to cheat you and carry you to
Phasis. Hear me then, in the name of the gods. If I am shown to be doing
wrong, let me not go from hence unpunished; but if, on the contrary, my
calumniators are proved to be the wrong-doers, deal with them as they
deserve. You surely well know where the sun rises and where he sets; you
know that if a man wishes to reach Greece, he must go westward--if to
the barbaric territories, he must go eastward. Can any one hope to
deceive you on this point, and persuade you that the sun rises on _this_
side, and sets on _that_? Can any one cheat you into going on shipboard
with a wind which blows you away from Greece? Suppose even that I put
you aboard when there is no wind at all. How am I to force you to sail
with me against your own consent--I being only in one ship, you in a
hundred and more? Imagine however that I could even succeed in deluding
you to Phasis. When we land there, you will know at once that we are not
in Greece; and what fate can I then expect--a detected impostor in the
midst of ten thousand men with arms in their hands? No--these stories
all proceed from foolish men, who are jealous of my influence with you;
jealous, too, without reason--for I neither hinder _them_ from
out-stripping me in your favor, if they can render you greater
service--nor _you_ from electing them commanders, if you think fit.
Enough of this now: I challenge any one to come forward and say how it
is possible either to cheat, or to be cheated, in the manner laid to my
charge."

Having thus grappled directly with the calumnies of his enemies, and
dissipated them in such manner as doubtless to create a reaction in his
own favor, Xenophon made use of the opportunity to denounce the growing
disorders in the army; which he depicted as such, that if no corrective
were applied, disgrace and contempt must fall upon all. As he paused
after this general remonstrance, the soldiers loudly called upon him to
go into particulars; upon which he proceeded to recall, with lucid and
impressive simplicity, the outrages which had been committed at and near
Kerasus--the unauthorized and unprovoked attack made by Klearetus and
his company on a neighboring village which was in friendly commerce with
the army--the murder of the three elders of the village, who had come as
heralds to complain to the generals about such wrong--the mutinous
attack made by disorderly soldiers even upon the magistrates of Kerasus,
at the very moment whe