ke and establish
the old democracy; but even then Athens was in a weak, wretched state,
and Sparta had all the power.

[Picture: Athens]

CHAP. XXII.--THE RETREAT OF THE TEN THOUSAND. B.C. 402-399.

[Picture: Decorative chapter heading]

Just as Greece was quieted by the end of the Peloponnesian war, the old
King of Persia, Darius Nothus, died, and his eldest son, Artaxerxes
Mnemon, came to the throne. He was the eldest, but his brother Cyrus,
who had been born after his father began to reign, declared that this
gave the best right, and resolved to march from Sardis into Persia to
gain the kingdom for himself by the help of a hired body of Greek
soldiers. Clearchus, a banished Spartan, undertook to get them together,
and he made such descriptions of the wealth they would get in the East,
that 11,000 of the bravest men in Greece came together for the purpose,
and among them Xenophon, the pupil of Socrates, who has written the
history of the expedition, as well as that of the later years of the
Peloponnesian war. Xenophon was a horseman, but most of the troops were
foot soldiers, and they were joined by a great body of Asiatics, raised
by Cyrus himself. They were marched across Syria, crossed the present
river Euphrates at the ford Thapsacus, and at Cunaxa, seven miles from
Babylon, they met the enormous army which Artaxerxes had raised. The
Greeks beat all who met them; but in the meantime Cyrus was killed, and
his whole army broke up and fled, so that the Greeks were left to
themselves in the enemy's country, without provisions, money, or guides.

[Picture: Babylon]

Artaxerxes sent messages pretending to wish to make terms with them and
guide them safely back to their own country, provided they would do no
harm on the way, and they willingly agreed to this, and let themselves be
led where they were told it would be easier to find food for them; but
this was across the great river Tigris, over a bridge of boats; and a few
days after, Clearchus and the other chief officers were invited to the
Persian camp to meet the king, and there seized and made prisoners. A
message came directly after to the Greeks to bid them deliver up their
arms, as they belonged to the Great King, having once belonged to his
slave Cyrus.

To deliver up their arms was the last thing they intended; but their
plight was dreadful--left alone eight months'