This particular train is of the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, currently blocking the end of the one-way road into Dillsboro, North Carolina. I’m sure it will move on in the fullness of God’s good time.
Pretty afternoon to sit by the river anyway.
The deadliest sin
Screwtape warned his trainee tempter of the danger when humans remember that despair is a worse sin than any of the sins that provoke it.
An Israeli hostage's father thanks Trump for inspiring the deal that brought his daughter home alive, and describes how hard he fought for her when he really just wanted to curl up and die:
The hardest lesson I learned was that hopelessness consumes energy you can’t afford to waste.This is the lesson I keep taking from my nephew's untimely death. He didn't get much time on earth, but his last year was a miracle respite, only because he never gave up trying.
Anabasis VII
In spite of their concerns caused by the lengthy delay, the Greeks abide by the truce and wait to be led out by the Persian forces. This march begins in conditions of mutual suspicion, at least between the Greeks and the Persians. The Persian allies of Cyrus begin to camp with their relatives, mending fences as is the normal way after the war. That only makes the Greeks feel more isolated.
We end up learning very little from Xenophon about this wonder of the world, which I might have thought would make a larger impression upon him. I suppose he was focused on the problem of getting out more than the enjoyment of the sights.
Nevertheless there have been arrangements made for food, and after a while the Greeks come to the Median Wall.
This wall was built of burnt bricks, laid in bitumen ; it was twenty feet in thickness, and a hundred in height, and the length of it was said to be twenty parasangs; and it was not far distant from Babylon."Not the least remarkable of the discoveries," says the Rev. J. F. Macmichael in the Appendix to his Xenophon, "which of late years have marked the progress of geographical inquiry in this most interesting - but, till of late, unexplored region, is the actual existence at the present time of an ancient wall stretching across Mesopotamia at the head of the Babylonian plain. Mr. Ross, who first examined it at its eastern terminus, in 1836, described it under the name of Khalu or Sidd Nimrud, (wall or embankment of Nimrod,) and as a straight wall 25 long paces thick, and from 35 to 40 feet high, running S. W. :} N. as far as the eye could reach, to two mounds called Ramelah, (Sifairah, Ainswr. p. 81-2,) on the Euphrates, some hours above Felujah. The eastern extremity was built of the small pebbles of the country, cemented with lime of great tenacity; and farther inland, his Bedwin guides told him it was built of brick, and in some places worn down level with the desert, and was built by Nimrod to keep off the people of Nineveh, with whom he had an implacable feud. (Journal of R. Geog. S. ix. p. 446.)
So we are north of Fallujah, which is in Anbar province, but somewhere east of it. Xenophon says that the armies "passed over to the other side of it," which is not very adequate detail for a wall a hundred feet wide and maybe seventy miles long. (Remember that a 'parasang' is not strictly a measure of distance, but a rough measure of time spent traveling.) It would be interesting to know more about how one passed this wall, whether by wooden ramps that could be pulled up, or dirt ramps that had to be destroyed if enemies were approaching, or in some other way. By tradition, there were towers constructed and manned at intervals during the era that the wall was a defensive structure.
An 1877 illustration imagines the wall.
We end up learning very little from Xenophon about this wonder of the world, which I might have thought would make a larger impression upon him. I suppose he was focused on the problem of getting out more than the enjoyment of the sights.
There are reports of plotted attacks by native forces, which the Greeks analyze sensibly and don't get too excited about, although they take due precautions. None materialize during this period.
For some reason, however, they are marching east and not north or west. They come to the Tigris, and eventually to the ancient city of Opis. This is very near to modern Baghdad, but east of it. The reason is hinted at when we learn that the country they are marching through belonged to Cyrus' family, including his mother and his bastard brother. They meet the brother in passing, going with an army to report to the King for service -- doubtless to prove his loyalty after his brother's betrayal. The Persian commander, Tissaphernes, allows them to plunder two villages belonging to Cyrus' mother as a way of insulting his family and provisioning the Greeks.
