at the soldiers who had begun to throw stones as well as
Agasias the interfering officer, should be delivered up to him. This
latter demand was especially insisted upon by Dexippus, who hating
Xenophon, had already tried to prejudice Anaxibius against him, and
believed that Agasias had acted by his order.

The situation now became extremely critical; since the soldiers would
not easily be brought to surrender their comrades--who had a perfectly
righteous cause, though they had supported it by undue violence--to the
vengeance of a traitor like Dexippus. When the army was convened in
assembly, several of them went so far as to treat the menace of Kleander
with contempt. But Xenophon took pains to set them right upon this
point. "Soldiers (said he) it will be no slight misfortune if Kleander
shall depart as he threatens to do, in his present temper toward us. We
are here close upon the cities of Greece: now the Lacedaemonians are the
imperial power in Greece, and not merely their authorized officers, but
even each one of their individual citizens, can accomplish what he
pleases in the various cities. If then Kleander begins by shutting us
out from Byzantium, and next enjoins the Lacedaemonian governors in the
other cities[100] to do the same, proclaiming us lawless and disobedient
to Sparta--if, besides, the same representation should be conveyed to
the Lacedaemonian admiral of the fleet, Anaxibius--we shall be hard
pressed either to remain or to sail away; for the Lacedaemonians are at
present masters both on land and at sea. We must not, for the sake of
any one or two men, suffer the whole army to be excluded from Greece. We
must obey whatever the Lacedaemonians command, especially as our cities,
to which we respectively belong, now obey them. As to what concerns
myself, I understand that Dexippus has told Kleander that Agasias would
never have taken such a step except by my orders. Now, if Agasias
himself states this, I am ready to exonerate both him and all of you,
and to give myself up to any extremity of punishment. I maintain too
that any other man whom Kleander arraigns ought in like manner to give
himself up for trial, in order that you collectively may be discharged
from the imputation. It will be hard indeed, if just as we are reaching
Greece, we should not only be debarred from the praise and honor which
we anticipated, but should be degraded even below the level of others,
and shut out from the Grecian cities."