The sentence that is giving me problems is a huge sentence that sprawls over two sections. However, my question is focused on the use of καὶ in the following extract.
δοκεῖ δέ μοι ἄνδρας … ἕπεσθαι καὶ ἡμᾶς καὶ μὴ κακίους εἶναι τῶν πρόσθεν τούτῳ συναναβάντων
This I translate as: It seems to me fitting to follow (Kyros) and to be at the very least not to be more cowardly than those earlier with that one (Kyros) going up.
The first καὶ is a straight forward and but the second given the context seems to me to give some especial emphasis on the lines of at the very least but is that going too far?
The context is the mutiny and the speaker is trying to edge the mercenaries into a deal with Kyros and those going up with Kyros earlier were the body of Greeks who acted as his bodyguard when he traveled to see his dying father.
So the first and connects to ἕπεσθαι hence the to καὶ-s form a both plus and pair and that ἕπεσθαι and ἡμᾶς are linked.
Hence: both that we follow and we don’t behave badly.
What threw me then was the position of the first καὶ. I would have expected a word order like καὶ ἕπεσθαι ἡμᾶς καὶ μὴ κακίους εἶναι.
It is almost as if Xenophon is treating καὶ as a postpositive. Is the word order that Xenophon uses the usual neutral word order or is he stressing ἕπεσθαι by bringing it to the front?
I think you are wrong here – the two και’s do not form a pair and you shouldn’t translate “both…and”. καὶ ἕπεσθαι ἡμᾶς καὶ μὴ κακίους εἶναι would indeed give that meaning and form a pair, so in a way you were right to expect that…
The first και functions as an adverb or particle meaning “also,” or “too”, not as a connective: we too should follow Cyrus (like the mercenaries who followed Cyrus earlier).
The second και functions as a connective, “and”: we should follow Cyrus and not be more cowardly than the previous mercenaries.
As Paul wrote, the two και’s don’t form a pair–they don’t mean "both . . . and . . . "
It might be worthwhile taking a look at the entry for και in LSJ:
Xenophon claims later on that the Greeks were tricked by Cyrus. Maybe so. But the idea that marching to Babylon with a bodyguard of 300 could be the same as marching on Babylon with an army of ~40,000 (best guess), is not something that anyone in the army could have taken seriously. It’s no wonder that the army doesn’t get very much farther before asking for another raise (which they don’t get, just a bunch of promises).
What this chapter is really about, is the mercenaries realizing that they are in too deep to extract themselves.
In fact, that’s almost the theme of the Anabasis, up until Book III. “We have to continue doing this, even though it’s insane, because we can’t get home on our own.” Clearchus is entirely stuck in that mindset. And Xenophon’s answer to all this at the beginning of Book III is “I just had a dream, and God tells me that we should just get the hell out of Dodge.”
In the beginning of Book III, Xenophon’s main concern seems to be not giving the rank and file enough time to think that they may not necessarily be quite in the same situation as the remaining captains and generals were.