Toward the end of October 1812, near Moscow, General Winzingerode, a German officer in the Russian service,—with his aide-de-camp a native Russian, Narishkin,—became prisoner of the French. He was brought to Napoleon—“At the sight of that German general, all the secret resentments of Napoleon took fire. ‘Who are you (he exclaimed)? a man without a country! When I was at war with the Austrians, I found you in their ranks. Austria has become my ally, and you have entered into the Russian service. You have been one of the warmest instigators of the present war. Nevertheless, you are a native of the Confederation of the Rhine: you are my subject. You are not an ordinary enemy: you are a rebel: I have a right to bring you to trial. Gens d’armes, seize this man!’ Then addressing the aide-de-camp of Winzingerode, Napoleon said, ‘As for you, Count Narishkin, I have nothing to reproach you with: you are a Russian, you are doing your duty.’” (Ségur’s account of the Campaign in Russia, book ix. ch. vi. p. 132.)
Napoleon did not realize these threats against Winzingerode; but his language expresses just the same sentiment as that of Alexander towards the captive Greeks.
[114] Demosth. Olynth. ii. p. 14 Ὅλως μὲν γὰρ ἡ Μακεδονικὴ δύναμις καὶ ἀρχὴ ἐν μὲν προσθήκῃ μερίς ἐστὶ τις οὐ σμικρὰ, οἷον ὑπῆρξέ ποθ᾽ ὑμῖν ἐπὶ Τιμοθέου πρὸς Ὀλυνθίους ... αὐτὴ δὲ καθ᾽ αὑτὴν ἀσθενὴς καὶ πολλῶν κακῶν ἐστὶ μεστὴ.
[115] Demosth. Philipp. iii. p. 123, 124: compare Olynth. ii. p. 22. I give here the substance of what is said by the orator, not strictly adhering to his words.
[116] Isokrates, in several of his discourses, notes the gradual increase of these mercenaries—men without regular means of subsistence, or fixed residence, or civic obligations. Or. iv. (Panegyr.) s. 195; Or. v. (Philippus), s. 112-142; Or. viii. (De Pace), s. 31-56.
[117] Xenoph. Magist. Equit. ix. 4. Οἶδα δ᾽ ἐγὼ καὶ Λακεδαιμονίοις τὸ ἱππικὸν ἀρξάμενον εὐδοκιμεῖν, ἐπεὶ ξένους ἱππέας προσέλαβον· καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἄλλαις πόλεσι πανταχοῦ τὰ ξενικὰ ὁρῶ εὐδοκιμοῦντα.
Compare Demosth. Philippic. i. p. 46; Xenoph. Hellenic. iv. 4, 14; Isokrates, Orat. vii. (Areopagit.), s. 93.
[118] For an explanation of the improved arming of peltasts introduced by Iphikrates, see Vol. IX. Ch. lxxv. p. 335 of this History. Respecting these improvements, the statements both of Diodorus (xv. 44) and of Nepos are obscure. MM. Rüstow and Köchly (in their valuable work, Geschichte des Griechischen Kriegswesens, Aarau, 1852, B. ii. p. 164) have interpreted the statements in a sense to which I cannot subscribe. They think that Iphikrates altered not only the arming of peltasts, but also that of hoplites; a supposition, which I see nothing to justify.
[119] Besides the many scattered remarks in the Anabasis, the Cyropædia is full of discussion and criticism on military phænomena. It is remarkable to what an extent Xenophon had present to his mind all the exigencies of war, and the different ways of meeting them. See as an example, Cyropæd. vi. 2; ii. 1.
The work on sieges, by Æneas (Poliorketica), is certainly anterior to the military improvements of Philip of Macedon: probably about the beginning of his reign. See the preface to it by Rüstow and Köchly, p. 8, in their edition of Die Griechischen Kriegs-schriftsteller, Leips. 1853. In this work, allusion is made to several others, now lost, by the same author—Παρασκευαστικὴ βίβλος, Ποριστικὴ Βίβλος, Στρατοπεδευτικὴ, etc.