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Cyropaedia: The Education of Cyrus

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Title: Cyropaedia: The Education of Cyrus

Author: Xenophon

Translator: Henry Graham Dakyns


        
Release date: February 1, 2000 [eBook #2085]
                Most recently updated: August 9, 2011

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2085

Credits: Produced by John Bickers, Dagny, and David Widger


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CYROPAEDIA: THE EDUCATION OF CYRUS ***




Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny





CYROPAEDIA

THE EDUCATION OF CYRUS

By Xenophon



Translated By Henry Graham Dakyns

Revised By F. M. Stawell



DEDICATION

To Clifton College



PREPARER'S NOTE

This was typed from an Everyman's Library edition. It seems that Dakyns
died before Cyropaedia could be included as the planned fourth and final
volume of his series, "The Works of Xenophon," published in the 1890s by
Macmillan and Co. The works in that series can all be found in Project
Gutenberg under their individual titles. The complete list of Xenophon's
works (though there is doubt about some of these) is:

  Work                                   Number of books

  The Anabasis                                         7
  The Hellenica                                        7
  The Cyropaedia                                       8
  The Memorabilia                                      4
  The Symposium                                        1
  The Economist                                        1
  On Horsemanship                                      1
  The Sportsman                                        1
  The Cavalry General                                  1
  The Apology                                          1
  On Revenues                                          1
  The Hiero                                            1
  The Agesilaus                                        1
  The Polity of the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians   2

Text in brackets "{}" is my transliteration of Greek text into English
using an Oxford English Dictionary alphabet table. The diacritical marks
have been lost.




INTRODUCTION

A very few words may suffice by way of introduction to this translation
of the _Cyropaedia_.

Professor Jowett, whose Plato represents the high-water mark of
classical translation, has given us the following reminders: "An English
translation ought to be idiomatic and interesting, not only to the
scholar, but also to the unlearned reader. It should read as an original
work, and should also be the most faithful transcript which can be made
of the language from which the translation is taken, consistently with
the first requirement of all, that it be English. The excellence of a
translation will consist, not merely in the faithful rendering of words,
or in the composition of a sentence only, or yet of a single paragraph,
but in the colour and style of the whole work."

These tests may be safely applied to the work of Mr. Dakyns. An
accomplished Greek scholar, for many years a careful and sympathetic
student of Xenophon, and possessing a rare mastery of English idiom,
he was unusually well equipped for the work of a translator. And
his version will, as I venture to think, be found to satisfy those
requirements of an effective translation which Professor Jowett laid
down. It is faithful to the tone and spirit of the original, and it has
the literary quality of a good piece of original English writing. For
these and other reasons it should prove attractive and interesting
reading for the average Englishman.

Xenophon, it must be admitted, is not, like Plato, Thucydides, or
Demosthenes, one of the greatest of Greek writers, but there are several
considerations which should commend him to the general reader. He is
more representative of the type of man whom the ordinary Englishman
specially admires and respects, than any other of the Greek authors
usually read.

An Athenian of good social position, endowed with a gift of eloquence
and of literary style, a pupil of Socrates, a distinguished soldier,
an historian, an essayist, a sportsman, and a lover of the country, he
represents a type of country gentleman greatly honoured in English life,
and this should ensure a favourable reception for one of his chief works
admirably rendered into idiomatic English. And the substance of the
_Cyropaedia_, which is in fact a political romance, describing the
education of the ideal ruler, trained to rule as a benevolent despot
over his admiring and willing subjects, should add a further element of
enjoyment for the reader of this famous book in its English garb.

                                                          J. HEREFORD.




EDITOR'S NOTE

In preparing this work for the press, I came upon some notes made by Mr.
Dakyns on the margin of his Xenophon. These were evidently for his own
private use, and are full of scholarly colloquialisms, impromptu words
humorously invented for the need of the moment, and individual turns of
phrase, such as the references to himself under his initials in small
letters, "hgd." Though plainly not intended for publication, the notes
are so vivid and illuminating as they stand that I have shrunk from
putting them into a more formal dress, believing that here, as in the
best letters, the personal element is bound up with what is most fresh
and living in the comment, most characteristic of the writer, and most
delightful both to those who knew him and to those who will wish they
had. I have, therefore, only altered a word here and there, and added
a note or two of my own (always in square brackets), where it seemed
necessary for the sake of clearness.

                                                              F. M. S.






CYROPAEDIA


THE EDUCATION OF CYRUS




BOOK I

[C.1] We have had occasion before now to reflect how often democracies
have been overthrown by the desire for some other type of government,
how often monarchies and oligarchies have been swept away by movements
of the people, how often would-be despots have fallen in their turn,
some at the outset by one stroke, while whose who have maintained their
rule for ever so brief a season are looked upon with wonder as marvels
of sagacity and success.

The same lesson, we had little doubt, was to be learnt from the family:
the household might be great or small--even the master of few could
hardly count on the obedience of his little flock. [2] And so, one idea
leading to another, we came to shape our reflexions thus: Drovers may
certainly be called the rulers of their cattle and horse-breeders
the rulers of their studs--all herdsmen, in short, may reasonably be
considered the governors of the animals they guard. If, then, we were to
believe the evidence of our senses, was it not obvious that flocks and
herds were more ready to obey their keepers than men their rulers? Watch
the cattle wending their way wherever their herdsmen guide them, see
them grazing in the pastures where they are sent and abstaining from
forbidden grounds, the fruit of their own bodies they yield to their
master to use as he thinks best; nor have we ever seen one flock among
them all combining against their guardian, either to disobey him or to
refuse him the absolute control of their produce. On the contrary, they
are more apt to show hostility against other animals than against
the owner who derives advantage from them. But with man the rule is
converse; men unite against none so readily as against those whom they
see attempting to rule over them. [3] As long, therefore, as we followed
these reflexions, we could not but conclude that man is by nature fitted
to govern all creatures, except his fellow-man. But when we came to
realise the character of Cyrus the Persian, we were led to a change
of mind: here is a man, we said, who won for himself obedience from
thousands of his fellows, from cities and tribes innumerable: we must
ask ourselves whether the government of men is after all an impossible
or even a difficult task, provided one set about it in the right way.
Cyrus, we know, found the readiest obedience in his subjects, though
some of them dwelt at a distance which it would take days and months to
traverse, and among them were men who had never set eyes on him, and for
the matter of that could never hope to do so, and yet they were willing
to obey him. [4] Cyrus did indeed eclipse all other monarchs, before or
since, and I include not only those who have inherited their power, but
those who have won empire by their own exertions. How far he surpassed
them all may be felt if we remember that no Scythian, although
the Scythians are reckoned by their myriads, has ever succeeded in
dominating a foreign nation; indeed the Scythian would be well content
could he but keep his government unbroken over his own tribe and people.
The same is true of the Thracians and the Illyrians, and indeed of all
other nations within our ken; in Europe, at any rate, their condition is
even now one of independence, and of such separation as would seem to
be permanent. Now this was the state in which Cyrus found the tribes and
peoples of Asia when, at the head of a small Persian force, he started
on his career. The Medes and the Hyrcanians accepted his leadership
willingly, but it was through conquest that he won Syria, Assyria,
Arabia, Cappadocia, the two Phrygias, Lydia, Caria, Phoenicia, and
Babylonia. Then he established his rule over the Bactrians, Indians, and
Cilicians, over the Sakians, Paphlagonians, and Magadidians, over a
host of other tribes the very names of which defy the memory of the
chronicler; and last of all he brought the Hellenes in Asia beneath his
sway, and by a descent on the seaboard Cyprus and Egypt also.

[5] It is obvious that among this congeries of nations few, if any,
could have spoken the same language as himself, or understood one
another, but none the less Cyrus was able so to penetrate that vast
extent of country by the sheer terror of his personality that the
inhabitants were prostrate before him: not one of them dared lift hand
against him. And yet he was able, at the same time, to inspire them all
with so deep a desire to please him and win his favour that all they
asked was to be guided by his judgment and his alone. Thus he knit to
himself a complex of nationalities so vast that it would have taxed a
man's endurance merely to traverse his empire in any one direction, east
or west or south or north, from the palace which was its centre. For
ourselves, considering his title to our admiration proved, we set
ourselves to inquire what his parentage might have been and his natural
parts, and how he was trained and brought up to attain so high a pitch
of excellence in the government of men. And all we could learn from
others about him or felt we might infer for ourselves we will here
endeavour to set forth.