They now turn north along the Tigris and march another sixty miles, passing a city called Caenae and then coming to a river called Zapatas. It is not clear to me precisely where these would be from my knowledge of the area.
Guilty Flee When None Pursue
Canada's version of USAID has just deleted "its entire public database of foreign aid spending."
They don't even have a DOGE in Canada.
Fear and Congress
J. Michael Waller suggests that there's a reason the Tulsi/Kash nominations are taking a while: Congress is afraid of vengeance from the agencies if they vote yes.
One supposes that the level of corruption in Congress is high enough that each of them knows what he or she has to lose if the FBI seeks revenge. The only way to put a chain on that wolf, ironically, is to be brave enough to take the vote; but then one's crimes might come out as part of the daylight to follow.
Anabasis Interlude: Foraging
The army has the usual problem for armies of feeding itself. Logistics is going to be a key problem for the rest of the tale; we've already seen some hardships. Now that they are cut off from their benefactor and his resources, they depend either upon their enemies (who are helping them out with an eye towards getting rid of them without a fight) or upon the land.
Proceeding on their way they reached some villages, where their guides indicated to them that they would find provisions. They were found to contain plenty of corn, and wine made from palm dates, and an acidulated beverage extracted by boiling from the same fruit. As to the palm nuts or dates themselves, it was noticeable that the sort which we are accustomed to see in Hellas were set aside for the domestic servants; those put aside for the masters are picked specimens, and are simply marvellous for their beauty and size, looking like great golden lumps of amber; some specimens they dried and preserved as sweetmeats. Sweet enough they were as an accompaniment of wine, but apt to give headache. Here, too, for the first time in their lives, the men tasted the brain of the palm. No one could help being struck by the beauty of this object, and the peculiarity of its delicious flavour; but this, like the dried fruits, was exceedingly apt to give headache. When this cabbage or brain has been removed from the palm the whole tree withers from top to bottom.
There are many species of palm tree; this one is of course the date palm, which produces dates. We have the name 'date' from the Greeks, in fact: it comes from the Greek word for 'finger,' (δάκτυλος) which passed through Latin into English.
It's incredibly destructive to eat the 'brain' (in this translation; mine has 'crown') and thus destroy for one meal a plant that would have borne fruit for many years. This is one reason the Persians are willing to arrange for their enemies to buy food, even to provide them with food rather than have this army feeding itself off the land.
We had one of these date trees right outside of one of the many buildings we occupied as a temporary headquarters during my time in Iraq. You could just climb up in it and pick the things. I found them exactly as Xenophon describes. The preserved dates were also readily available.
The wine made from palm dates seems to have passed out of existence during the Islamic period. Probably someone still makes it for himself out back, in the manner of moonshine, but I didn't encounter anything like it during my time in Mesopotamia.
Anabasis VI
The day after the great battle the Greek generals meet before dawn to decide how to proceed in the absence of orders or clear intelligence. Just before dawn they receive messages from the native troops, who had fled back along the route they had come upon, informing them of Cyrus' death and their own retreat. The Greeks offer to make their leader king; he refuses on the grounds that he is not of sufficiently royal blood, and couldn't make it stick.
Meanwhile the Persians send an embassy including Tissaphernes and a man named Phalinus who is himself a Greek, who suggests to them that they surrender their arms and seek good terms from the King. This is the year 401 B.C.; the battle of Thermopylae is within living memory for the very oldest Greeks, having been fought in 480 B.C. There is no chance that any Greek army is surrendering their arms to a Persian king just for the asking. They know perfectly well that the Persian forces, however much larger, are not capable of defeating them without severe loss of life.
I'll quote part of the discussion from the post on the battle:
[The large Persian formations] were analogous to a set of pillows, almost: big and voluminous, but not capable of (or willing to) exert much force. Mostly they fled before the Greeks, and avoided combat everywhere except in the intense fight when Cyrus charged the King. There only were the picked loyalist men of the two leaders fully engaged in brutal combat.I think the reason for this is that the Persian army has the same loyalty problem that Cyrus has with his native forces. They didn't come to fight; nobody wants to die for the Persian king. They came to show up in order to make a showing of loyalty to their best-guess about who was going to win, or the one they obtained sufficient benefits from that they couldn't not show up for them when called.
