Hey Xenophon,
I just finished reading your Hellenica today, although the most modern translator (1966) chose to title your work A History of My Times, in light of your book's thoroughly casual style as a history. Because you tried to write the sequel to Thucidides, History of the Peloponnesian War, everyone compares your work with his, and you never come out in a favourable light. You weren't the forensic historian that Thucidides was, you were a philosophy student, and a soldier, and as such, you wrote what you were capable of producing, in this instance, the memoir of a retired commander.
The tradition continues today, when retired figures of state leave their duties, they have the time to reflect on their lifetime of adventures, and decide that their stories need to be told; hence the endless supply of political memoirs that have been produced in the prior century or so of my era. I'm not patronising you, it's actually fine with me that you aren't interested in the historical precision Thucidides was capable of. I've always thought of you as more of a storyteller anyway, so your inaccuracies, omissions, lies and foggy memory don't detract from your book at all for me. I'm not reading it to become versed in the true history of a war that ended over two thousand years ago. I read your work because I'm interested in cultural values, and the expressions that authors use to describe, and justify those values.
I'll start with the story of Callicratidas and Lysander.
So, Lysander was commander of the Spartan fleet, but command was being passed from Lysander to Callicratidas. (The following quotes are from the Rex Warner translation of 1966)
When Lysander handed over command he told Callicratidas that he was doing so as Master of the Sea and as conqueror in battle.
Once Callicratids had taken over however, he found that the chain of command was being gummed up by supporters of Lysander, who ignored orders, or acted slowly, or just spread rumours against Callicratidas, wanting to have Lysander back in command. Knowing that he had a job to do, Callicratidas made a speech:
Personally I am perfectly content to stay at home. And if Lysander or anyone else wants to claim superiority in the knowledge of sea warfare, I, for my part, have no objection. However, it is I who have been commissioned by the state to command the fleet, and I have no alternative except to carry out my orders to the best of my ability...
Since no-one wanted to go against the directives handed down by the Spartan authorities, all the critics shut up pretty quick. So then Callicratidas went to see Cyrus, the Persian king, to get money to carry out the war against Athens.
To pause for a moment, this aspect of the Peloponnesian war is to me the most revealing, and fascinating aspect of the whole story. In 480 BCE, the Persian King Xerxes tried and failed to invade and subdue Greece, and was beaten back by a Spartan and Athenian joint effort. A few decades later, with the Peloponnesian War in full swing, Sparta and Athens are doing their best to destroy each other amidst horrific plagues, with a whole generation lost to the sacking and burning of cities, farms and villages. In order to get the upper hand on the Athenians, the Spartans go to the new Persian King for money to help fund their war. The Persian King was more than happy to pay Greeks to kills Greeks, as it kept them busy on the fringes of his own empire, and it stopped them them from uniting to try their hand at invading Persia.
So, Lysander, (to go back to our original story...), was all for taking money from the Persians, but Callicratidas was not so enthusiastic.
He then went to Cyrus and asked him to pay for the sailors, but Cyrus told him to wait two days. Callicratidas was furious at being put off and at having to keep behaving like a courtier. It was a sad day for the Greeks, he said, when they had to make up to foreigners for the sake of money, and he declared that if he got home safely, he would do his best to make peace between Athens and Sparta.
So then Callicratidas goes off to the Milesians, who were allies of Sparta, and he gave the following speech: (The following two sections are from the HG Dakyns Translation, 1891)
“Men of Miletus, necessity is laid upon me to obey the rulers at home; but for yourselves, whose neighbourhood to the barbarians has exposed you to many evils at their hands, I only ask you to let your zeal in the war bear some proportion to your former sufferings. You should set an example to the rest of the allies, and show us how to inflict the sharpest and swiftest injury on our enemy, whilst we await the return from Lacedaemon of my envoys with the necessary funds. Since one of the last acts of Lysander, before he left us, was to hand back to Cyrus the funds already on the spot, as though we could well dispense with them. I was thus forced to turn to Cyrus, but all I got from him was a series of rebuffs; he refused me an audience, and, for my part, I could not induce myself to hang about his gates like a mendicant. But I give you my word, men of Miletus, that in return for any assistance which you can render us while waiting for these aids, I will requite you richly. Only by God’s help let us show these barbarians that we do not need to worship them, in order to punish our foes.”
So Lysander, in order to screw with Callicratidas even more, actually gave back the war funding money he had already got from Cyrus, forcing Callicratidas to make the journey himself to ask for it back. This political back and forth seems very familiar. Even though Lysander and Callicratidas were meant to be fighting for the same goals, fighting the same enemy, and both loyal to Sparta, Lysander's actions seem driven by standard political positioning for advantage. If Lysander could mess with Callicratidas' ability to effectively carry on the war against Athens, then it would make Lysander look good, and support whatever private political goals he was working towards.
The speech was effective; many members of the assembly arose, and not the least eagerly those who were accused of opposing him. These, in some terror, proposed a vote of money, backed by offers of further private contributions. Furnished with these sums, and having procured from Chios a further remittance of five drachmas a piece as outfit for each seaman, he set sail to Methyma in Lesbos, which was in the hands of the enemy. But as the Methymnaeans were not disposed to come over to him (since there was an Athenian garrison in the place, and the men at the head of affairs were partisans of Athens), he assaulted and took the place by storm. All the property within accordingly became the spoil of the soldiers. The prisoners were collected for sale by Callicratidas in the market-place, where, in answer to the demand of the allies, who called upon him to sell the Methymnaeans also, he made answer, that as long as he was in command, not a single Hellene should be enslaved if he could help it. The next day he set at liberty the free-born captives; the Athenian garrison with the captured slaves he sold.
To Conon he sent word:— He would put a stop to his strumpeting the sea. And catching sight of him, as he put out to sea, at break of day, he gave chase, hoping to cut him off from his passage to Samos, and prevent his taking refuge there.
I do love Dakyns translation, but there is an important difference between him and the the modern Warner translation, which I will show you, and you can make up your own mind which one better represents the Greek.
He then sent the following message to Conon: 'I am going to put a stop to your fornication with the sea. She belongs to me.'
I personally like the Warner translation best, but this whole story just leads me to want to know more about Lysander and the messy business of what now looks like a Hellenic regional war, funded by the clever foreign policy of a Persian king. So, I turned to Plutarch, who is really the best resource we modern readers have for so many stories concerning both Greek and Roman history.
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