[C.2] The father of Cyrus, so runs the story, was Cambyses, a king
of the Persians, and one of the Perseidae, who look to Perseus as
the founder of their race. His mother, it is agreed, was Mandane, the
daughter of Astyages, king of the Medes. Of Cyrus himself, even now in
the songs and stories of the East the record lives that nature made him
most fair to look upon, and set in his heart the threefold love of
man, of knowledge, and of honour. He would endure all labours, he would
undergo all dangers, for the sake of glory. [2] Blest by nature with
such gifts of soul and body, his memory lives to this day in the mindful
heart of ages. It is true that he was brought up according to the laws
and customs of the Persians, and of these laws it must be noted that
while they aim, as laws elsewhere, at the common weal, their guiding
principle is far other than that which most nations follow. Most states
permit their citizens to bring up their own children at their own
discretion, and allow the grown men to regulate their own lives at their
own will, and then they lay down certain prohibitions, for example, not
to pick and steal, not to break into another man's house, not to strike
a man unjustly, not to commit adultery, not to disobey the magistrate,
and so forth; and on the transgressor they impose a penalty. [3] But the
Persian laws try, as it were, to steal a march on time, to make their
citizens from the beginning incapable of setting their hearts on any
wickedness or shameful conduct whatsoever. And this is how they set
about their object.

In their cities they have an open place or square dedicated to Freedom
(Free Square they call it), where stand the palace and other public
buildings. From this place all goods for sale are rigidly excluded, and
all hawkers and hucksters with their yells and cries and vulgarities.
They must go elsewhere, so that their clamour may not mingle with and
mar the grace and orderliness of the educated classes. [4] This square,
where the public buildings stand, is divided into four quarters which
are assigned as follows: one for the boys, another for the youths, a
third for the grown men, and the last for those who are past the age
of military service. The law requires all the citizens to present
themselves at certain times and seasons in their appointed places. The
lads and the grown men must be there at daybreak; the elders may, as a
rule, choose their own time, except on certain fixed days, when they too
are expected to present themselves like the rest. Moreover, the young
men are bound to sleep at night round the public buildings, with their
arms at their side; only the married men among them are exempt, and need
not be on duty at night unless notice has been given, though even in
their case frequent absence is thought unseemly. [5] Over each of these
divisions are placed twelve governors, twelve being the number of the
Persian tribes. The governors of the boys are chosen from the elders,
and those are appointed who are thought best fitted to make the best of
their lads: the governors of the youths are selected from the grown men,
and on the same principle; and for the grown men themselves and their
own governors; the choice falls on those who will, it is hoped, make
them most prompt to carry out their appointed duties, and fulfil
the commands imposed by the supreme authority. Finally, the elders
themselves have presidents of their own, chosen to see that they too
perform their duty to the full.

[6] We will now describe the services demanded from the different
classes, and thus it will appear how the Persians endeavour to improve
their citizens. The boys go to school and give their time to learning
justice and righteousness: they will tell you they come for that
purpose, and the phrase is as natural with them as it is for us to speak
of lads learning their letters. The masters spend the chief part of the
day in deciding cases for their pupils: for in this boy-world, as in the
grown-up world without, occasions of indictment are never far to seek.
There will be charges, we know, of picking and stealing, of violence, of
fraud, of calumny, and so forth. The case is heard and the offender, if
shown to be guilty, is punished. [7] Nor does he escape who is found to
have accused one of his fellows unfairly. And there is one charge the
judges do not hesitate to deal with, a charge which is the source of
much hatred among grown men, but which they seldom press in the courts,
the charge of ingratitude. The culprit convicted of refusing to repay
a debt of kindness when it was fully in his power meets with severe
chastisement. They reason that the ungrateful man is the most likely to
forget his duty to the gods, to his parents, to his fatherland, and
his friends. Shamelessness, they hold, treads close on the heels of
ingratitude, and thus ingratitude is the ringleader and chief instigator
to every kind of baseness. [8] Further, the boys are instructed in
temperance and self-restraint, and they find the utmost help towards
the attainment of this virtue in the self-respecting behaviour of
their elders, shown them day by day. Then they are taught to obey their
rulers, and here again nothing is of greater value than the studied
obedience to authority manifested by their elders everywhere. Continence
in meat and drink is another branch of instruction, and they have no
better aid in this than, first, the example of their elders, who never
withdraw to satisfy their carnal cravings until those in authority
dismiss them, and next, the rule that the boys must take their food, not
with their mother but with their master, and not till the governor gives
the sign. They bring from home the staple of their meal, dry bread
with nasturtium for a relish, and to slake their thirst they bring a
drinking-cup, to dip in the running stream. In addition, they are taught
to shoot with the bow and to fling the javelin.

The lads follow their studies till the age of sixteen or seventeen, and
then they take their places as young men.

[9] After that they spend their time as follows. For ten years they are
bound to sleep at night round the public buildings, as we said before,
and this for two reasons, to guard the community and to practise
self-restraint; because that season of life, the Persians conceive,
stands most in need of care. During the day they present themselves
before the governors for service to the state, and, whenever necessary,
they remain in a body round the public buildings. Moreover, when the
king goes out to hunt, which he will do several times a month, he takes
half the company with him, and each man must carry bow and arrows, a
sheathed dagger, or "sagaris," slung beside the quiver, a light shield,
and two javelins, one to hurl and the other to use, if need be, at close
quarters. [10] The reason of this public sanction for the chase is not
far to seek; the king leads just as he does in war, hunting in person
at the head of the field, and making his men follow, because it is felt
that the exercise itself is the best possible training for the needs of
war. It accustoms a man to early rising; it hardens him to endure heat
and cold; it teaches him to march and to run at the top of his speed; he
must perforce learn to let fly arrow and javelin the moment the quarry
is across his path; and, above all, the edge of his spirit must needs be
sharpened by encountering any of the mightier beasts: he must deal his
stroke when the creature closes, and stand on guard when it makes its
rush: indeed, it would be hard to find a case in war that has not its
parallel in the chase. [11] But to proceed: the young men set out
with provisions that are ampler, naturally, than the boys' fare, but
otherwise the same. During the chase itself they would not think of
breaking their fast, but if a halt is called, to beat up the game, or
for any hunter's reason, then they will make, as it were, a dinner of
their breakfast, and, hunting again on the morrow till dinner-time, they
will count the two days as one, because they have only eaten one day's
food. This they do in order that, if the like necessity should arise in
war, they may be found equal to it. As relish to their bread these
young men have whatever they may kill in the chase, or failing that,
nasturtium like the boys. And if one should ask how they can enjoy the
meal with nasturtium for their only condiment and water for their only
drink, let him bethink himself how sweet barley bread and wheaten can
taste to the hungry man and water to the thirsty. [12] As for the young
men who are left at home, they spend their time in shooting and hurling
the javelin, and practising all they learnt as boys, in one long trial
of skill. Beside this, public games are open to them and prizes are
offered; and the tribe which can claim the greatest number of lads
distinguished for skill and courage and faithfulness is given the meed
of praise from all the citizens, who honour, not only their present
governor, but the teacher who trained them when they were boys.
Moreover, these young men are also employed by the magistrates if
garrison work needs to be done or if malefactors are to be tracked or
robbers run down, or indeed on any errand which calls for strength of
limb and fleetness of foot. Such is the life of the youth. But when the
ten years are accomplished they are classed as grown men. [13] And from
this time forth for five-and-twenty years they live as follows.

First they present themselves, as in youth, before the magistrates for
service to the state wherever there is need for strength and sound sense
combined. If an expedition be on foot the men of this grade march out,
not armed with the bow or the light shield any longer, but equipped with
what are called the close-combat arms, a breastplate up to the throat,
a buckler on the left arm (just as the Persian warrior appears in
pictures), and for the right hand a dagger or a sword. Lastly, it
is from this grade that all the magistrates are appointed except the
teachers for the boys. But when the five-and-twenty years are over and
the men have reached the age of fifty years or more, then they take rank
as elders, and the title is deserved. [14] These elders no longer go on
military service beyond the frontier; they stay at home and decide all
cases, public and private both. Even capital charges are left to their
decision, and it is they who choose all the magistrates. If a youth or
a grown man breaks the law he is brought into court by the governors of
his tribe, who act as suitors in the case, aided by any other citizen
who pleases. The cause is heard before the elders and they pronounce
judgment; and the man who is condemned is disenfranchised for the rest
of his days.

