But next day the generals introduced the embassy to the army, and the soldiers passed a resolution in the sense proposed:  between themselves and the Paphlagonians there was to be a mutual abstinence from injuries.  After this the ambassadors went on their way, and the Hellenes, as soon as it was thought that sufficient vessels had arrived, went on board ship, and voyaged a day and a night with a fair breeze, keeping Paphlagonia on their left.  And on the following day, arriving at Sinope, they came to moorings in the harbour of Harmene, near Sinope[5].  The Sinopeans, though inhabitants of Paphlagonia, are really colonists of the Milesians.  They sent gifts of hospitality to the Hellenes, three thousand measures of barley with fifteen hundred jars of wine.  At this place Cheirisophus rejoined them with a man-of-war.  The soldiers certainly expected that, having come, he would have brought them something, but he brought them nothing, except complimentary phrases, on the part of Anaxibius, the high admiral, and the rest, who sent them their congratulations, coupled with a promise on the part of Anaxibius that, as soon as they were outside the Euxine, pay would be forthcoming.

[5] Harmene, a port of Sinope, between four and five miles (fifty
    stades) west of that important city, itself a port town.  See
    Smith, “Dict.  Geog.,” “Sinope”; and Kiepert, op. cit. chap. iv.
    60.

At Harmene the army halted five days; and now that they seemed to be 17 so close to Hellas, the question how they were to reach home not empty-handed presented itself more forcibly to their minds than heretofore.  The conclusion they came to was to appoint a single general, since one man would be better able to handle the troops, by night or by day, than was possible while the generalship was divided.  If secrecy were desirable, it would be easier to keep matters dark, or if again expedition were an object, there would be less risk of arriving a day too late, since mutual explanations would be avoided, and whatever approved itself to the single judgement would at once be carried into effect, whereas previously the generals had done everything in obedience to the opinion of the majority.

With these ideas working in their minds, they turned to Xenophon, and the officers came to him and told him that this was how the soldiers viewed matters; and each of them, displaying a warmth of kindly feeling, pressed him to accept the office.  Xenophon partly would have liked to do so, in the belief that by so doing he would win to himself a higher repute in the esteem of his friends, and that his name would be reported to the city written large; and by some stroke of fortune he might even be the discoverer of some blessing to the army collectively.