07-07-2009, 03:29 AM
Oooooooooh ! .....you set up a trick question 
The quotation you refer to is not the Great King's first demand for the Greeks to surrender their arms. At II.1.8-9, just after the battle, he simply claims them by right of conquest:
"When these Heralds came up, they called for the leaders of the Greeks and said that the King, since victory had fallen to him and he had slain Cyrus, directed the Greeks to give up their arms..."
Shortly after Proxenus says: "I wonder whether the King is asking for our arms on the assumption that he is victorious, or simply as gifts on the assumption that we are his friends."
The Great King assumed that as they were surrounded and stranded far away from their own country, they and all their property were "his", as Phalinus the Greek envoy for the King remarks.
Theopompus says "We have no other possessions save our arms and our valour" and "Do not suppose that we shall give up to you the only possessions that we have".
As both side knew, 10,000 armed Greeks were dangerous, 10,000 unarmed Greeks were just so many slaves.
Clearchus responded; "we shall be more valuable friends if we retain our arms than if we surrender them to someone else; and if it is a case of fighting, we shall fight better if we retain our arms than if they are in someone else's possession"
After treacherously killing their leaders, the King again demands their arms, in stronger terms, in the words you quote.
None of this is evidence that Cyrus provided their arms, but rather the opposite, that their arms were their own.
The quotation you refer to is not the Great King's first demand for the Greeks to surrender their arms. At II.1.8-9, just after the battle, he simply claims them by right of conquest:
"When these Heralds came up, they called for the leaders of the Greeks and said that the King, since victory had fallen to him and he had slain Cyrus, directed the Greeks to give up their arms..."
Shortly after Proxenus says: "I wonder whether the King is asking for our arms on the assumption that he is victorious, or simply as gifts on the assumption that we are his friends."
The Great King assumed that as they were surrounded and stranded far away from their own country, they and all their property were "his", as Phalinus the Greek envoy for the King remarks.
Theopompus says "We have no other possessions save our arms and our valour" and "Do not suppose that we shall give up to you the only possessions that we have".
As both side knew, 10,000 armed Greeks were dangerous, 10,000 unarmed Greeks were just so many slaves.
Clearchus responded; "we shall be more valuable friends if we retain our arms than if we surrender them to someone else; and if it is a case of fighting, we shall fight better if we retain our arms than if they are in someone else's possession"
After treacherously killing their leaders, the King again demands their arms, in stronger terms, in the words you quote.
None of this is evidence that Cyrus provided their arms, but rather the opposite, that their arms were their own.
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
