CHAP. XXXIV - THE RETURN OF THE GREEKS

Summary

The despondency with which the Greeks viewed the situation in which they were left by the loss of their generals, can only be estimated, if we consider not only its real dangers, but the reluctance with which they had been induced to follow Cyrus on to the goal of his enterprise, and the opinion which Clearchus himself had expressed, on the desperate difficulty of making good their retreat against the will of the enemy, who had just given such a proof of his implacable hostility, as utterly precluded all further attempts at negotiation, and all possibility of compromise. On the other hand the whole amount of the loss which had been actually sustained through the perfidy of Tissaphernes might be looked upon as confined to the person of Clearchus. Yet this loss might well seem irreparable. For he was the only man who had hitherto displayed the abilities and acquirements requisite for the station which he had filled among his colleagues, whose deference was a tacit acknowledgment of their own incapacity. Even he had despaired of conducting them home in defiance of the Persian power. They were now in the case which he had described, left, at the distance of at least 1200 miles from Greece, without provisions, without guides, without a single horseman, to find and fight their way through an enemy's country, across unfordable rivers, with a hostile army watching their movements, and ready to seize every opportunity of falling upon them with advantage: and beside all this, they were without a chief.