Note 149 — Chapter LXX · RETREAT OF THE TEN THOUSAND GREEKS.

See the speech of Perikles (Thuc. ii, 60-64). He justifies the boastful tone of it, by the unwonted depression against which he had to contend on the part of his hearers—Δελώσω δὲ καὶ τόδε ὅ μοι δοκεῖτε οὔτ᾽ αὐτοὶ πώποτε ἐνθυμηθῆναι ὑπάρχον ὑμῖν μεγέθους περὶ ἐς τὴν ἀρχὴν οὔτ᾽ ἐγὼ ἐν τοῖς πρὶν λόγοις, οὐδ᾽ ἂν νῦν ἐχρησάμην κομπωδεστέραν ἔχοντι τὴν προσποίησιν, εἰ μὴ καταπεπληγμένους ὑμᾶς παρὰ τὸ εἰκὸς ἑώρων.

This is also the proper explanation of Xenophon’s tone.