The King is not in a very happy position. He knows that the Greeks drove all his forces before them all day yesterday. He knows that his people aren't eager to die for him. He further knows that the Greeks will fight to the knife because they know that the alternative is torture if they happen to survive. So he has a morale problem in spite of his vastly superior numbers; and he has the problem that, if he attacks and is driven off or savaged by them, it will destabilize his rule and the appearance of strength on which it rests. It is so clear to him that this is an unhappy position that he withdraws his forces across the Tigris (thus further emphasizing how close we are to modern Baghdad, so close to both the great rivers).
The discussion of whether or not to surrender their arms involves some straightforward Greek philosophy, all of which points to keeping the arms. That section is enjoyable reasoning and shows practical wisdom in a state of difficulty.
"Conquerors do not, as a rule, give up their arms" [Meaning that the Greeks had whipped all Persians yesterday -- Grim]...
Cleanor the Arcadian, by right of seniority, answered: "They would sooner die than give up their arms." Then Proxenus the Theban said: "For my part, I marvel if the king demands our arms as our master, or for the sake of friendship merely, as presents. If as our master, why need he ask for them rather than come and take them? But if he would fain wheedle us out of them by fine speeches, he should tell us what the soldiers will receive in turn for such kindness." ...
Theopompus the Athenian spoke. "Phalinus," he said, "at this instant, as you yourself can see, we have nothing left but our arms and our valour. If we keep the former we imagine we can make use of the latter; but if we deliver up our arms we shall presently be robbed of our lives. Do not suppose then that we are going to give up to you the only good things which we possess. We prefer to keep them; and by their help we will do battle with you for the good things which are yours." Phalinus laughed when he heard those words, and said: "Spoken like a philosopher, my fine young man, and very pretty reasoning too..."
Clearchus said "The sight of you, Phalinus, caused me much pleasure; and not only me, but all of us, I feel sure; for you are a Hellene even as we are--every one of us whom you see before you. In our present plight we would like to take you into our counsel as to what we had better do touching your proposals. I beg you then solemnly, in the sight of heaven--do you tender us such advice as you shall deem best and worthiest, and such as shall bring you honour of after time, when it will be said of you how once on a time Phalinus was sent by the great king to bid certain Hellenes yield up their arms, and when they had taken him into their counsel, he gave them such and such advice. You know that whatever advice you do give us cannot fail to be reported in Hellas."
Clearchus threw out these leading remarks in hopes that this man, who was the ambassador from the king, might himself be led to advise them not to give up their arms, in which case the Hellenes would be still more sanguine and hopeful. But, contrary to his expectation, Phalinus turned round and said: "I say that if you have one chance, one hope in ten thousand to wage a war with the king successfully, do not give up your arms. That is my advice. If, however, you have no chance of escape without the king's consent, then I say save yourselves in the only way you can." And Clearchus answered: "So, then, that is your deliberate view? Well, this is our answer, take it back. We conceive that in either case, whether we are expected to be friends with the king, we shall be worth more as friends if we keep our arms than if we yield them to another; or whether we are to go to war, we shall fight better with them than without."
So, no. You will not be getting our arms. Nor does the King attempt to do so.
The Greeks withdraw to rejoin their native allies, and then decide to strike off north because they already know the way they came has no food upon it. They shortly come upon the outliers of the King's army, who withdraw further before them. The King is so eager to be rid of them that he sends another embassy to discuss further options. After a further discussion Tissaphernes proposes to lead them safely out of Persia, arranging for them to purchase food along the way in return for their promise not to raid the countryside or wage war upon it. He then keeps them there for 20 days while preparing for his own journey, during which time the Greeks suspect treachery is brewing but choose to wait for the promised escort instead of having to fight all the long way out.
