And by reason of the ruggedness of the country, not a man of all that number came back. So that's what they hear about the Carduchians, about the northward path. But they also hear that beyond the Carduchians is the relatively easy territory of Armenia, where they can go pretty easily wherever they want to from there. And a lot of modern scholars think that these Carduchians, listen to that first syllable, Carduchians, a lot of modern scholars think that these are the ancestors of the Kurds. This is, after all, basically Kurdistan. They're looking at going through the mountains in what is now southeast Turkey. Kurdistan is northern Iraq, southeast Turkey, northwest Iran. So they're looking at going into this territory of these really wild mountain tribes, potentially. And that is actually the road that they decide to take, the northern road through the mountains. They make their sacrifices, they tell the troops to pack up, they have their afternoon meal, and then they get ready to march on through the evening. That's all for this week. If you like this, leave us a review. Check out the show notes for the link to the Speak Lead Retreat. Sign up for our email list at ancientlifecoach.com. Thanks for listening. Stay strong, stay ancient. This is Alex Petkus. Until next time.