[15] And now, to complete the picture of the whole Persian policy, I
will go back a little. With the help of what has been said before, the
account may now be brief; the Persians are said to number something
like one hundred and twenty thousand men: and of these no one is by
law debarred from honour or office. On the contrary, every Persian is
entitled to send his children to the public schools of righteousness
and justice. As a fact, all who can afford to bring up their children
without working do send them there: those who cannot must forego the
privilege. A lad who has passed through a public school has a right
to go and take his place among the youths, but those who have not gone
through the first course may not join them. In the same way the youths
who have fulfilled the duties of their class are entitled eventually
to rank with the men, and to share in office and honour: but they
must first spend their full time among the youths; if not, they go no
further. Finally, those who as grown men have lived without reproach may
take their station at last among the elders. Thus these elders form a
college, every member of which has passed through the full circle
of noble learning; and this is that Persian polity and that Persian
training which, in their belief, can win them the flower of excellence.
[16] And even to this day signs are left bearing witness to that ancient
temperance of theirs and the ancient discipline that preserved it.
To this day it is still considered shameful for a Persian to spit in
public, or wipe the nose, or show signs of wind, or be seen going apart
for his natural needs. And they could not keep to this standard unless
they were accustomed to a temperate diet, and were trained to exercise
and toil, so that the humours of the body were drawn off in other ways.
Hitherto we have spoken of the Persians as a whole: we will now go back
to our starting-point and recount the deeds of Cyrus from his childhood.

[C.3] Until he was twelve years old or more, Cyrus was brought up in the
manner we have described, and showed himself to be above all his fellows
in his aptitude for learning and in the noble and manly performance of
every duty. But about this time, Astyages sent for his daughter and her
son, desiring greatly to see him because he had heard how noble and fair
he was. So it fell out that Mandane came to Astyages, bringing her son
Cyrus with her. [2] And as soon as they met, the boy, when he heard
that Astyages was his mother's father, fell on his neck and kissed him
without more ado, like the loving lad nature had made him, as though he
had been brought up at his grandfather's side from the first and the two
of them had been playmates of old. Then he looked closer and saw that
the king's eyes were stencilled and his cheeks painted, and that he
wore false curls after the fashion of the Medes in those days (for these
adornments, and the purple robes, the tunics, the necklaces, and the
bracelets, they are all Median first and last, not Persian; the Persian,
as you find him at home even now-a-days, still keeps to his
plainer dress and his plainer style of living.) The boy, seeing his
grandfather's splendour, kept his eyes fixed on him, and cried, "Oh,
mother, how beautiful my grandfather is!" Then his mother asked him
which he thought the handsomer, his father or his grandfather, and he
answered at once, "My father is the handsomest of all the Persians, but
my grandfather much the handsomest of all the Medes I ever set eyes on,
at home or abroad." [3] At that Astyages drew the child to his heart,
and gave him a beautiful robe and bracelets and necklaces in sign of
honour, and when he rode out, the boy must ride beside him on a horse
with a golden bridle, just like King Astyages himself. And Cyrus, who
had a soul as sensitive to beauty as to honour, was pleased with the
splendid robe, and overjoyed at learning to ride, for a horse is a rare
sight in Persia, a mountainous country, and one little suited to the
breed.

[4] Now Cyrus and his mother sat at meat with the king, and Astyages,
wishing the lad to enjoy the feast and not regret his home, plied him
with dainties of every sort. At that, so says the story, Cyrus burst
out, "Oh, grandfather, what trouble you must give yourself reaching for
all these dishes and tasting all these wonderful foods!" "Ah, but," said
Astyages, "is not this a far better meal than you ever had in Persia?"
Thereupon, as the tale runs, Cyrus answered, "Our way, grandfather, is
much shorter than yours, and much simpler. We are hungry and wish to be
fed, and bread and meat brings us where we want to be at once, but you
Medes, for all your haste, take so many turns and wind about so much it
is a wonder if you ever find your way to the goal that we have reached
long ago." [5] "Well, my lad," said his grandfather, "we are not at all
averse to the length of the road: taste the dishes for yourself and see
how good they are." "One thing I do see," the boy said, "and that is
that you do not quite like them yourself." And when Astyages asked him
how he felt so sure of that, Cyrus answered, "Because when you touch an
honest bit of bread you never wipe your hands, but if you take one of
these fine kickshaws you turn to your napkin at once, as if you were
angry to find your fingers soiled." [6] "Well and good, my lad, well and
good," said the king, "only feast away yourself and make good cheer,
and we shall send you back to Persia a fine strong fellow." And with the
word he had dishes of meat and game set before his grandson. The boy was
taken aback by their profusion, and exclaimed, "Grandfather, do you give
me all this for myself, to do what I like with it?" "Certainly I do,"
said the king. [7] Whereupon, without more ado, the boy Cyrus took first
one dish and then another and gave them to the attendants who stood
about his grandfather, and with each gift he made a little speech: "That
is for you, for so kindly teaching me to ride;" "And that is for you, in
return for the javelin you gave me, I have got it still;" "And this is
for you, because you wait on my grandfather so prettily;" "And this for
you, sir, because you honour my mother." And so on until he had got rid
of all the meat he had been given. [8] "But you do not give a single
piece to Sacas, my butler," quoth the grandfather, "and I honour
him more than all the rest." Now this Sacas, as one may guess, was a
handsome fellow, and he had the right to bring before the king all who
desired audience, to keep them back if he thought the time unseasonable.
But Cyrus, in answer to his grandfather's question retorted eagerly,
like a lad who did not know what fear meant, "And why should you honour
him so much, grandfather?" Then Astyages laughed and said, "Can you not
see how prettily he mixes the cup, and with what a grace he serves the
wine?" And indeed, these royal cup-bearers are neat-handed at their
task, mixing the bowl with infinite elegance, and pouring the wine into
the beakers without spilling a drop, and when they hand the goblet they
poise it deftly between thumb and finger for the banqueter to take. [9]
"Now, grandfather," said the boy, "tell Sacas to give me the bowl,
and let me pour out the wine as prettily as he if I can, and win your
favour." So the king bade the butler hand him the bowl, and Cyrus took
it and mixed the wine just as he had seen Sacas do, and then, showing
the utmost gravity and the greatest deftness and grace, he brought
the goblet to his grandfather and offered it with such an air that his
mother and Astyages, too, laughed outright, and then Cyrus burst out
laughing also, and flung his arms round his grandfather and kissed him,
crying, "Sacas, your day is done! I shall oust you from your office, you
may be sure. I shall make just as pretty a cup-bearer as you--and not
drink the wine myself!" For it is the fact that the king's butler when
he offers the wine is bound to dip a ladle in the cup first, and pour
a little in the hollow of his hand and sip it, so that if he has mixed
poison in the bowl it will do him no good himself. [10] Accordingly,
Astyages, to carry on the jest, asked the little lad why he had
forgotten to taste the wine though he had imitated Sacas in everything
else. And the boy answered, "Truly, I was afraid there might be poison
in the bowl. For when you gave your birthday feast to your friends I
could see quite plainly that Sacas had put in poison for you all." "And
how did you discover that, my boy?" asked the king. "Because I saw how
your wits reeled and how you staggered; and you all began doing what you
will not let us children do--you talked at the top of your voices, and
none of you understood a single word the others said, and then you began
singing in a way to make us laugh, and though you would not listen to
the singer you swore that it was right nobly sung, and then each of you
boasted of his own strength, and yet as soon as you got up to dance, so
far from keeping time to the measure, you could barely keep your legs.
And you seemed quite to have forgotten, grandfather, that you were
king, and your subjects that you were their sovereign. Then at last I
understood that you must be celebrating that 'free speech' we hear of;
at any rate, you were never silent for an instant." [11] "Well, but,
boy," said Astyages, "does your father never lose his head when he
drinks?" "Certainly not," said the boy. "What happens then?" asked the
king. "He quenches his thirst," answered Cyrus, "and that is all. No
harm follows. You see, he has no Sacas to mix his wine for him." "But,
Cyrus," put in his mother, "why are you so unkind to Sacas?" "Because I
do so hate him," answered the boy. "Time after time when I have wanted
to go to my grandfather this old villain has stopped me. Do please,
grandfather, let me manage him for three days." "And how would you set
about it?" Astyages asked. "Why," said the boy, "I will plant myself
in the doorway just as he does, and then when he wants to go in to
breakfast I will say 'You cannot have breakfast yet: HE is busy with
some people,' and when he comes for dinner I will say 'No dinner yet: HE
is in his bath,' and as he grows ravenous I will say 'Wait a little: HE
is with the ladies of the court,' until I have plagued and tormented him
as he torments me, keeping me away from you, grandfather, when I want to
come." [12] Thus the boy delighted his elders in the evening, and by
day if he saw that his grandfather or his uncle wanted anything, no one
could forestall him in getting it; indeed nothing seemed to give him
greater pleasure than to please them.

