02-13-2012, 07:50 PM
Hahaha.. correct! Of course I meant "bigger"... but bugger has worked OK! 
Why would it be strange for Cyrus to rest his hopes on his best troops? He did. He proposed a plan that had Clearchus followed, Artaxerxes might have had lost the battle. Had he not, the Greeks would have been surrounded and slain, which was the fear of Clearchus.
As for an oblique attack, yes, it would have been mighty possible and if anyone could have done so, it would have been the Greeks. But to do so, they would not obliquely attack in the space between the two armies. They would redeploy on the left. An oblique advance so far from the inital deployment position would be impossible without marching in column first and this would never have happened in front of the enemy line. What is even more strange is that Cyrus did not force his will on the Greeks as any good general would normally have done. Maybe he was not convinced of the Greeks' loyalty.
So, what Cyrus asked for was far from ridiculous and I think that in this instant Xenophon is actually presenting the brother's plan as sound and efficient. To do as ordered does not require a single, surely suicidal maneuver.
And all this, again does not mean that the numbers suggested by Xenophon, an eye-witness, are correct.
Why would it be strange for Cyrus to rest his hopes on his best troops? He did. He proposed a plan that had Clearchus followed, Artaxerxes might have had lost the battle. Had he not, the Greeks would have been surrounded and slain, which was the fear of Clearchus.
As for an oblique attack, yes, it would have been mighty possible and if anyone could have done so, it would have been the Greeks. But to do so, they would not obliquely attack in the space between the two armies. They would redeploy on the left. An oblique advance so far from the inital deployment position would be impossible without marching in column first and this would never have happened in front of the enemy line. What is even more strange is that Cyrus did not force his will on the Greeks as any good general would normally have done. Maybe he was not convinced of the Greeks' loyalty.
So, what Cyrus asked for was far from ridiculous and I think that in this instant Xenophon is actually presenting the brother's plan as sound and efficient. To do as ordered does not require a single, surely suicidal maneuver.
And all this, again does not mean that the numbers suggested by Xenophon, an eye-witness, are correct.
