Just then, a thunderous cheer erupted. “Davos! Davos! Davos!!!” The chant was so unified and loud that it drowned out all other noise, causing even the other generals’ expressions to change.
“That’s Menon’s mercenaries,” Timasion said, standing on his toes to look in the direction of the sound.
“They should be called Davos’s mercenaries now,” Hieronymus remarked with a touch of envy.
On the stage, a smile spread across Davos’s face. He began to speak. “Warriors of Greece, I am Davos of Thessaly, and I have replaced Menon as your new general!”
After the soldiers on the platform had relayed his words, the men of Davos’s contingent immediately leaped to their feet, cheering and applauding him. The soldiers from the other contingents looked at each other in confusion. Have these fellows gone mad?
Some of those in the know began to show off their information to their comrades. “I hear this young man is blessed by the god Hades. Every ‘oracle’ he receives comes true!”
“I heard he even miraculously saved a soldier who was on the brink of death. Yes, that’s him standing right behind Davos!”
“He also invented some things that are very useful to us, like this… uh, puttee on my leg…”
The stories spread from soldier to soldier. In the blink of an eye, the contempt in the crowd’s eyes lessened, replaced by a growing curiosity.
Davos’s voice once again reached their ears. “Just now, Chrysophus’s speech was very inspiring, but it was just too short! It’s like when a man and a woman are doing that thing—the moment the woman starts to get excited, the man finishes. Imagine how frustrating that must be for the woman!”
The soldiers below had not expected such crude words to come from the mouth of this still-boyish-looking young man. They were stunned for a moment, then burst into a roar of laughter. “Hahaha…”
Many took the opportunity to let out lewd catcalls and whistles.
“This young man is amusing,” many soldiers said, nodding with a smile.
“Nonsense! This is completely out of line!” Timasion cursed, glancing at Chrysophus.
Xenophon was also surprised. The Davos he knew was a young man of unique insight who spoke with courtesy and refinement; he shouldn’t be this coarse.
Chrysophus said nothing. Although Davos was making a joke at his expense, he was not angry. Having spent his life in military camps until the age of thirty, Chrysophus knew very well how soldiers thought. He didn’t know if Davos had stumbled upon this tactic by accident or if it was intentional, but in any case, the vulgar joke had already made the soldiers feel a sense of affinity for their overly young new general. It also made Chrysophus look forward to the rest of the speech.
“When I came up here just now, I saw that every one of you was hanging your head. Some of you even had tears in your eyes. You are afraid! Afraid that you will not be able to return to Greece! You are terrified! Terrified that the Persians will destroy you! But think carefully. When we were deep in the heart of Persia, when our employer Cyrus was killed and we did not know what to do, did the Persians, who outnumbered us many times over, immediately attack and destroy us? What did they do?” Davos used questions to slowly pique the soldiers’ interest.
“Every one of you here knows the answer. The Persians spent their energy negotiating with us, they gave us abundant food, and they accompanied us on this long journey… They spent so much time, money, and energy just to deceive our leaders and lure them to their deaths!” Davos said slowly. He paused for a moment, then asked in a loud voice, “Soldiers, tell me! Who is it that is truly afraid?! Who is terrified?! It is the Persians! They are more afraid than we are! They are afraid of our valor! They do not dare to face us in a direct battle! They are so cowardly that they only dare to use these covert conspiracies! They fear us more than they fear their own gods, so much so that they would violate the solemn oaths they swore!
“Now, they have murdered our leaders, yet even with us in a state of chaos, they still do not dare to attack us immediately! They are still thinking of making us surrender! Faced with such timid Persians, what is there for any of you to fear? You must know that we Hellenes are a people who do not fear any threat! Decades ago, the Persian King Darius led a great army and conquered all the peoples of this land. When he set his sights on the still-weak city-states of Greece across the sea, soldiers, tell me, did Greece surrender?!” Davos leaned forward, extending his right hand, and posed the question to the soldiers below.
“No,” came the scattered replies.
“Too quiet, I can’t hear you! Tell me, did Greece surrender?!” Davos asked, raising his voice.
“No!” This time, the answer was unified.
Davos was still not satisfied. “Your voices are as timid as a Persian’s! Again, did Greece surrender?!!”
“NO!!!” the soldiers roared, their emotions now beginning to stir.
“That’s right! We Hellenes did not submit! At Marathon[1], the Athenians, though outnumbered, beat the Persian army so badly they pissed themselves and ran! Darius scurried back to his den and died of illness a few years later. His son, Xerxes, seeking revenge, gathered an unprecedentedly massive army and invaded Greece again. But we Hellenes will never bow to tyranny!
“Soldiers, tell me, where did we crush the Persians?!”
This time, Davos didn’t need to prompt them. The soldiers eagerly shouted out the names. “Salamis[2]!”
“Plataea[3]!”
“And Thermopylae[4]!”
***
Davos picked up the thread. “Yes, the people of Greece united as one and defeated the Persians again, which is what made Greece a land of freedom and brought about the decades of peace and prosperity that followed. Soldiers, can any of you tell me the names of the generals and soldiers who took part in the resistance against Persia?”
“Miltiades[5]!”
“Aeschylus[6]!”
“Pheidippides[7]!”
“Leonidas[8]!”
“Themistocles[9]!”
“Aristides!”
“Pausanias!”
***
One by one, the names were shouted out by the soldiers, each trying to be heard over the other. At first, it was the names of generals, but then came the names of common soldiers. The Greco-Persian Wars had ended only about eighty years prior and had touched nearly the entire Greek world. The mercenaries remembered them vividly. Many of the men present were even descendants of those who had fought in the wars, and they eagerly and proudly proclaimed the names of their ancestors for all to hear. Even the new generals like Xanthipparis, Cleanor, and Hieronymus couldn’t help but join in. The atmosphere of the entire assembly began to boil…
Timasion couldn’t help but stare, his eyes wide. He realized he had underestimated this young man.
After a long time, the shouts from all sides began to subside.
Davos continued, his voice filled with passion, “These names you have spoken, they were written into history by Herodotus, and written into your memories! They became the heroes of Greece! Their spirit is as immortal as that of the gods! We grew up listening to their stories. When we grew up, we took them as our models, longing to achieve the same earth-shattering deeds! And now, soldiers, you have an opportunity, a perfect opportunity to become heroes of Greece, just like them, and to be written into history!” Here, Davos paused again.
The eager soldiers stood up, shouting impatiently, “Tell us! What is the opportunity?!”
“Have you not realized it yet?” Davos declared. “Although our ancestors defeated the Persians, they did so either on Greek soil or at sea. Never before has a Greek army successfully penetrated the interior of the Persian Empire. But we, we have marched deep into the heart of Persia! If we work together to defeat the Persians, overcome all hardships, and finally return to Greece in victory, then we will have made history! Our deeds will be written into books and composed into ballads, to be sung throughout all of Greece! Beautiful girls and lovely children will flock around us, begging us to tell the tales of our adventures! Our children and grandchildren will be as proud of us as we are of our ancestors today! And more importantly—”
Davos took a deep breath, his voice trembling with emotion. “Our deeds will inspire the Greeks of the future! They will know that though the Persians seem mighty, they are inwardly weak, that they are nothing but a giant molded from clay. A nation is like a man; it has its time of strength, and it has its time of old age. When the day comes that Persia and Greece go to war again, the Greeks will follow our example and march into Persia along the route we once walked. When they achieve victory and come to the battlefields where we once shed our blood, to make offerings to us and to praise us, what will they say?!”
The soldiers listened, utterly enthralled.