[13] Now when Mandane began to think of going back to her husband,
Astyages begged her to leave the boy behind. She answered that though
she wished to please her father in everything, it would be hard to leave
the boy against his will. [14] Then the old man turned to Cyrus: "My
boy, if you will stay with us, Sacas shall never stop you from coming to
me: you shall be free to come whenever you choose, and the oftener you
come the better it will please me. You shall have horses to ride, my
own and as many others as you like, and when you leave us you shall take
them with you. And at dinner you shall go your own away and follow your
own path to your own goal of temperance just as you think right. And I
will make you a present of all the game in my parks and paradises, and
collect more for you, and as soon as you have learnt to ride you shall
hunt and shoot and hurl the javelin exactly like a man. And you shall
have boys to play with and anything else you wish for: you have only to
ask me and it shall be yours." [15] Then his mother questioned the
boy and asked him whether he would rather stay with his grandfather
in Media, or go back home with her: and he said at once that he would
rather stay. And when she went on to ask him the reason, he answered, so
the story says, "Because at home I am thought to be the best of the lads
at shooting and hurling the javelin, and so I think I am: but here I
know I am the worst at riding, and that you may be sure, mother, annoys
me exceedingly. Now if you leave me here and I learn to ride, when I am
back in Persia you shall see, I promise you, that I will outdo all our
gallant fellows on foot, and when I come to Media again I will try and
show my grandfather that, for all his splendid cavalry, he will not have
a stouter horseman than his grandson to fight his battles for him." [16]
Then said his mother, "But justice and righteousness, my son, how can
you learn them here when your teachers are at home?" "Oh," said Cyrus,
"I know all about them already." "How do you know that you do?" asked
Mandane. "Because," answered the boy, "before I left home my master
thought I had learnt enough to decide the cases, and he set me to try
the suits. Yes! and I remember once, said he, "I got a whipping for
misjudgment. [17] I will tell you about that case. There were two boys,
a big boy and a little boy, and the big boy's coat was small and the
small boy's coat was huge. So the big boy stripped the little boy and
gave him his own small coat, while he put on the big one himself. Now in
giving judgment I decided that it was better for both parties that each
should have the coat that fitted him best. But I never got any further
in my sentence, because the master thrashed me here, and said that the
verdict would have been excellent if I had been appointed to say what
fitted and what did not, but I had been called in to decide to whom the
coat belonged, and the point to consider was, who had a right to it: Was
he who took a thing by violence to keep it, or he who had had it made
and bought it for his own? And the master taught me that what is lawful
is just and what is in the teeth of law is based on violence, and
therefore, he said, the judge must always see that his verdict tallies
with the law. So you see, mother, I have the whole of justice at my
fingers' ends already. And if there should be anything more I need to
know, why, I have my grandfather beside me, and he will always give me
lessons." [18] "But," rejoined his mother, "what everyone takes to be
just and righteous at your grandfather's court is not thought to be so
in Persia. For instance, your own grandfather has made himself master
over all and sundry among the Medes, but with the Persians equality is
held to be an essential part of justice: and first and foremost, your
father himself must perform his appointed services to the state and
receive his appointed dues: and the measure of these is not his own
caprice but the law. Have a care then, or you may be scourged to death
when you come home to Persia, if you learn in your grandfather's school
to love not kingship but tyranny, and hold the tyrant's belief that he
and he alone should have more than all the rest." "Ah, but, mother,"
said the boy, "my grandfather is better at teaching people to have
less than their share, not more. Cannot you see," he cried, "how he
has taught all the Medes to have less than himself? So set your mind
at rest, mother, my grandfather will never make me, or any one else, an
adept in the art of getting too much."

[C.4] So the boy's tongue ran on. But at last his mother went home, and
Cyrus stayed behind and was brought up in Media. He soon made friends
with his companions and found his way to their hearts, and soon won
their parents by the charm of his address and the true affection he bore
their sons, so much so that when they wanted a favour from the king
they bade their children ask Cyrus to arrange the matter for them.
And whatever it might be, the kindliness of the lad's heart and the
eagerness of his ambition made him set the greatest store on getting it
done. [2] On his side, Astyages could not bring himself to refuse his
grandson's lightest wish. For once, when he was sick, nothing would
induce the boy to leave his side; he could not keep back his tears, and
his terror at the thought that his grandfather might die was plain for
every one to see. If the old man needed anything during the night Cyrus
was the first to notice it, it was he who sprang up first to wait upon
him, and bring him what he thought would please him. Thus the old king's
heart was his.

[3] During these early days, it must be allowed, the boy was something
too much of a talker, in part, may be, because of his bringing-up. He
had been trained by his master, whenever he sat in judgment, to give a
reason for what he did, and to look for the like reason from others. And
moreover, his curiosity and thirst for knowledge were such that he must
needs inquire from every one he met the explanation of this, that, and
the other; and his own wits were so lively that he was ever ready with
an answer himself for any question put to him, so that talkativeness had
become, as it were, his second nature. But, just as in the body when a
boy is overgrown, some touch of youthfulness is sure to show itself
and tell the secret of his age, so for all the lad's loquacity, the
impression left on the listener was not of arrogance, but of simplicity
and warm-heartedness, and one would gladly have heard his chatter to the
end rather than have sat beside him and found him dumb.

[4] However, as he grew in stature and the years led him to the time
when childhood passes into youth he became more chary of his words and
quieter in his tone: at times, indeed, he was so shy that he would blush
in the presence of his elders, and there was little sign left of the old
forwardness, the impulsiveness of the puppy who will jump up on every
one, master and stranger alike. Thus he grew more sedate, but his
company was still most fascinating, and little wonder: for whenever it
came to a trial of skill between himself and his comrades he would never
challenge his mates to those feats in which he himself excelled: he
would start precisely one where he felt his own inferiority, averring
that he would outdo them all,--indeed, he would spring to horse in order
to shoot or hurl the javelin before he had got a firm seat--and
then, when he was worsted, he would be the first to laugh at his own
discomfiture. [5] He had no desire to escape defeat by giving up the
effort, but took glory in the resolution to do better another time,
and thus he soon found himself as good a horseman as his peers, and
presently, such was his ardour, he surpassed them all, and at last the
thinning of the game in the king's preserves began to show what he could
do. What with the chasing and the shooting and the spearing, the stock
of animals ran so low that Astyages was hard put to it to collect enough
for him. Then Cyrus, seeing that his grandfather for all his goodwill
could never furnish him with enough, came to him one day and said,
"Grandfather, why should you take so much trouble in finding game for
me? If only you would let me go out to hunt with my uncle, I could fancy
every beast we came across had been reared for my particular delight!"
[6] But however anxious the lad might be to go out to the chase, he had
somehow lost the old childish art of winning what he wanted by coaxing:
and he hesitated a long time before approaching the king again. If in
the old days he had quarrelled with Sacas for not letting him in, now
he began to play the part of Sacas against himself, and could not summon
courage to intrude until he thought the right moment had come: indeed,
he implored the real Sacas to let him know when he might venture. So
that the old butler's heart was won, and he, like the rest of the world,
was completely in love with the young prince.