The Greatest Scandal of Our Lives
The USAID/State Department funding schemes are far vaster than Watergate, far bigger than Iran/Contra, embrace the gain-of-function scandal, a conspiracy to suppress free inquiry and expression, and even the financing of international terrorism.
The worst of it appears to me so far to be the erection of influence and psychological operations machinery to be used against the American people, at their own expense as taxpayers. The attempt at mind control and political influence by the administrative state is unacceptable and must be punished more harshly than it is easy to imagine.
The terrorism-funding is nothing to sneeze at either. It’s quite enough for a scandal of its own.
UPDATE: The USAID funding was being used to promote direct assaults on two sets of our Bill of Rights liberties, both those of the first and the second amendments. Our taxes were being used by our own government to set up organizations designed to destroy our rights, and to get other governments to do the same.
Anabasis V: Scythed Chariots
In the great battle just described, there was an ineffective use of a rather innovative weapons system that was specifically designed to contest heavy infantry hoplite units. This was the scythed chariot, which is exactly what you would imagine it to be from the name. There's also a Wikipedia article on the subject.
For the most part these things were not highly effective. One can imagine them having a significant psychological effect on the unit being charged by them.
Xenophon does tell of a time (395 BC), however, when several hundred Greeks, caught in the open by the Persians, were charged by just two scythed chariots, scattering the men and allowing many to be cut down by the cavalry (Hellenica, IV.1.17-19). Indeed, this was their proper function: to panic and disrupt the enemy, allowing mounted troops and infantry to charge the broken line.Most famously, scythed chariots were used by Darius III against Alexander the Great at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC. There were two-hundred such chariots, says Diodorus Siculus, designed to astonish and terrify the enemy."From each of these there projected out beyond the trace horses scythes three spans long, attached to the yoke, and presenting their cutting edges to the front. At the axle housings there were two more scythes pointing straight out with their cutting edges turned to the front like the others, but longer and broader. Curved blades were fitted to the ends of these" (Library of History, XVII.53.2; also Arrian, III.8).Diodorus records that, when the chariots attacked the phalanx, the Macedonians beat their shields with their spears, creating such a din that the horses shied, turning the chariots back on the Persians. Those that continued forward were allowed to pass as the soldiers opened wide gaps in the line. Some horses were killed as they charged ahead but the momentum of others allowed them to ride through, the blades of the chariots severing "the arms of many, shields and all, and in no small number of cases they cut through necks and sent heads tumbling to the ground with the eyes still open and the expression of the countenance unchanged, and in other cases they sliced through ribs with mortal gashes and inflicted a quick death" (XVII.58.2-5).
They're the kind of thing Hollywood would love, but definitely not the tank of the ancient world -- and ultimately no real threat to the dominance of heavy infantry on the battlefield of the era.
Standing Down
There was a similar closure and folding-into-State of the US Information Agency during the Clinton administration. It resulted in a permanent loss of capacity and expertise in information warfare, which was thought not to be needed any longer due to the end of the Soviet Union. Russian Active Measures did take a while to get back to full speed, or whatever you would describe as their current speed; but after 9/11, we realized that we had lost a lot in terms of our ability to recognize and respond to dangerous messaging in the Islamic world.
This one is way faster and more hostile.
A brief message posted late Tuesday night on USAID’s website states, “On Friday, February 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally,” except for select employees in “mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs. Essential personnel expected to continue working will be informed by Agency leadership by Thursday, February 6, at 3:00pm (EST).”The government will arrange return flights for all USAID workers stationed outside the United States within 30 days. The administration “will consider case-by-case exceptions and return travel extensions based on personal or family hardship,” such as children’s school term, “personal or familial medical needs, pregnancy, and other reasons.”“Thank you for your service,” concludes the message.
We've seen a lot of demonstration that USAID was also performing improper functions -- maybe mostly performing improper functions -- so perhaps it is warranted. It won't be free, though.
Trump Hotel & Resort: Gaza
I was definitely not expecting the concept of the US taking over and developing a resort complex in the Gaza strip.
