The army begins to break up, some men selling their arms and returning home as well. Some of the generals try to convince it to remain under new orders, either to go to Seuthes (who had bribed two of the generals, one with a horse and one with a woman) or to serve the Spartans (here "Lacedaemonians," which I assume you all know is another name for the Spartans and the root of our word 'laconic').
A historical note not made clear in the text: these events coincide with the end of the Spartan year, which was in the autumn, and thus there are some changes of office about to happen. Byzantium will get a new governor and admiral, for example, and they have different ideas about the Ten Thousand. Likewise, whatever remains of the army will have to find a place to winter. There are also about to be changes in the leadership of the Persians whose territory begins, as you will recall, not all that far away: Cyrus had been in charge of the satrapy bordering the Greek world.
The new Spartan governor of Byzantium begins selling former soldiers of Cyrus' into slavery. Xenophon suggests that members of the Ten Thousand may have been sold, but it isn't clear if he means all four hundred he mentions were of the Ten Thousand, or if other soldiers of Cyrus' old territories had come to Byzantium seeking refuge from the Persian King.
The former Spartan admiral Anaxibius, finding himself cut off from support now that he no longer possesses a powerful office, summons Xenophon and gives him command of a warship and a letter of authority to retake command of the Ten Thousand. Anaxibius had been pleased to see them breaking up while he was an admiral, but now he would like to pull as many of them as possible back together to serve his own interests. Xenophon agrees, and the army celebrates his return. Xenophon begins trying to get them shipped across to Asia for their new contract.
The new Spartan admiral, whose name is Aristarchus, tells Xenophon that by no means will he allow this, and in fact will sink any ships that try to transport the Ten Thousand anywhere.
Xenophon conducts a sacrifice whose victims apparently conveyed a way for him to get his army to Seuthes after all. Exactly how this worked is a little mysterious. Seuthes' army is nearby, also in need of a winter camp. They link up with Xenophon and the Myriad, and Seuthes and Xenophon plus their aides de camp have a celebration of friendship (i.e. they drink together as is customary, the text says in Thrace, but indeed for soldiers almost everywhere and in every era).
Seuthes proposes to employ the Ten Thousand in trying to restore his family domain from another family that had conquered it. He promises the Ten Thousand a home in this country if they will help him regain his own command of it.
Aristarchus offers a counterproposal that they fight for him in forcing their way to "the sacred mountain" (you may think of Olympus, but it's more likely Mount Ida in what is now Turkey). The army discusses the two, asks some questions of Seuthes, and then votes to back Seuthes' effort on the strength of logistical concerns: he has the ability to help them winter before the campaign, knowing the location of many places where they can obtain resources for their army as well as his own.
We are coming to the end of this story -- there are only another 35 pages in the hard copy I am reading, so I am guessing that will be resolved in about two more posts. I will then probably finish up with a summary of what we know of Xenophon after his time with the Ten Thousand, and how his life played out once this story was told.
* The online translation describes the Byzantine reaction to a proposal from Xenophon as them being "at sixes and sevens," as opposed to the Warner translation which merely says they are "split up into a number of hostile camps." This is not at all a Greek phrase, but does date to at least Geoffrey Chaucer and has an interesting history.
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