"

Many individuals responded to this appeal, insomuch that Xenophon was
not merely acquitted, but stood higher than before in the opinion of the
army. We learn from his defence that for a commanding officer to strike
a soldier with his fist, if wanting in duty, was not considered
improper; at least under such circumstances as those of the retreat. But
what deserves notice still more, is, the extraordinary influence which
Xenophon's powers of speaking gave him over the minds of the army. He
stood distinguished from the other generals, Lacedaemonian, Arcadian,
Achaean, and the rest, by his power of working on the minds of the
soldiers collectively; and we see that he had the good sense, as well as
the spirit, not to shrink from telling them unpleasant truths. In spite
of such frankness--or rather, partly by means of such frankness--his
ascendency as commander not only remained unabated, as compared with
that of the others, but went on increasing. For whatever may be said
about the flattery of orators as a means of influence over the
people,--it will be found that though particular points may be gained in
this way, yet wherever the influence of an orator has been steady and
long-continued (like that of Perikles or Demosthenes) it is owing in
part to the fact that he has an opinion of his own, and is not willing
to accommodate himself constantly to the prepossessions of his hearers.
Without the oratory of Xenophon, there would have existed no engine for
kindling or sustaining the common sense or feeling of the ten thousand
Cyreians assembled at Kotyora, or for keeping up the moral authority of
the aggregate over the individual members and fractions. The other
officers could doubtless speak well enough to address short
encouragements, or give simple explanations, to the soldiers: without
this faculty, no man was fit for military command over Greeks. But the
oratory of Xenophon was something of a higher order. Whoever will study
the discourse pronounced by him at Kotyora will perceive a dexterity in
dealing with assembled multitudes--a discriminating use sometimes of the
plainest and most direct appeal, sometimes of indirect insinuation or
circuitous transitions to work round the minds of the hearers--a command
of those fundamental political convictions which lay deep in the Grecian
mind, but were often so overlaid by the fresh impulses arising out of
each successive situation, as to require some positive friction to draw
th