of Cerasus and Trapezus, pay us an appointed tribute. So that,
whatever mischief you inflict on the men of Cotyora, the city of
Sinope takes as personal to herself. At the present time we hear that
you have made forcible entry into their city, some of you, and are
quartered in the houses, besides taking forcibly from the Cotyorite
estates whatever you need, by hook and by crook. Now against these
things we enter protest. If you mean to go on so doing, you will drive
us to make friends with Corylas and the Paphlagonians, or any one else
we can find."

To meet these charges Xenophon, on behalf of the soldiers, rose and
said: "As to ourselves, men of Sinope, having got so far, we are well
content to have saved our bodies and our arms. Indeed it was
impossible at one and the same moment to keep our enemies at bay and
to despoil them of their goods and chattels. And now, since we have
reached Hellenic cities, how has it fared with us? At Trapezus they
gave us a market, and we paid for our provisions at a fair market
price. In return for the honour they did us, and the gifts of
hospitality they gave the army, we requited them with honour. Where
the barbarian was friendly to them, we stayed our hands from injury;
or under their escort, we did damage to their enemies to the utmost of
our power. Ask them, what sort of people they found us. They are here,
some of them, to answer for themselves. Their fellow-citizens and the
state of Trapezus, for friendship's sake, have sent them with us to
act as our guides.

"But wherever we come, be it foreign or Hellenic soil, and find no
market for provisions, we are wont to help ourselves, not out of
insolence but from necessity. There have been tribes like the
Carduchians, the Taochians, the Chaldaeans, which, albeit they were