Book 5
8.7
Why, the scattering, said Xenophon, was after this fashion: I distributed it among others to carry and directed them to bring it back to me, and when I got it back, I returned the whole of it to you intact when you, for your part, had shown me the sick man. But listen, all of you, he continued, and hear how the affair happened; for the story is worth hearing.
8.8
A man was being left behind because he was unable to keep going any longer. I was acquainted with the man only so far as to know that he was one of our number, and I forced you, sir, to carry him in order that he might not perish; for, as I remember, the enemy were following after us. To that the fellow agreed.
8.9
Well, Xenophon continued, after I had sent you on ahead, I overtook you again, as I came along with the rearguard, and found you digging a hole to bury the man in, and I stopped and commended you.
8.10
But when, as we were standing by, the man drew up his leg, all of us cried out, The man is alive; and you said, Let him be alive just as much as he pleases, I, for my part, am not going to carry him. Then I struck you; your story is true; for it looked to me as if you knew that he was alive.
8.11
Well, what of that, the fellow said; didn’t he die all the same after I had shown him to you? Why, said Xenophon, all of us are likewise going to die; but should we on that account be buried alive?
8.12
As for this fellow, everybody cried out that Xenophon had given him fewer blows than he deserved. Then he directed the rest to state the reason why each one of them had been struck.
8.13
When they failed to rise, he went on himself: I admit, soldiers, that I have indeed struck men for neglect of discipline, the men who were content to be kept safe by you who marched in due order and fought wherever there was need, while they themselves would leave the ranks and run on ahead in the desire to secure plunder and to enjoy an advantage over you. For if all of us had behaved in this way, all of us alike would have perished.