Removing the people from Gaza, that I was expecting. That's the obvious solution to ending what the President called "the death, the destruction, and frankly bad luck" arising from the combination of history, distrust, and the poisonous Revolutionary Marxist political culture that was trained into Palestine for generations. Getting the world to agree to it, especially the host country for these new citizens, that's very hard -- but it is the obvious way to proceed, and frankly almost certainly to the benefit of the Palestinians of Gaza in the long run. It's ugly and the sort of ethnic cleansing that international diplomats claim to oppose (but that they don't seem too opposed to in Xinjiang). It's what happened in Syria, though, without the same level of protest from the diplomats of the world.
Turning it into a resort community, that I was expecting. It's beachfront property on the Mediterranean Sea. Once you had cleared it out (and removed all the mines and bombs and other explosives), a resort community was the obvious usage.
The US taking it over and turning it into a new International Zone of hotels and resorts, that's the part I never saw coming. Probably I should have, given who the President is and where his mind goes. And there is precedent for it -- Jerusalem's Old City is itself divided into quarters, two of which (the Christian and the Armenian Quarter) are led and governed by international organizations including the Catholic and Orthodox churches, as well as the Armenian Christian churches. They're fairly pleasant places to visit, by the way. The Armenian Mass is beautiful even though I don't understand the language at all; and the Franciscans who run the Catholic Mass do it in Latin, which is quite an experience sitting in Jerusalem. There are some fine hotels and restaurants that have grown up there to serve the wealthier pilgrims, and in spite of the nearby Muslim Quarter there is very little terrorism.
Now if it were me, the last thing on earth I might do is insert the US and especially the US military into the middle of this nightmare. I'm not in charge, though. I would tend to advise staying a long way from Gaza as a general thing if anyone is interested in my opinion on the subject. Get private funding for this project, from the hotels or resorts or whatever; have them hire private security forces, deputized by Israel or something. It's not a wholly implausible idea. I just wouldn't want any part of it.
Anabasis IV: The Great Battle
In ancient times the region Cyrus has been traveling through, which is part of Anbar Province today, was called Arabia. Now that he has come into the region that is now Baghdad -- that city was not founded until the Islamic age -- it is known as Babylonia. Babylon itself is quite a bit further south, near the city of Hillah, Iraq. It is in this area of Mesopotamia where Baghdad now stands, at the time a place of villages and farms, that the Battle of Cunaxa ends up happening.
Cyrus believes he is closing on where his brother will meet him, so he holds a midnight muster to order and review his army. He places his Greek mercenaries on the army's right, anchored by the Euphrates. This is an interesting tactical decision. It gives his army an unbreakable core, as the Persian forces have nothing that can crack the Greek hoplites. The river protects them from being enveloped. His own forces in the center end up serving chiefly to cover the flank and rear of the Greek unit, so that as it successfully advances through its opponents it cannot be surrounded from behind.
Yet in doing this he ends up not placing them where they can fight the strongest and most central units of the King's army. He ends up in the center himself with his cavalry, to cover the Greek rear but also to strike as a cavalry reserve if weak points appear. To his left he puts his native troops.
They sleep in position and begin at dawn their advance. The Persian king chooses the stratagem of retreating before them for several days. This leads them to believe that he is choosing not to fight, and thus their army grows increasingly poor at keeping the discipline of their positions. Thus, when on the third day he turns and comes upon them strongly, they are not in order and scramble to get into place.
Cyrus realizes that his best card is not going to be very useful against his brother because it is on the right instead of in the center. He tries to reorder his forces but the Greek mercenary commander, Clearchus, refuses to attempt the ordered maneuver given that it would expose his flanks. Thus, the battle commences as described above.
The Greeks meet no effective resistance, and exactly as expected press through the Persian army -- which is vastly, vastly larger but not coherent -- until their rear is in danger of being exposed. Cyrus defends their rear with his cavalry until he realizes that he has come close to where the King of Persia actually is, in the center of the Persian formation. Seeing that, he takes his own picked men -- his 'table companions' -- and tries to kill the King.
