Chapter 26: Cheirisophus

Chapter 26: Cheirisophus

“Yes, let’s discuss it again once Cheirisophus arrives!” As soon as he mentioned Cheirisophus, everyone’s expressions became obviously more relaxed, which made Davos curious and asked Xenophon in a low voice, “Who is Cheirisophus?”

Xenophon said with a complicated expression, “I heard that Cyrus the Younger had an agreement with Sparta, he gave his full support to Sparta when they were building their navy. When Cyrus the Younger goes to battle, the Spartans needs to provide military assistance.”

Davos immediately responded and said in surprise, “You mean, Cheirisophus was sent by the Spartan?!”

“He is an ephor^[1] of Sparta. I heard that he brought 700 spartan hoplites and joined Cyrus the Younger… At that time, he did not know that Cyrus the Younger was going to rebel, when he found out, it was already too late, so he and his troops kept a low profile in the mercenaries, but many high-ranking officers knew his identity…” Xenophon said gloatingly.

Davos knew why Xenophon had such an expression, because he was an Athenian. He previously heard Xenophon introduce the ephors of Sparta, unlike the other Greek city-states’ overseer, the Spartan system of Ephorate was unique because they held great powers: They can supervise the citizens, judge the Períoikoi^[2], punish the helots, enjoy the highest civil authority and criminal judicial authority. They can monitor the king’s every moves with a vigilant gaze, they have the right to indict a king and might get summoned for a trial at any time. Moreover, the Spartan ephors can only be held by civilians, every autumn, five ephors were elected by lot by the citizens over the age of 30. A command will be issued when they enter their post, requiring every citizen to shave of their mustache and beard which complied with their national law. This shows the importance Sparta attaches to the ephors. According to Xenophon, because of Sparta’s ephorate, Sparta wasn’t regarded as a tyrant state by the other city-states due to the civilians were holding authority.

There was such an important person hidden in the Greek mercenary. He was probably the only strategos in the mercenary that held an official status and was also a Spartan. The former Spartan Clearchus was a deserter and was sentenced to death by the Spartan government, and this upcoming Spartan warrior was a real Spartan, and he also brought along 700 Spartan warriors of his same kind.

He was about to see those ancient Spartan warriors who were popular all over the world in his previous life, Davos while he eagerly awaits, maliciously thought, ‘Will they wear red underpants?’

While waiting for Cheirisophus, the temporary leaders of these camps were not idle. They invited the officers of each camps to participate in the discussion, from the rank of a squad leader to the rank of a captain. There were more than 200 people in the tent and because there wasn’t much room for so many people inside the tent, so they all sat down in a big circle in the open space of Clearchus’ camp, it wasn’t long after everyone had arrived that Cheirisophus had arrived.

Early in the morning, Cheirisophus went to a nearby village to prepare with his soldiers, the village was located on the south side of the Greek camp and was therefore not intercepted by the Persian Cavalry. When the messenger found him, he was hurrying back and have learned about the things that have happened on his way back. When he came to the meeting place, everyone consciously offered him a spacious space and he did not hesitate to directly sat on the mad like everyone else and began to look around, it’s true that he didn’t see the main mercenary leaders…he felt sad thinking whether Clearchus was still alive or dead. He and Clearchus were comrades, who had made many achievements in the war with Athens, he was one of the leading strategos of Sparta, but fled because he could not adapt to peace and refuse to obey the orders of Sparta and was then sentenced to death. When Cheirisophus saw him in the army of Cyrus the Younger, he did not ordered his men to arrest him. Firstly, he did not want to destroy the cooperation with Cyrus the Younger. Secondly, he cherished their friendship as comrades… 

His gaze slowly swept through everyone’s face and stopped as his gaze landed on a man, who has a very young face, in this huge group of officers whose average age was mostly over 30, and this young man shouldn’t be older than 20 and he was sitting at the forefront of the officers, so he was very conspicuous. Strangely enough, the attitude of the several people around him were quite respectful of him, the young man looked back at him and nodded with a smile… Cheirisophus was confused and asked his adjutant in a low voice, his adjutant then asked the others before he answered.

‘The “God’s favored” of Menon’s camp? All of his “Oracle”, came true?’ Cheirisophus frowned, ‘The management of the mercenary is indeed chaotic, letting such a young man with a childish face occupy a high position!’

Although the Spartans claim to be descendants of Heracles(Hercules), they were not very respectful to the gods, they only believed in their own strength. These old-fashioned and inflexible people doesn’t believe in the idea of being young and promising, otherwise they wouldn’t have a “Spartans are not allowed to break away from their collective military life until they are 30 years old, to be independent, to marry and to hold an important position…” provisions. Hence, Cheirisophus had a bad first impression of Davos.

In Davos’s eyes, the image of Cheirisophus and his imaginary Spartan warrior was quite different, he wasn’t tall and looks ordinary, if he didn’t have a scar on his face and a sharp gaze that remind others of his status as a soldier, otherwise, Davos might have think that he was just an ordinary Greek farmer.

After the surroundings became quiet, Cheirisophus began to speak, “I already know what happened, do any of you have suggestions?”

For a while, there were many whispers but no one stood up to speak. After all, in order for them to express their opinions in the face of more than 200 experience officers, they not only need courage, but they also need some skills in speaking and insights, which wasn’t easy for the poor Greek mercenaries.

Davos didn’t speak out, not because he was afraid, but because he had been in contact with the officers in charge of the troops, he found himself young and was just an ordinary soldier in this group and too much arrogance will easily offend them, therefore, he decided to wait and see what will happen.

Finally, Xenophon stood up, “Officers, the Persians violated their promises and killed or imprisoned our leaders and brothers, and they even want us to surrender our weapons. Now, the fight against the Persians is inevitable! As you have seen, most of the soldiers in the camp who knew about it were confused and afraid! If this situation doesn’t change quickly, once the Persians come to attack and our soldiers are needed to fight, they won’t be able to show their courage and wave their spears at the enemy, our whole troops are in danger of getting wiped out!

Everyone, you are the officers of the various camps, usually in peacetime, your salary and status are higher than those ordinary soldiers and your ability is also stronger than them. Now in the face of danger, the soldiers are pining their hopes on you and you must show great courage and determination to fight the Persians to death, in order to stabilize the mood of the soldiers and boost their confidence!!

At the same time, we must immediately select people with outstanding ability to serve as the new strategos of the camp, replacing Clearchus with them in managing and restraining the soldiers of the various camps, making good plans and commanding the whole troops to defeat the Persians, and smoothly lead us back to Greece! With the protection of Zeus, we will definitely be able to leave Persia!!…”

Xenophon’s words evoked great reactions of the crowd and some even applauded. Xenophon was slightly complacent and turned his gaze to Timasion, who had an indifferent expression, then withdraw his gaze.

In fact, the Greek mercenaries who are in trouble at this moment have only one choice. Cheirisophus immediately stood up and said in a decisive and firm tone, “Everyone, we have no time to delay and according to Xenophon’s words, go back to your respective camps and immediately elect your new leaders, and then let them come here for a war council to discuss a plan.”

He looked around and continued to speak loudly, “In the afternoon, we will hold another general assembly for the whole mercenary troops!” After that, he turned around and leave before the officers could respond.

Sure enough! Davos squeezed his fists and followed Antonios as they stood up.

The officers then rushed to their respective camps.

[1] Ephors were leaders of ancient Sparta and shared power with the two Spartan kings. The ephors were a council of five elected annually who swore “on behalf of the city” while the kings swore for themselves.

[2] Períoikoi were the members of an autonomous group of free non-citizen inhabitants of Sparta.