and presenting himself personally before the assembled army to prohibit
the soldiers from crossing. When Xenophon informed him that Anaxibius
had given them orders to cross, and had sent him expressly to conduct
them--Aristarchus replied, "Anaxibius is no longer in functions as
admiral, and I am governor in this town. If I catch any of you at sea, I
will sink you." On the next day, he sent to invite the generals and the
captains to a conference within the walls. They were just about to enter
the gates, when Xenophon, who was among them, received a private
warning, that if he went in, Aristarchus would seize him, and either put
him to death or send him prisoner to Pharnabazus. Accordingly Xenophon
sent forward the others, and remained himself with the army, alleging
the obligation of sacrificing. The behavior of Aristarchus--who, when he
saw the others without Xenophon, sent them away, and desired that they
would all come again in the afternoon--confirmed the justice of his
suspicions, as to the imminent danger from which he had been preserved
by this accidental warning. It need hardly be added that Xenophon
disregarded the second invitation no less than the first; moreover, a
third invitation, which Aristarchus afterwards sent, was disregarded by
all.

We have here a Lacedaemonian governor, not scrupling to lay a snare of
treachery, as flagrant as that which Tissaphernes had practised on the
banks of the Zab, to entrap Klearchus and his colleagues--and that too
against a Greek, and an officer of the highest station and merit, who
had just saved Byzantium from pillage, and was now actually in execution
of orders received from the Lacedaemonian admiral Anaxibius. Assuredly,
had the accidental warning been withheld, Xenophon would not have
escaped falling into this snare; nor could we reasonably have charged
him with imprudence--so fully was he entitled to count upon
straightforward conduct under the circumstances. But the same cannot be
said of Klearchus, who manifested lamentable credulity, nefarious as was
the fraud to which he fell a victim.

At the second interview with the other officers, Aristarchus, while he
forbade the army to cross the water, directed them to force their way by
land through the Thracians who occupied the Holy Mountain, and thus to
arrive at the Chersonese; where (he said) they should receive pay. Neon
the Lacedaemonian, with about 800 heavy-armed foot-soldiers who adhered
to his separate comman