Cyrus' charge leads to a personal combat between himself and the King, whom Cyrus wounds through his breastplate. However, one of the King's companions kills Cyrus with a javelin through the face. (This Persian is not named at this time, but was one Mithridates who was reportedly later executed for it as he had stolen the honor of the King's kill.) Cyrus' death leads to the defense of his body by his table companions, who all die in place. The Persians then pass into the camp and plunder all the baggage, leaving the remnants of Cyrus' army without supplies. Only then do they return to the Greek hoplites, who were coming back from a very successful day (so they thought).
When the Greeks meet the King and his reunited forces, they once again drive them with great success. The King's forces retreat before them, unable to resist the hoplite advance. Eventually the Greeks allow the retreat -- they are infantry after all, and have been fighting all day without food -- and return to their camp only to find it plundered. There is no supper to be had.
And there has been no word from Cyrus. They are completely cut off from command, without clear intelligence about the battle, and hungry.
Xenophon includes a touching brief biography of Cyrus, whom he apparently admired and considered a genuinely just and good man. Cyrus has the heroic virtues: courage, of course -- he once killed a she-bear in personal combat -- but also love of horses, great generosity, such honor that his word once given was thought completely reliable, and the ability to issue punishments to criminals with great firmness. One would regularly see on the bigger roads in his domain, Xenophon relates, men with amputated hands or feet: and therefore, he tells us, one could travel wherever one liked in Cyrus' domain with anything one choose to take without fear. Maimonides uses a similar argument as a proof of the existence of God; Genghis Khan's reign was reputedly also a place where 'a virgin dressed only in gold jewelry' could travel wherever she liked without fear of being troubled. Xenophon thought that Cyrus was a very good and virtuous man and, in the same way Aristotle would describe a generation later, therefore a good leader. The Greeks were there as his mercenaries, but they fought for him not only for gold but also because they thought he was worth fighting for.
Dean’s List
My son absolutely astonished me today by bringing home a letter from his Dean. He had a really tough start to college due to COVID disrupting his Senior Year in High School and his Freshman year in college. He has taken to these Emergency Management studies, though. I’m proud of him.
"Defending Democracy Together"
A big story this morning is that Bill Kristol has been outed as the recipient of millions of dollars of USAID (closed as of this morning!) and State Department money, laundered through the Rockfeller Philanthropy Advisors foundation.
A part of this story nobody has yet mentioned that I've seen is that the particular focus of the Kristol entity is anti-Trump politics. This is the US government (in)directly funding political operations against a disfavored political party/candidate.
Back before Trump came into power, Kristol was headlining a conference on American and Israeli Nationalism. Shockingly given his remarks on the subject since Trump became a leading figure, he was at the time a huge proponent of American Nationalism -- the conference was called "The Case for Nationalism" and he was the leading exponent of the American version. Once Trump came on the scene, he discovered that there was a lot more money to be made opposing the principle he had once intensely advocated. We knew, therefore, that he was not genuinely principled.
But this rises above the level of scandal. This is money laundering US taxpayer funds into an active effort to inveigh against the election of a particular candidate in our internal elections. It is almost certainly illegal. Especially insofar as USAID's budget is informed by input from a certain intelligence agency, it is explicitly illegal for them to engage in information operations within the United States for the purposes of influencing American citizens. Even to the degree that influence cannot be shown in court, the administrative state funding efforts to sway voters on a partisan basis is going to violate who knows how many campaign finance laws.
Anabasis III
Before we reach the great battle at Cunaxa, which is where modern Baghdad stands, some internal tensions start to appear. The army's core is of natures, Greek mercenaries and Persians who have some reason to be loyal to Cyrus (and therefore, because of the tight family relation, also some reasons to be loyal to his brother the Great King). It is noteworthy that the tensions erupt within the ethnic groups, and that it is the presence of both groups together that allows for them to be resolved. Diversity, in this case, is their strength.
