08-03-2009, 09:11 PM
Near the end of the story, they offer their services to the Thracian king Seuthes, but when the campaign is over he tried to avoid giving them the pay he had promised. Xenophon argues with him, saying that until this point the Greeks had great respect for Seuthes and that if he gave them the wages they were owed, Seuthes could continue to enjoy his cordial relationship with them:
Anabasis, 7.21:
"I cannot forget that, next to the gods, it was they who raised you up to a conspicuous eminence, when the made you king of large territory and many men, a position in which you cannot escape notice, whether you do good or evil. For a man so circumstanced, I regarded it as a great thing that he should avoid the suspicion even of ungrateful parting with his benefactors. It was a great thing I thought, that you should be so well spoken of by six thousand human beings; but the greatest thing of all, that you should in no wise discredit the sincerity of your own word."
This is just a few pages from the end of the book.
Anabasis, 7.21:
"I cannot forget that, next to the gods, it was they who raised you up to a conspicuous eminence, when the made you king of large territory and many men, a position in which you cannot escape notice, whether you do good or evil. For a man so circumstanced, I regarded it as a great thing that he should avoid the suspicion even of ungrateful parting with his benefactors. It was a great thing I thought, that you should be so well spoken of by six thousand human beings; but the greatest thing of all, that you should in no wise discredit the sincerity of your own word."
This is just a few pages from the end of the book.
