Kitap 3
1.24
And now, since it may be that others also have these same thoughts in mind, let us not, in the name of the gods, wait for others to come to us and summon us to the noblest deeds, but let us take the lead ourselves and arouse the rest to valour. Show yourselves the best of the captains, and more worthy to be generals than the generals themselves.
1.25
As for me, if you choose to set out upon this course, I am ready to follow you; but if you assign me the leadership, I do not plead my youth as an excuse; rather, I believe I am in the very prime of my power to ward off dangers from my own head.
1.26
Such were Xenophon’s words; and upon hearing what he said the officers bade him take the lead, all of them except a man named Apollonides, who spoke in the Boeotian dialect. This man maintained that anyone who said he could gain safety in any other way than by winning the King’s consent through persuasion, if possible, was talking nonsense; and at the same time he began to recite the difficulties of their situation. Xenophon, however, interrupted him in the midst of his talk, and said:
1.27
You amazing fellow, you have eyes but still do not perceive, and you have ears but still do not remember. You were present, surely, with the rest of these officers at the time when the King, after the death of Cyrus and in his elation over that event, sent and ordered us to give up our arms.
1.28
But when, instead of giving them up, we equipped ourselves with them, and went and encamped beside him, what means did he leave untried—sending ambassadors, begging for a truce, offering us provisions—until in the end he obtained a truce?
