At Athens, the administration thus formed was effective; but the army and fleet at Satnos repudiated the revolution and swore loyalty to the democracy, claiming to be the true representatives of the Athenian state.  Moreover, they allied themselves with Alcibiades, expecting through him to receive Persian support; and, happily for Athens, he succeeded in restraining the fleet—­which was still more than a match for all adversaries—­from sailing back to the Piraeus to subvert the rule of the Four Hundred.  The more patriotic of the oligarchs saw, in fact, that the best hopes for the state lay in the establishment of a limited democracy; with the result that the extreme oligarchs, who would have joined hands with the enemy, were overthrown, and the rule of the Five Thousand replaced that of the Four Hundred, providing Athens with the best administration it had ever known.  A great naval victory was won by the Athenian fleet, under the command of Thrasybulus, over a slightly larger Peloponnesian fleet at Cynossema.

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XENOPHON

Anabasis

Xenophon was born at Athens about B.C. 430, and died probably in 355.  He was an Athenian gentleman who in his early-manhood was an intimate member of the Socratic circle.  In 401 he joined the expedition of Cyrus, recorded in the “Anabasis,” and did not again take up his residence in Athens.  The “Anabasis” must be introduced by an historical note.  In the year 404 B.C. the Peloponnesian war was brought to a close by a peace establishing the Lacedaemonian supremacy consequent upon the crowning disaster to the Athenians at Aegos Potami.  In the same year the Persian king Darius Nothus died, and was succeeded on the throne by his son Artaxerxes.  His younger son, Cyrus, determined to make a bid for the throne.  He had personal knowledge of the immense superiority of the Greek soldiery and the Greek discipline over those of the Eastern nations.  Accordingly, he planned to obtain the services of a large contingent of Greek mercenaries, who had become the more readily available since the internecine struggle between the two leading states of Hellas had been brought to an end.  The term “Anabasis,” or “going up,” applies properly to the advance into the interior; the retreat, with which the work is mainly concerned, is the “Katabasis.”  The author writes his record in the third person.  This epitome has been specially adapted for THE WORLD’S GREATEST BOOKS from the Greek text.

I.—­The Going-up of Cyrus

Cyrus, the younger brother of Artaxerxes the king, began his preparations for revolt by gradually gathering and equipping an army on the pretext of hostile relations between himself and another of the western satraps, Tissaphernes.  Notably, he secretly furnished Clearchus, a Lacedaemonian, with means to equip a Greek force in Thrace; another like force was ready to move from Thessaly under Aristippus; while a Boeotian, Proxenus, and two others friends were commissioned to collect more mercenaries to aid in the war with Tissaphernes.