Cheiri'sophus
（
*Xeiri/sofos), a Lacedaemonian, was sent by the Ephors with 700 heavyarmed men (800 according to Diodorus), to aid Cyrus in his expedition against his brother Artaxerxes, B. C. 401, and joined the prince on his march at Issus in Cilicia. (Diod. xiv 19, 21 ;
Xen. Anab. 1.4.3.)
After the battle of Cunaxa, Clearchus sent him with others to Ariaeus to make an offer, which however was declined, of placing him on the Persian throne [p. 283b.].
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 providing for the emergency, and, on the motion of Xenophon, was appointed, as being a Lacedaemonian, to lead the van of the retreating army.
In this post we find him subsequently acting throughout the retreat, and cordially cooperating with Xenophon.
In fact it was only once that any difference arose between them, and that was caused by Cheirisophus having struck, in a fit of angry suspicion, an Armenian who was guiding them, and who left them in consequence of the indignity. (
Diod. 14.27;
Xen. Anab. 3.2.33, &c., 3. §§ 3, 11, 4. §§ 38-43, 5. §§ 1-6, 4.1. §§ 6, 15-22, 2.23, &c., 3. §§ 8, 25, &c., 6. §§ 1-3.) When the Greeks had arrived at Trapezus on the Euxine, Cheirisophus volunteered to go to his friend Anaxibius, the Spartan admiral at Byzantium, to obtain a sufficient number of ships to transport them to Europe; but he was not successful in his application. (
Diod. 14.30,
31; Xen.
Anab 5.1.4, 6.1.16.) On his return to the army, which he found at Sinope, he was chosen commander-in-chief, Xenophon having declined for himself the proffered honour on the express ground of the prior claim of a Lacedaemonian. (
Anab. 6.1. §§ 18-33.) Cheirisophus, however, was unable to enforce submission to his authority, or to restrain the Arcadian and Achaean soldiers from their profligate attempt to plunder the hospitable Heracleots; and, on the sixth or seventh day from his 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 the latter declined the proposal by the advice of Neon, 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 yet under his command, Cheirisophus arrived safely at Calpe, where he died from the effects of a medicine which he had taken for a fever. (
Xen. Anab. 6.2.4. § 11.)
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