[7] At last when Astyages saw that the lad's heart was really set on
hunting in the open country, he gave him leave to go out with his uncle,
taking care at the same time to send an escort of mounted veterans at
his heels, whose business it was to keep watch and ward over him in any
dangerous place or against any savage beast. Cyrus plied his retinue
with questions about the creatures they came across, which must he avoid
and which might he hunt? They told him he must be on his guard against
bears and wild-boars and lions and leopards: many a man had found
himself at too close quarters with these dangerous creatures, and been
torn to pieces: but antelopes, they said, and deer and mountain sheep
and wild asses were harmless enough. And the huntsman, they added, ought
to be as careful about dangerous places as about the beasts themselves:
many a time horse and rider had gone headlong down a precipice to death.
[8] The lad seemed to take all their lessons to heart at the time: but
then he saw a stag leap up, and forgot all the wise cautions he had
heard, giving chase forthwith, noticing nothing except the beast ahead
of him. His horse, in its furious plunge forward, slipped, and came down
on its knees, all but throwing the rider over its head. As luck would
have it the boy managed to keep his seat, and the horse recovered its
footing. When they reached the flat bottom, Cyrus let fly his javelin,
and the stag fell dead, a beautiful big creature. The lad was still
radiant with delight when up rode the guard and took him severely to
task. Could he not see the danger he had run? They would certainly tell
his grandfather, that they would. Cyrus, who had dismounted, stood quite
still and listened ruefully, hanging his head while they rated him. But
in the middle of it all he heard the view-halloo again: he sprang to his
horse as though frenzied--a wild-boar was charging down on them, and he
charged to meet it, and drawing his bow with the surest aim possible,
struck the beast in the forehead, and laid him low. [9] But now his
uncle thought it was high time to scold his nephew himself; the lad's
boldness was too much. Only, the more he scolded the more Cyrus begged
he would let him take back the spoil as a present for his grandfather.
To which appeal, says the story, his uncle made reply: "But if your
grandfather finds out that you have gone in chase yourself, he will not
only scold you for going but me for letting you go." "Well, let him whip
me if he likes," said the boy, "when once I have given him my beasts:
and you too, uncle," he went on, "punish me however you choose, only do
not refuse me this." So Cyaxares was forced to yield:--"Have it your own
way then, you are little less than our king already." [10] Thus it was
that Cyrus was allowed to bring his trophies home, and in due course
presented them to his grandfather. "See, grandfather, here are some
animals I have shot for you." But he did not show his weapons in
triumph: he only laid them down with the gore still on them where he
hoped his grandfather would see them. It is easy to guess the answer
Astyages gave:--"I must needs accept with pleasure every gift you bring
me, only I want none of them at the risk of your own life." And Cyrus
said, "If you really do not want them yourself, grandfather, will you
give them to me? And I will divide them among the lads." "With all my
heart," said the old man, "take them, or anything else you like; bestow
them where you will, and welcome." [11] So Cyrus carried off the spoil,
and divided it with his comrades, saying all the while, "What foolery
it was, when we used to hunt in the park! It was no better than hunting
creatures tied by a string. First of all, it was such a little bit of
a place, and then what scarecrows the poor beasts were, one halt,
and another maimed! But those real animals on the mountains and the
plains--what splendid beasts, so gigantic, so sleek and glossy! Why,
the stags leapt up against the sky as though they had wings, and the
wild-boars came rushing to close quarters like warriors in battle! And
thanks to their breadth and bulk one could not help hitting them. Why,
even as they lie dead there," cried he, "they look finer than those
poor walled-up creatures when alive! But you," he added, "could not your
fathers let you go out to hunt too?" "Gladly enough," answered they, "if
only the king gave the order." [12] "Well," said Cyrus, "who will speak
to Astyages for us?" "Why," answered they, "who so fit to persuade him
as yourself?" "No, by all that's holy, not I!" cried Cyrus. "I cannot
think what has come over me: I cannot speak to my grandfather any more;
I cannot look him straight in the face. If this fit grows on me, I am
afraid I shall become no better than an idiot. And yet, when I was a
little boy, they tell me, I was sharp enough at talking." To which the
other lads retorted, "Well, it is a bad business altogether: and if you
cannot bestir yourself for your friends, if you can do nothing for us
in our need, we must turn elsewhere." [13] When Cyrus heard that he was
stung to the quick: he went away in silence and urged himself to put on
a bold face, and so went in to his grandfather, not, however, without
planning first how he could best bring in the matter. Accordingly he
began thus: "Tell me, grandfather," said he, "if one of your slaves were
to run away, and you caught him, what would you do to him?" "What else
should I do," the old man answered, "but clap irons on him and set him
to work in chains?" "But if he came back of his own accord, how would
you treat him then?" "Why, I would give him a whipping, as a warning not
to do it again, and then treat him as though nothing had happened." "It
is high time then," said the boy, "that you began getting a birch ready
for your grandson: for I am planning to take my comrades and run away on
a hunting expedition." "Very kind of you to tell me, beforehand," said
Astyages. "And now listen, I forbid you to set foot outside the palace
grounds. A pretty thing," he added, "if for the sake of a day's hunting
I should let my daughter's lamb get lost." [14] So Cyrus did as he was
ordered and stayed at home, but he spent his days in silence and his
brow was clouded. At last Astyages saw how bitterly the lad felt it,
and he made up his mind to please him by leading out a hunting-party
himself. He held a great muster of horse and foot, and the other lads
were not forgotten: he had the beasts driven down into the flat country
where the horses could be taken easily, and then the hunt began in
splendid style. After the royal fashion--for he was present in person
himself--he gave orders that no one was to shoot until Cyrus had hunted
to his heart's content. But Cyrus would not hear of any such hindrance
to the others: "Grandfather," he cried, "if you wish me to enjoy myself,
let my friends hunt with me and each of us try our best." [15] Thereupon
Astyages let them all go, while he stood still and watched the sight,
and saw how they raced to attack the quarry and how their ambition
burned within them as they followed up the chase and let fly their
javelins. But above all he was overjoyed to see how his grandson could
not keep silence for sheer delight, calling upon his fellows by name
whenever he came up with the quarry, like a noble young hound, baying
from pure excitement. It gladdened the old man's heart to hear how
gleefully the boy would laugh at one of his comrades and how eagerly he
would applaud another without the slightest touch of jealousy. At
length it was time to turn, and home they went, laden with their mighty
trophies. And ever afterwards, so well pleased was the king with the
day's hunting, that whenever it was possible, out he must go with his
grandson, all his train behind him, and he never failed to take the boys
also, "to please Cyrus." Thus did Cyrus spend his early life, sharing in
and helping towards the happiness of all, and bringing no sorrow to any
man.

[16] But when he was about fifteen years of age, it chanced that the
young Prince of Assyria, who was about to marry a wife, planned a
hunting-party of his own, in honour of the bridal. And, having heard
that on the frontiers of Assyria and Media there was much game to be
got, untouched and unmolested because of the war, the prince chose these
marches for his hunting-ground. But for safety sake he took with him
a large escort of cavalry and targeteers, who were to drive the beasts
down from their lairs into the cultivated levels below where it was
easy to ride. He set out to the place where the Assyrian outposts were
planted and a garrison on duty, and there he and his men prepared to
take their supper, intending to begin the hunt with the morrow's dawn.
[17] And as evening had fallen, it happened that the night-watch, a
considerable body of horse and foot, arrived from the city to relieve
the garrison on guard. Thus the prince found that he had something like
a large army at his call: the two garrisons as well as the troop of
horse and foot for the hunt. And then he asked himself whether it would
not be the best of plans to drive off booty from the country of the
Medes? In this way more lustre would be given to the chase, and there
would be great store of beasts for sacrifice. With this intent he rose
betimes and led his army out: the foot soldiers he massed together on
the frontier, while he himself, at the head of his cavalry, rode up to
the border fortresses of the Medes. Here he halted with the strongest
and largest part of his company, to prevent the garrisons from sallying
out, and meanwhile he sent picked men forward by detachments with orders
to raid the country in every direction, waylay everything they chanced
upon, and drive the spoil back to him.

[18] While this was going on news was brought to Astyages that the enemy
was across the border, and he hastened to the rescue at once, himself at
the head of his own body-guard, and his son with such troopers as were
ready to hand, leaving word for others to follow with all despatch. But
when they were in sight of the Assyrians, and saw their serried ranks,
horse and foot, drawn up in order, compact and motionless, they came to
a halt themselves. [19] Now Cyrus, seeing that all the rest of the world
was off to the rescue, boot and saddle, must needs ride out too, and so
put on his armour for the first time, and could scarcely believe it was
true, he had longed so often and so ardently to wear it all. And right
beautiful it was, and right well it fitted the lad, the armour that his
grandsire had had made for him. So he put on the whole accoutrement,
mounted his charger, and galloped to the front. And Astyages, though he
wondered who had sent the boy, bade him stay beside him, now that he
had come. Cyrus, as he looked at the horsemen facing them, turned to
his grandfather with the question, "Can those men yonder be our enemies,
grandfather, those who are standing so quietly beside their horses?"
"Enemies they are too for all that," said the king. "And are those
enemies too?" the boy asked, "those who are riding over there?" "Yes,
to be sure." "Well, grandfather, a sorry set they look, and sorry jades
they ride to ravage our lands! It would be well for some of us to charge
them!" "Not yet, my boy," answered his grandfather, "look at the mass
of horsemen there. If we were to charge the others now, these friends of
theirs would charge us, for our full strength is not yet on the field."
"Yes, but," suggested the boy, "if you stay here yourself, ready to
receive our supporters, those fellows will be afraid to stir either, and
the cattle-lifters will drop their booty quick enough, as soon as they
find they are attacked."

