Part 12

=Cyreian Persians=: those Persians who had espoused the cause of Cyrus in his attempt to seize the throne.

=Amnesty=: pardon.

=Strike our tents=: take down our tents.

=Barbarians=: the Greeks called all foreigners "barbarians." This word, however, did not generally express contempt, or necessarily imply lack of civilization, but was used to designate those who spoke another language than Greek.

=Ionia=: see note on p. 21.

=Wall of Media=: a wall supposed to have extended from the Euphrates to the Tigris. It cannot now be traced with certainty.

=Bitumen=: mineral pitch or asphalt. It is now much used for cement, for making pavements, and for covering flat roofs.

=Pontoons=: light framework or floats on which a platform or roadway is laid for a temporary bridge. Boats or canoes, placed side by side, and covered with planks, are not infrequently so used.

=Inflated skins=: bags or vessels made of the skins of sheep and other animals. They are quite commonly used in the East for carrying wine and other liquids. When inflated they are also employed as above mentioned.

=Mysians and Pisidians=: see note on p. 35.

=Ionia=: the central part of the western coast of Asia Minor. Here, at a very early period, flourishing Greek colonies were planted, and Ionia became celebrated for its art, its literature, and its cities, such as Ephesus and Miletus. But the country could not maintain its independence against the Eastern kings, and was at this period tributary to Persia. If the Ten Thousand could reach Ionia they would be among fellow-countrymen and friends, and within easy sail of all parts of Greece.

=Tiara=: a flexible cap worn by the Persians. The king alone had the right to wear it erect and high, as a badge of royal authority. Some suppose that when Tissaphernês says that though he cannot openly place the high tiara on his head, but shall wear it on his heart (feeling like a king if not looking like one), that he purposely uses the language "the better to blind Klearchus," and make him think that if the Greeks will aid him with their arms, he will revolt and aspire to become king in fact.

=Philhellenic=: Greek-loving.

=Miletus=: a city of Ionia, subject in a measure to Athens, revolted in 412 B.C. The next year the Lacedæmonians, or Spartans, who were the enemies of Athens, sent over a fleet to aid the people of Miletus. Tissaphernês, the Persian satrap, desiring to see the power of Athens completely overthrown, promised to pay the Spartan soldiers (of whom Klearchus was one), but afterwards made up his mind not to do so, and left them to fight at their own expense.

=Arcadian=: an inhabitant of Arcadia, a district of the Peloponnesian peninsula, Greece.

=Democrat and philosopher=: Xenophon (431?-355 B.C.) belonged to that party in Athens that maintained the principle of government "of the people, by the people, and for the people," in opposition to the party that, like the Spartans, believed that all political power should be monopolized by a favored few. Xenophon was also the disciple and friend of Socrates the philosopher, of whom some account will be given later on.

=Oneirus=: the god of dreams and messenger of Zeus (Jupiter), father of gods and men, sometimes called Zeus the Preserver, Saviour, or Deliverer.

=Zeus=: see note above on Oneirus.

=Boeotian dialect=: the inhabitants of the Greek province of Boeotia were considered by the Athenians to be a dull and unprogressive people. They spoke a broad, coarse dialect.

=Cashier=: to dismiss from service.

=Ears bored=: this was an Eastern (Lydian) custom, which the Greeks despised as only befitting slaves, since with them it was a mark of servitude. Agasias intimates that Apollonidês either had been a slave or at least ought to be one.

=Kilikia= (also spelled Cilicia): Asia Minor.

=Sneeze=: any sudden, involuntary outburst, like sneezing, was considered a sign of the divine will for good or evil. As it occurred here just as Xenophon pronounced the auspicious word "preservation," it was regarded as a favorable omen sent by Zeus himself. The accustomed invocation was like the old English custom of crying "God bless you" when one sneezed.

=Pæan=: war-song, song of triumph; originally addressed to the god Apollo.

=Mysians and Pisidians=: rude tribes inhabiting mountainous districts of Asia Minor, and maintaining their independence in spite of the efforts of the Persian kings to subjugate them.

=Lotos-eaters=: the lotos is a date-like fruit, fabled by Homer in the "Odyssey" to be so delicious and possessed of such marvellous properties that those who once tasted it forgot home and friends and wished only to remain where they might continue to eat it forever. See "Odyssey," Book IX., and compare Tennyson's poem of the "Lotos-Eaters."

=Achæans=: inhabitants of Achaia, in the Peloponnesian peninsula.

=Peloponnesians=: inhabitants of the Greek peninsula of the Peloponnesus (or so-called Island of Pelops), now known as the Morea. They were considered the best soldiers in Greece. Sparta, the rival and enemy of Athens, was the ruling city of this district.