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They then became extremely anxious to transport the Cyreians across to Asia, which their governor Aristarchus had hitherto prohibited and to take them into permanent pay; for which purpose two Lacedæmonians, Charmînus and Polynîkus, were commissioned by Thimbron to offer to the army the same pay as he had promised, though not paid, by Seuthês; and as had been originally paid by Cyrus.
He dismounted with a bound, and as he did so the friends saw that his face was red as with pent-up excitement. Themistocles advanced hastily. “What’s this? Your hands seem a-quiver. Whom has that constable tied up behind him?” “Seuthes!” cried Glaucon, bounding back, “Seuthes, by every god, and pinioned like a felon.”
For him, the result was singularly unhappy; since he forfeited the goodwill of Seuthês by importunate demand and complaint for the purpose of obtaining the pay due to the soldiers; while they on their side, imputing to his connivance the non-fulfilment of the promise, became thus in part alienated from him.
I suspected two messages, not one, were entrusted to Seuthes, and that you proclaimed the more innocent matter thus boldly simply to blind my eyes. Before Seuthes started forth this morning Agis informed me he had met him in a wine-shop—” “True,” whimpered the unhappy prisoner. “And this fellow as much as admitted he carried a second and secret message—” “Liar!” roared Seuthes.
“ ‘Not guilty’ votes the jury; the white beans prevail. So the letter goes to-day?” “To-morrow afternoon. You know Seuthes of Corinth—the bow-legged fellow with a big belly. He goes home to-morrow afternoon after seeing the procession and the sacrifice.” “He goes by sea?” asked Democrates, casually. “By land; no ship went to his liking. He will lie overnight at Eleusis.”
Democrates’s voice seemed metallic as he continued:— “Now, Seuthes, we must search you. Produce first the letter from Glaucon.” The fat florid little Corinthian was dressed as a traveller, a gray chalmys to his hips, a brimmed brown hat, and high black boots. His hands were now untied. He tugged from his belt a bit of papyrus which Democrates handed to Themistocles, enjoining “Open.”
Especially as soon as you passed a vote that he was to keep account of the money taken from the cities, and that his fellow-commanders were to sail home to give their accounts, Ergocles said that you were extortionate and were holding to the old laws, and he advised Thrasyboulus to seize Byzantium, and to keep the ships, and marry the daughter of Seuthes. 6.
Inland from Byzantium to the Laeaeans and the Strymon, the farthest limit of its extension into the interior, it is a journey of thirteen days for an active man. The tribute from all the barbarian districts and the Hellenic cities, taking what they brought in under Seuthes, the successor of Sitalces, who raised it to its greatest height, amounted to about four hundred talents in gold and silver.
But the pay which he had offered was never liquidated; at least, in requital of their two months of service, they received pay only for twenty days and a little more. And Xenophon himself, far from obtaining fulfilment of those splendid promises which Seuthês had made to him personally, seems not even to have received his pay as one of the generals.
The army finally leaves Byzantium; Seuthês offers to hire them. After conducting the army out of the city, Xenophon sent, through Kleander, a message to Anaxibius, requesting that he himself might be allowed to come in again singly, in order to take his departure by sea.
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