[20] Astyages felt there was much in what the boy said, and thinking all
the while what wonderful sense he showed and how wide-awake he was, gave
orders for his son to take a squadron of horse and charge the raiders.
"If the main body move to attack," he added, "I will charge myself and
give them enough to do here." Accordingly Cyaxares took a detachment of
horse and galloped to the field. Cyrus seeing the charge, darted forward
himself, and swept to the van, leading it with Cyaxares close at his
heels and the rest close behind them. As soon as the plunderers saw
them, they left their booty and took to flight. [21] The troopers, with
Cyrus at their head, dashed in to cut them off, and some they overtook
at once and hewed down then and there; others slipped past, and then
they followed in hot pursuit, and caught some of them too. And Cyrus was
ever in the front, like a young hound, untrained as yet but bred from
a gallant stock, charging a wild-boar recklessly; forward he swept,
without eyes or thought for anything but the quarry to be captured and
the blow to be struck. But when the Assyrian army saw their friends
in trouble they pushed forward, rank on rank, saying to themselves the
pursuit would stop when their own movement was seen. [22] But Cyrus
never slackened his pace a whit: in a transport of joy he called on his
uncle by name as he pressed forward, hanging hot-foot on the fugitives,
while Cyaxares still clung to his heels, thinking maybe what his father
Astyages would say if he hung back, and the others still followed close
behind them, even the faint-hearted changed into heroes for the nonce.

Now Astyages, watching their furious onslaught, and seeing the enemy
move steadily forward in close array to meet them, decided to advance
without a moment's delay himself, for fear that his son and Cyrus might
come to harm, crashing in disorder against the solid battalions of the
foe. [23] The Assyrians saw the movement of the king and came to a halt,
spears levelled and bows bent, expecting that, when their assailants
came within range, they would halt likewise as they had usually done
before. For hitherto, whenever the armies met, they would only charge up
to a certain distance, and there take flying shots, and so keep up the
skirmish until evening fell. But now the Assyrians saw their own men
borne down on them in rout, with Cyrus and his comrades at their heels
in full career, while Astyages and his cavalry were already within
bowshot. It was more than they could face, and they turned and fled.
After them swept the Medes in full pursuit, and those they caught they
mowed down, horse and man, and those that fell they slew. There was no
pause until they came up with the Assyrian foot. [24] Here at last they
drew rein in fear of some hidden ambuscade, and Astyages led his army
off. The exploit of his cavalry pleased him beyond measure, but he did
not know what he could say to Cyrus. It was he to whom the engagement
was due, and the victory; but the boy's daring was on the verge of
madness. Even during the return home his behaviour was strange; he could
not forbear riding round alone to look into the faces of the slain,
and those whose duty it was could hardly drag him away to lead him to
Astyages: indeed, the youth was glad enough to keep them as a screen
between himself and the king, for he saw that the countenance of his
grandfather grew stern at the sight of him.

[25] So matters passed in Media: and more and more the name of Cyrus was
on the lip of every man, in song and story everywhere, and Astyages,
who had always loved him, was astonished beyond all measure at the lad.
Meanwhile his father, Cambyses, rejoiced to hear such tidings of his
son; but, when he heard that he was already acting like a man of years,
he thought it full time to call him home again that he might complete
his training in the discipline of his fatherland. The story tells how
Cyrus answered the summons, saying he would rather return home at once
so that his father might not be vexed or his country blame him. And
Astyages, too, thought it his plain duty to send the boy back, but he
must needs give him horses to take with him, as many as he would care
to choose, and other gifts beside, not only for the love he bore him
but for the high hopes he had that the boy would one day prove a man of
mark, a blessing to his friends, and a terror to his foes. And when the
time came for Cyrus to go, the whole world poured out to speed him on
his journey--little children and lads of his own age, and grown men
and greybeards on their steeds, and Astyages the king. And, so says the
chronicle, the eyes of none were dry when they turned home again. [26]
Cyrus himself, they tell us, rode away in tears. He heaped gifts on all
his comrades, sharing with them what Astyages had given to himself; and
at last he took off the splendid Median cloak he wore and gave it to one
of them, to tell him, plainer than words could say, how his heart clung
to him above the rest. And his friends, they say, took the gifts he gave
them, but they brought them all back to Astyages, who sent them to Cyrus
again. But once more Cyrus sent them back to Media with this prayer to
his grandfather:--"If you would have me hold my head up when I come back
to you again, let my friends keep the gifts I gave them." And Astyages
did as the boy asked.

[27] And here, if a tale of boyish love is not out of place, we might
tell how, when Cyrus was just about to depart and the last good-byes
were being said, each of his kinsmen in the Persian fashion--and to this
day the custom holds in Persia--kissed him on the lips as they bade him
god-speed. Now there was a certain Mede, as beautiful and brave a man
as ever lived, who had been enamoured of Cyrus for many a long day,
and, when he saw the kiss, he stayed behind, and after the others had
withdrawn he went up to Cyrus and said, "Me, and me alone, of all your
kindred, Cyrus, you refuse to recognize?" And Cyrus answered, "What, are
you my kinsman too?" "Yes, assuredly," the other answered, and the lad
rejoined, "Ah, then, that is why you looked at me so earnestly; and I
have seen you look at me like that, I think, more than once before."
"Yes," answered the Mede, "I have often longed to approach you, but as
often, heaven knows, my heart failed me." "But why should that be," said
Cyrus, "seeing you are my kinsman?" And with the word, he leant forward
and kissed him on the lips. [28] Then the Mede, emboldened by the kiss,
took heart and said, "So in Persia it is really the custom for relatives
to kiss?" "Truly yes," answered Cyrus, "when we see each other after a
long absence, or when we part for a journey." "Then the time has come,"
said the other, "to give me a second kiss, for I must leave you now."
With that Cyrus kissed him again and so they parted. But the travellers
were not far on their way when suddenly the Mede came galloping after
them, his charger covered with foam. Cyrus caught sight of him:--"You
have forgotten something? There is something else you wanted to say?"
"No," said the Mede, "it is only such a long, long while since we met."
"Such a little, little while you mean, my kinsman," answered Cyrus. "A
little while!" repeated the other. "How can you say that? Cannot you
understand that the time it takes to wink is a whole eternity if it
severs me from the beauty of your face?"

Then Cyrus burst out laughing in spite of his own tears, and bade the
unfortunate man take heart of grace and be gone. "I shall soon be back
with you again, and then you can stare at me to your heart's content,
and never wink at all."

[C.5] Thus Cyrus left his grandfather's court and came home to Persia,
and there, so it is said, he spent one year more as a boy among boys.
At first the lads were disposed to laugh at him, thinking he must have
learnt luxurious ways in Media, but when they saw that he could take
the simple Persian food as happily as themselves, and how, whenever they
made good cheer at a festival, far from asking for any more himself he
was ready to give his own share of the dainties away, when they saw and
felt in this and in other things his inborn nobleness and superiority to
themselves, then the tide turned and once more they were at his feet.

And when this part of his training was over, and the time was come for
him to join the younger men, it was the same tale once more. Once more
he outdid all his fellows, alike in the fulfilment of his duty, in
the endurance of hardship, in the reverence he showed to age, and the
obedience he paid to authority.

