Adrien_Guignet_-_Retreat_of_the_ten_thousand

Cheirisophus () was a

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

n general who fought with the

Ten Thousand The Ten Thousand (, ''hoi Myrioi'') were a force of mercenary units, mainly Greeks, employed by Cyrus the Younger to attempt to wrest the throne of the Persian Empire from his brother, Artaxerxes II. Their march to the Battle of Cunaxa and bac ...

under

Cyrus the Younger Cyrus the Younger ( ''Kūruš''; ; died 401 BC) was an Achaemenid prince and general. He ruled as satrap of Lydia and Ionia from 408 to 401 BC. Son of Darius II and Parysatis, he died in 401 BC in battle during a failed attempt to oust his ...

. Cheirisophus was sent by the Spartan ephors with 700 heavily armed men (800 according to Diodorus Siculus) to aid Cyrus the Younger in his expedition against his brother Artaxerxes in 401 BC. He joined Cyrus on his march at Issus in Cilicia. After the Battle of Cunaxa, Clearchus sent Cheirisophus with a delegation to the Persian general Ariaeus to make an offer of placing him on the Persian throne, an offer which Ariaeus declined. After the arrest of Clearchus and the other generals, through the treachery of Tissaphernes, Cheirisophus took an active part in encouraging the troops and in otherwise dealing with the emergency of being a leaderless army deep in enemy territory, and, on the suggestion of

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; ; 355/354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected as one of the leaders of the retreating Ancient Greek mercenaries, Greek mercenaries, the Ten Thousand, who had been ...

, was appointed to lead the vanguard of the retreating army. He held this post throughout the retreat in cooperation with Xenophon. There was only one time that any difference arose between them, and that was caused by Cheirisophus having struck, in a fit of angry suspicion, an

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

n who was guiding them, and who left them because of the insult. When the Greeks had arrived at

Trapezus Trabzon, historically known as Trebizond, is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. The city was founded in 756 BC as "Trapezous" by colonists from Miletus. It was added into the Achaemenid Em ...

on the

Euxine The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

, Cheirisophus volunteered to go to his friend Anaxibius, the Spartan admiral at

Byzantium Byzantium () or Byzantion () was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' continued to be used as a n ...

, to obtain a number of ships to transport them to Europe; but he was not successful in his appeal. On his return to the army, which he found at Sinope, he was chosen commander-in-chief, Xenophon having declined the position for himself on the grounds that he was not a Spartan. Cheirisophus, however, was unable to enforce his authority, or to restrain the Arcadian and

Achaea Achaea () or Achaia (), sometimes transliterated from Greek language, Greek as Akhaia (, ''Akhaḯa'', ), is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the modern regions of Greece, region of Western Greece and is situated in the northwest ...

n soldiers from plundering the Heracleots. On the sixth or seventh day after Cheirisophus's election, these troops, who formed more than half the army, separated themselves from the rest and departed by sea under ten generals whom they had appointed. Xenophon then offered to continue the march with the remainder of the forces, under the command of Cheirisophus, but Cheirisophus declined the proposal based on advice from

Neon Neon is a chemical element; it has symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is the second noble gas in the periodic table. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with approximately two-thirds the density of ...

, who hoped to find vessels at Calpe furnished by Cleander, the Spartan harmost at Byzantium, and wished to reserve them exclusively for their own portion of the army. With the small division still under his command, Cheirisophus arrived safely at Calpe, where he died from the effects of a medicine which he had taken for a fever.

, '' Anabasis'' vi. 2. 4, 4. ~ 11

Notes

{{Authority control Anabasis (Xenophon) Ancient Spartan generals Ten Thousand-ancient mercenaries 5th-century BC Spartans 4th-century BC Spartans