s whether it would be better
to lay his project before the army or keep it in his own bosom. The
encouraging answer of the gods, as conveyed through the victims and
testified even by Silanus himself, proved that the scheme was not
ill-conceived; nevertheless (he remarked) Silanus had begun to lay
snares for him, obtaining by his own proceedings a collateral indication
which he had announced to be visible in the victims. "If (added
Xenophon) you had continued as destitute and unprovided, as you were
just now--I should still have looked out for a resource in the capture
of some city which would have enabled such of you as chose, to return at
once; while the rest stay behind to enrich themselves. But now there is
no longer any necessity; since Herakleia and Sinope are sending
transports, and Timasion promises pay to you from the next new moon.
Nothing can be better; you will go back safely to Greece, and will
receive pay for going thither. I desist at once from my scheme, and call
upon all who were favorable to it to desist also. Only let us all keep
together until we are on safe ground; and let the man who lags behind
or runs off, be condemned as a wrongdoer."

Xenophon immediately put this question to the vote, and every hand was
held up in its favor. There was no man more disconcerted with the vote
than the prophet Silanus, who loudly exclaimed against the injustice of
detaining any one desirous to depart. But the soldiers put him down with
vehement disapprobation, threatening that they would assuredly punish
him if they caught him running off. His intrigue against Xenophon thus
recoiled upon himself, for the moment. But shortly afterwards, when the
army reached Herakleia, he took his opportunity for clandestine flight,
and found his way back to Greece with the 3000 darics.

If Silanus gained little by his manoeuvre, Timasion and his partners
gained still less. For so soon as it became known that the army had
taken a formal resolution to go back to Greece, and that Xenophon
himself had made the proposition, the Sinopians and the Herakleots felt
at their ease. They sent the transport vessels, but withheld the money
which they had promised to Timasion and Thorax. Hence these officers
were exposed to dishonor and peril; for having positively engaged to
find pay for the army, they were now unable to keep their word. So keen
were their apprehensions, that they came to Xenophon and told him that
they had altered their views,