[2] Now in the fullness of time Astyages died in Media, and Cyaxares
his son, the brother of Cyrus' mother, took the kingdom in his stead.
By this time the king of Assyria had subdued all the tribes of Syria,
subjugated the king of Arabia, brought the Hyrcanians under his rule,
and was holding the Bactrians in siege. Therefore he came to think that,
if he could but weaken the power of the Medes, it would be easy for him
to extend his empire over all the nations round him, since the Medes
were, without doubt, the strongest of them all. [3] Accordingly he
sent his messengers to every part of his dominions: to Croesus, king
of Lydia, to the king of Cappadocia, to both the Phrygias, to the
Paphlagonians and the Indians, to the Carians and the Cilicians. And he
bade them spread slanders abroad against the Persians and the Medes, and
say moreover that these were great and mighty kingdoms which had come
together and made alliance by marriage with one another, and unless a
man should be beforehand with them and bring down their power it could
not be but that they would fall on each of their neighbours in turn and
subdue them one by one. So the nations listened to the messengers and
made alliance with the king of Assyria: some were persuaded by what he
said and others were won over by gifts and gold, for the riches of the
Assyrian were great. [4] Now Cyaxares, the son of Astyages, was aware of
these plots and preparations, and he made ready on his side, so far as
in him lay, sending word to the Persian state and to Cambyses the king,
who had his sister to wife. And he sent to Cyrus also, begging him to
come with all speed at the head of any force that might be furnished, if
so be the Council of Persia would give him men-at-arms. For by this
time Cyrus had accomplished his ten years among the youths and was now
enrolled with the grown men. [5] He was right willing to go, and the
Council of Elders appointed him to command the force for Media. They
bade him choose two hundred men among the Peers, each of them to choose
four others from their fellows. Thus was formed a body of a thousand
Peers: and each of the thousand had orders to raise thirty men from the
commons--ten targeteers, ten slingers, and ten archers--and thus three
regiments were levied, 10,000 archers, 10,000 slingers, and 10,000
targeteers, over and above the thousand Peers. The whole force was to
be put under the command of Cyrus. [6] As soon as he was appointed,
his first act had been to offer sacrifice, and when the omens were
favourable he had chosen his two hundred Peers, and each of them had
chosen their four comrades. Then he called the whole body together, and
for the first time spoke to them as follows:--

[7] "My friends, I have chosen you for this work, but this is not the
first time that I have formed my opinion of your worth: from my boyhood
I have watched your zeal for all that our country holds to be honourable
and your abhorrence for all that she counts base. And I wish to tell you
plainly why I accepted this office myself and why I ask your help. [8] I
have long felt sure that our forefathers were in their time as good men
as we. For their lives were one long effort towards the self-same deeds
of valour as are held in honour now; and still, for all their worth,
I fail to see what good they gained either for the state or for
themselves. [9] Yet I cannot bring myself to believe that there is a
single virtue practised among mankind merely in order that the brave and
good should fare no better than the base ones of the earth. Men do
not forego the pleasures of the moment to say good-bye to all joy for
evermore--no, this self-control is a training, so that we may reap the
fruits of a larger joy in the time to come. A man will toil day and
night to make himself an orator, yet oratory is not the one aim of
his existence: his hope is to influence men by his eloquence and thus
achieve some noble end. So too with us, and those like us, who are
drilled in the arts of war: we do not give our labours in order to fight
for ever, endlessly and hopelessly, we hope that we too one day, when we
have proved our mettle, may win and wear for ourselves and for our city
the threefold ornament of wealth, of happiness, of honour. [10] And if
there should be some who have worked hard all their lives and suddenly
old-age, they find, has stolen on them unawares, and taken away their
powers before they have gathered in the fruit of all their toil, such
men seem to me like those who desire to be thrifty husbandmen, and who
sow well and plant wisely, but when the time of harvest comes let the
fruit drop back ungarnered into the soil whence it sprang. Or as if an
athlete should train himself and reach the heights where victory may be
won and at the last forbear to enter the lists--such an one, I take it,
would but meet his deserts if all men cried out upon him for a fool.
[11] Let not such be our fate, my friends. Our own hearts bear us
witness that we, too, from our boyhood up, have been trained in the
school of beauty and nobleness and honour, and now let us go forward to
meet our foes. They, I know right well, when matched with us, will prove
but novices in war. He is no true warrior, though he be skilled with the
javelin and the bow and ride on horseback with the best, who, when the
call for endurance comes, is found to fail: toil finds him but a novice.
Nor are they warriors who, when they should wake and watch, give way to
slumber: sleep finds them novices. Even endurance will not avail, if a
man has not learnt to deal as a man should by friends and foes: such an
one is unschooled in the highest part of his calling. [12] But with you
it is not so: to you the night will be as the day; toil, your school
has taught you, is the guide to happiness; hunger has been your daily
condiment, and water you take to quench your thirst as the lion laps the
stream. And you have that within your hearts which is the rarest of all
treasures and the most akin to war: of all sweet sounds the sweetest
sound for you is the voice of fame. You are fair Honour's suitors, and
you must needs win your title to her favour. Therefore you undergo toil
and danger gladly.

[13] "Now if I said all this of you, and my heart were not in my words,
I should but cheat myself. For in so far as you should fail to fulfil my
hopes of you, it is on me that the shame would fall. But I have faith in
you, bred of experience: I trust in your goodwill towards me, and in our
enemy's lack of wit; you will not belie my hopes. Let us go forth with a
light heart; we have no ill-fame to fear: none can say we covet
another man's goods unlawfully. Our enemy strikes the first blow in an
unrighteous cause, and our friends call us to protect them. What is more
lawful than self-defence? What is nobler than to succour those we love?
[14] And you have another ground of confidence--in opening this campaign
I have not been forgetful of the gods: you have gone in and out with me,
and you know how in all things, great and small, I strive to win their
blessing. And now," he added, "what need of further words? I will leave
you now to choose your own men, and when all is ready you will march
into Media at their head. Meanwhile I will return to my father and start
before you, so that I may learn what I can about the enemy as soon as
may be, and thus make all needful preparations, so that by God's help we
may win glory on the field."

[C.6] Such were his orders and they set about them at once. But Cyrus
himself went home and prayed to the gods of his father's house, to
Hestia and Zeus, and to all who had watched over his race. And when he
had done so, he set out for the war, and his father went with him on
the road. They were no sooner clear of the city, so says the story, than
they met with favourable omens of thunder and lightning, and after that
they went forward without further divination, for they felt that no man
could mistake the signs from the Ruler of the gods. [2] And as they went
on their way Cyrus' father said to him, "My son, the gods are gracious
to us, and look with favour on your journey--they have shown it in the
sacrifices, and by their signs from heaven. You do not need another man
to tell you so, for I was careful to have you taught this art, so that
you might understand the counsels of the gods yourself and have no need
of an interpreter, seeing with your own eyes and hearing with your own
ears and taking the heavenly meaning for yourself. Thus you need not be
at the mercy of any soothsayers who might have a mind to deceive you,
speaking contrary to the omens vouchsafed from heaven, nor yet, should
you chance to be without a seer, drift in perplexity and know not how to
profit by the heavenly signs: you yourself through your own learning can
understand the warnings of the gods and follow them."

[3] "Yes, father," answered Cyrus, "so far as in me lies, I bear your
words in mind, and pray to the gods continually that they may show us
favour and vouchsafe to counsel us. I remember," he went on, "how once I
heard you say that, as with men, so with the gods, it was but natural if
the prayer of him should prevail who did not turn to flatter them only
in time of need, but was mindful of them above all in the heyday of his
happiness. It was thus indeed, you said, that we ought to deal with our
earthly friends." [4] "True, my son," said his father, "and because of
all my teaching, you can now approach the gods in prayer with a lighter
heart and a more confident hope that they will grant you what you ask,
because your conscience bears you witness that you have never forgotten
them." "Even so," said Cyrus, "and in truth I feel towards them as
though they were my friends." [5] "And do you remember," asked his
father, "certain other conclusions on which we were agreed? How we
felt there were certain things that the gods had permitted us to attain
through learning and study and training? The accomplishment of these is
the reward of effort, not of idleness; in these it is only when we have
done all that it is our duty to do that we are justified in asking for
blessings from the gods." [6] "I remember very well," said Cyrus, "that
you used to talk to me in that way: and indeed I could not but agree
with the arguments you gave. You used to say that a man had no right to
pray he might win a cavalry charge if he had never learnt how to ride,
or triumph over master-bowmen if he could not draw a bow, or bring
a ship safe home to harbour if he did not know how to steer, or be
rewarded with a plenteous harvest if he had not so much as sown grain
into the ground, or come home safe from battle if he took no precautions
whatsoever. All such prayers as these, you said, were contrary to the
very ordinances of heaven, and those who asked for things forbidden
could not be surprised if they failed to win them from the gods. Even as
a petition in the face of law on earth would have no success with men."

