02-13-2012, 07:12 PM
Quote:I maintain that Greek historiography is surprisingly neutral. I would expect a much bugger bias in favor of anything Greek than is actually present.
I'm not into buggering anyone's bias but buggered if I can let this go!
Xenophon - with exaggeration no doubt - clearly relates that Cyrus' hopes were placed in his Greeks. As Xenophon relates (1.8.12):
Quote:At this moment Cyrus rode along the line, attended only by Pigres, his interpreter, and three or four others, and shouted to Clearchus to lead his army against the enemy's centre, for the reason that the King was stationed there; “and if,” he said, “we are victorious there, our whole task is accomplished.”
Clearchus found this an impossible task for, of course, the Great King had incontinent numbers (ibid 13):
Quote:Clearchus, however, since he saw the compact body at the enemy's centre and heard from Cyrus that the King was beyond his left wing (for the King was so superior in numbers that, although occupying the centre of his own line, he was beyond Cyrus' left wing), was unwilling to draw the right wing away from the river, for fear that he might be turned on both flanks
Fancy Cyrus asking theGreeks - the right half of his army - to march obliquely at the Great King's centre when that centre was far and away to Cyrus' left as to be beyond his left wing.
So which is correct: Xenophon's literary numerical flatulence or Cyrus' military prowess in asking the absolutely ridiculous?
Paralus|Michael Park
Ἐπὶ τοὺς πατέρας, ὦ κακαὶ κεφαλαί, τοὺς μετὰ Φιλίππου καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου τὰ ὅλα κατειργασμένους
Wicked men, you are sinning against your fathers, who conquered the whole world under Philip and Alexander!
Academia.edu
Ἐπὶ τοὺς πατέρας, ὦ κακαὶ κεφαλαί, τοὺς μετὰ Φιλίππου καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου τὰ ὅλα κατειργασμένους
Wicked men, you are sinning against your fathers, who conquered the whole world under Philip and Alexander!
Academia.edu