We were in much the same position with our 'allies' in Iraq. They were working with us because the US forces were much stronger than anyone around them. They had bonds of friendship and loyalty with us, sealed with dinners and presents and payments of cash; also they had bonds with the enemies around us. If we had seemed to fall into weakness, as through disputes with each other, they would immediately realize that they were going to be killed by our enemies once we were too weak to support them. Each would have wanted to be the first to turn on us, in order to tell our enemies -- also their relatives or co-religionists -- that they were the ones who had done us in and removed us as a problem.
Clearchus and Menon are two of the Greek mercenary captains, each of their own band. They quarrel, and a third of the captains -- Proxenus -- steps in to try to stop it, which further enrages Clearchus (who felt he was unduly offended by Menon's troops). Cyrus comes between them, and his argument that brings peace is this: "If you don't stop fighting right now, all these Persians 'friends' around us will kill us all." Cyrus is himself Persian, indeed a very Prince of Persia, a satrap, and a man to whom all these men have sworn bonds of friendship and loyalty. Nevertheless he knows that they will turn their knives on him if he loses the security of a united Greek bodyguard. The Greeks grasp and believe in his argument, and return to sensible behavior.
A very young Grim at COP Dragon on the Euphrates during the Sunni Awakening.
We were in much the same position with our 'allies' in Iraq. They were working with us because the US forces were much stronger than anyone around them. They had bonds of friendship and loyalty with us, sealed with dinners and presents and payments of cash; also they had bonds with the enemies around us. If we had seemed to fall into weakness, as through disputes with each other, they would immediately realize that they were going to be killed by our enemies once we were too weak to support them. Each would have wanted to be the first to turn on us, in order to tell our enemies -- also their relatives or co-religionists -- that they were the ones who had done us in and removed us as a problem.
The Sunni tribal leaders we were working with often had the most to fear from their own minor cousins or outlying uncles. Those might advance themselves by treasonously reaching out to those contacts they had with relatives, friends, and our enemies -- and then acting at a moment of weakness to replace the traditional sheikhs or other leaders. The apparent friendship and peace was bought by strength, but they were always pulled in both directions by their pre-existing ties. If the facts on the ground changed, the pull in the other direction could instantly become too strong.
Later Cyrus and his army find that an enemy band ahead of them of about 2,000 cavalry is burning the land to make sure there is nothing to feed their army. One of Cyrus' allies, a fellow Persian, proposes to take some cavalry and go round them up. Cyrus approves this, but the traitor instead sends a messenger ahead to warn the Great King of the maneuver. The messenger further betrays his lord and brings the message to Cyrus. A council is called, with the Persians all present and the Greeks as well, and a death sentence is pronounced on the Persian traitor. Both the Greeks and the Persians unanimously proclaim his death, the Greeks providing an excuse for his relatives to agree.
I would also like to draw attention to one moment of genuine excellence about the Persian conduct on this march. Herodotus says a lot in praise of the Persians, Greece's traditional enemies, and Xenophon observes at least one thing that really merits the same sort of praise.
...once they found themselves involved in a narrow way, where the deep clay presented an obstacle to the progress of the wagons. Cyrus, with the nobles about him, halted to superintend the operation, and ordered Glus and Pigres to take a body of barbarians and to help in extricating the wagons. As they seemed to be slow about the business, he turned round angrily to the Persian nobles and bade them lend a hand to force the wagons out.
Then, if ever... good discipline was to be witnessed. Each of those addressed, just where he chanced to be standing, threw off his purple cloak, and flung himself into the work with as much eagerness as if it had been a charge for victory. Down a steep hill side they flew, with their costly tunics and embroidered trousers--some with the circlets round their necks, and bracelets on their arms--in an instant, they had sprung into the miry clay, and in less time than one could have conceived, they had landed the wagons safe on terra firma.
Herodotus claimed that the Persian nobility was raised from youth only to do three things: "to ride, shoot straight, and speak the truth." That common discipline in the face of company hardship is exactly what you would expect of men like that.
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