t easily
recover my empire. That is what I want of you." "Well then," said
Xenophon, "supposing we came, what should you be able to give us? the
soldiers, the officers, and the generals? Tell us that these witnesses
may report your answer." And he promised to give "to the common
soldiers a cyzicene (4), to a captain twice as much, and to a general
four times as much, with as much land as ever they liked, some yoke of
oxen, and a fortified place upon the seaboard." "But now supposing,"
said Xenophon, "we fail of success, in spite of our endeavours;
suppose any intimidation on the part of the Lacedaemonians should
arise; will you receive into your country any of us who may seek to
find a refuge with you?" He answered: "Nay, not only so, but I shall
look upon you as my brothers, entitled to share my seat, and the joint
possessors of all the wealth which we may be able to acquire. And to
you yourself, O Xenophon! I will give my daughter, and if you have a
daughter, I will buy her in Thracian fashion; and I will give you
Bisanthe as a dwelling-place, which is the fairest of all my
possessions on the seaboard (5)."

(3) Tradition said that the Thracians and Athenians were connected,
through the marriage of a former prince Tereus (or Teres) with
Procne, the daughter of Pandion. This old story, discredited by
Thucydides, ii. 29, is referred to in Arist. "Birds," 368 foll.
The Birds are about to charge the two Athenian intruders, when
Epops, king of the Birds, formerly Tereus, king of Thrace, but
long ago transformed into a hoopoe, intercedes in behalf of two
men, {tes emes gunaikos onte suggene kai phuleta}, "who are of my
lady's tribe and kin." As a matter of history, the Athenians had
in the year B.C. 431 made alliance with Sitalces, king of the
Odrysians (the son of Teres, the first founder of their empire),
and made his son, Sadocus, an Athenian citizen. Cf. Thuc. ib.;
Arist. Acharnians, 141 foll.

(4) A cyzicene monthly is to be understood.

(5) Bisanthe, one of the Ionic colonies founded by Samos, with the
Thracian name Rhaedestus (now Rodosto), strongly placed so as to
command the entrance into the Sacred mountain.

III

After listening to these proposals, they gave and accepted pledges of 1
good faith; and so the deputation rode off. Before day they were back
again in camp, and severally rendered a report to those who sent them.
At dawn Aristarchu