about soldiers.--The discontented soldier.--His repeated
misfortunes.--Amusement of the party.--The awkward squad.--Merriment
of the company.--The file-leader and the letters.--Remark of
Cyrus.--Animadversion version of Aglaitadas.--Aglaitadas's argument
for melancholy.--Defense of the officers.--General character of
Xenophon's Cyropaedia.

We have given the story of Panthea, as contained in the preceding
chapter, in our own language, it is true, but without any intentional
addition or embellishment whatever. Each reader will judge for himself
whether such a narrative, written for the entertainment of vast
assemblies at public games and celebrations, is most properly to be
regarded as an invention of romance, or as a simple record of
veritable history.

A great many extraordinary and dramatic incidents and adventures,
similar in general character to the story of Panthea, are interwoven
with the narrative in Xenophon's history. There are also, besides
these, many long and minute details of dialogues and conversations,
which, if they had really occurred, would have required a very high
degree of skill in stenography to produce such reports of them
as Xenophon has given. The incidents, too, out of which these
conversations grew, are worthy of attention, as we can often judge,
by the nature and character of an incident described, whether it is
one which it is probable might actually occur in real life, or only an
invention intended to furnish an opportunity and a pretext for the
inculcation of the sentiments, or the expression of the views of the
different speakers. It was the custom in ancient days, much more than
it is now, to attempt to add to the point and spirit of a discussion,
by presenting the various views which the subject naturally elicited
in the form of a conversation arising out of circumstances invented
to sustain it. The incident in such cases was, of course, a fiction,
contrived to furnish points of attachment for the dialogue--a sort of
trellis, constructed artificially to support the vine.

We shall present in this chapter some specimens of these
conversations, which will give the reader a much more distinct idea
of the nature of them than any general description can convey.

At one time in the course of Cyrus's career, just after he had
obtained some great victory, and was celebrating his triumphs, in the
midst of his armies, with spectacles and games, he instituted a series
of races, in which the