[7] "And do you remember," said his father, "how we thought that it
would be a noble work enough if a man could train himself really and
truly to be beautiful and brave and earn all he needed for his household
and himself? That, we said, was a work of which a man might well be
proud; but if he went further still, if he had the skill and the science
to be the guide and governor of other men, supplying all their wants and
making them all they ought to be, that, it seemed to us, would be indeed
a marvel." [8] "Yes, my father," answered Cyrus, "I remember it very
well. I agreed with you that to rule well and nobly was the greatest
of all works, and I am of the same mind still," he went on, "whenever
I think of government in itself. But when I look on the world at large,
when I see of what poor stuff those men are made who contrive to uphold
their rule and what sort of antagonists we are likely to find in them,
then I can only feel how disgraceful it would be to cringe before them
and not to face them myself and try conclusions with them on the field.
All of them, I perceive," he added, "beginning with our own friends
here, hold to it that the ruler should only differ from his subjects by
the splendour of his banquets, the wealth of gold in his coffers, the
length and depth of his slumbers, and his freedom from trouble and pain.
But my views are different: I hold that the ruler should be marked out
from other men, not by taking life easily, but by his forethought and
his wisdom and his eagerness for work." [9] "True, my son," the father
answered, "but you know the struggle must in part be waged not against
flesh and blood but against circumstances, and these may not be overcome
so easily. You know, I take it, that if supplies were not forthcoming,
farewell to this government of yours." "Yes," Cyrus answered, "and that
is why Cyaxares is undertaking to provide for all of us who join him,
whatever our numbers are." "So," said the father, "and you really mean,
my son, that you are relying only on these supplies of Cyaxares for this
campaign of yours?" "Yes," answered Cyrus. "And do you know what they
amount to?" "No," he said, "I cannot say that I do." "And yet," his
father went on, "you are prepared to rely on what you do not know? Do
you forget that the needs of the morrow must be high, not to speak
of the outlay for the day?" "Oh, no," said Cyrus, "I am well aware of
that." "Well," said the father, "suppose the cost is more than Cyaxares
can bear, or suppose he actually meant to deceive you, how would your
soldiers fare?" "Ill enough, no doubt," answered he. "And now tell
me, father, while we are still in friendly country, if you know of any
resources that I could make my own?" [10] "You want to know where you
could find resources of your own?" repeated his father. "And who is to
find that out, if not he who holds the keys of power? We have given you
a force of infantry that you would not exchange, I feel sure, for one
that was more than twice its size; and you will have the cavalry of
Media to support you, the finest in the world. I conceive there are none
of the nations round about who will not be ready to serve you, whether
to win your favour or because they fear disaster. These are matters
you must look into carefully, in concert with Cyaxares, so that nothing
should ever fail you of what you need, and, if only for habit's sake,
you should devise some means for supplying your revenue. Bear this maxim
in mind before all others--never put off the collecting of supplies
until the day of need, make the season of your abundance provide against
the time of dearth. You will gain better terms from those on whom you
must depend if you are not thought to be in straits, and, what is more,
you will be free from blame in the eyes of your soldiers. That in itself
will make you more respected; wherever you desire to help or to hurt,
your troops will follow you with greater readiness, so long as they have
all they need, and your words, you may be sure, will carry the greater
weight the fuller your display of power for weal or woe."

[11] "Yes, father," Cyrus said, "I feel all you say is true, and the
more because as things now stand none of my soldiers will thank me for
the pay that is promised them. They are well aware of the terms Cyaxares
has offered for their help: but whatever they get over and above the
covenanted amount they will look upon as a free gift, and for that they
will, in all likelihood, feel most gratitude to the giver." "True," said
the father, "and really for a man to have a force with which he could
serve his friends and take vengeance on his foes, and yet neglect the
supplies for it, would be as disgraceful, would it not? as for a farmer
to hold lands and labourers and yet allow fields to lie barren for lack
of tillage."

"No such neglect," answered the son, "shall ever be laid at my door.
Through friendly lands or hostile, trust me, in this business of
supplying my troops with all they need I will always play my part."

[12] "Well, my son," the father resumed, "and do you remember certain
other points which we agreed must never be overlooked?" "Could I forget
them?" answered Cyrus. "I remember how I came to you for money to pay
the teacher who professed to have taught me generalship, and you gave it
me, but you asked me many questions. 'Now, my boy,' you said, 'did this
teacher you want to pay ever mention economy among the things a general
ought to understand? Soldiers, no less than servants in a house, are
dependent on supplies.' And I was forced to tell the truth and admit
that not a syllable had been mentioned on that score. Then you asked
me if anything had been taught about health and strength, since a true
general is bound to think of these matters no less than of tactics and
strategy. And when I was forced to say no, you asked me if he had taught
me any of the arts which give the best aid in war. Once again I had to
say no and then you asked whether he had ever taught me how to kindle
enthusiasm in my men. For in every undertaking, you said, there was all
the difference in the world between energy and lack of spirit. I shook
my head and your examination went on:--Had this teacher laid no stress
on the need for obedience in an army, or on the best means of securing
discipline? [14] And finally, when it was plain that even this had been
utterly ignored, you exclaimed, 'What in the world, then, does your
professor claim to have taught you under the name of generalship?' To
that I could at last give a positive answer: 'He taught me tactics.'
And then you gave a little laugh and ran through your list point by
point:--'And pray what will be the use of tactics to an army without
supplies, without health, without discipline, without knowledge of those
arts and inventions that are of use in war?' And so you made it clear
to me that tactics and manoeuvres and drill were only a small part of all
that is implied in generalship, and when I asked you if you could teach
me the rest of it you bade me betake myself to those who stood high in
repute as great generals, and talk with them and learn from their lips
how each thing should be done. [15] So I consorted with all I thought to
be of authority in these matters. As regards our present supplies I was
persuaded that what Cyaxares intended to provide was sufficient, and, as
for the health of the troops, I was aware that the cities where health
was valued appointed medical officers, and the generals who cared for
their soldiers took out a medical staff; and so when I found myself in
this office I gave my mind to the matter at once: and I flatter myself,
father," he added, "that I shall have with me an excellent staff of
surgeons and physicians." [16] To which the father made reply, "Well,
my son, but these excellent men are, after all, much the same as the
tailors who patch torn garments. When folk are ill, your doctors can
patch them up, but your own care for their health ought to go far deeper
than that: your prime object should be to save your men from falling ill
at all." "And pray, father," asked Cyrus, "how can I succeed in that?"
"Well," answered Cambyses, "I presume if you are to stay long in one
place you will do your best to discover a healthy spot for your camp,
and if you give your mind to the matter you can hardly fail to find it.
Men, we know, are forever discussing what places are healthy and what
are not, and their own complexions and the state of their own bodies is
the clearest evidence. But you will not content yourself with choosing a
site, you will remember the care you take yourself for your own health."
[17] "Well," said Cyrus, "my first rule is to avoid over-feeding as most
oppressive to the system, and my next to work off all that enters the
body: that seems the best way to keep health and gain strength." "My
son," Cambyses answered, "these are the principles you must apply to
others." "What!" said Cyrus; "do you think it will be possible for the
soldiers to diet and train themselves?" "Not only possible," said the
father, "but essential. For surely an army, if it is to fulfil its
function at all, must always be engaged in hurting the foe or helping
itself. A single man is hard enough to support in idleness, a household
is harder still, an army hardest of all. There are more mouths to be
filled, less wealth to start with, and greater waste; and therefore
an army should never be unemployed." [18] "If I take your meaning,"
answered Cyrus, "you think an idle general as useless as an idle farmer.
And here and now I answer for the working general, and promise on his
behalf that with God's help he will show you that his troops have all
they need and their bodies are all they ought to be. And I think," he
added, "I know a way by which an officer might do much towards training
his men in the various branches of war. Let him propose competitions
of every kind and offer prizes; the standard of skill will rise, and
he will soon have a body of troops ready to his hand for any service he
requires." "Nothing could be better," answered the father. "Do this, and
you may be sure you will watch your regiments at their manoeuvres with as
much delight as if they were a chorus in the dance."

[19] "And then," continued Cyrus, "to rouse enthusiasm in the men, there
can be nothing, I take it, like the power of kindling hope?" "True,"
answered his father, "but that alone would be as though a huntsman were
for ever rousing his pack with the view-halloo. At first, of course, the
hounds will answer eagerly enough, but after they have been cheated
once or twice they will end by refusing the call even when the quarry
is really in sight. And so it is with hope. Let a man rouse false
expectations often enough, and in the end, even when hope is at the
door, he may cry the good news in vain. Rather ought he to refrain from
speaking positively himself when he cannot know precisely; his agents
may step in and do it in his place; but he should reserve his own appeal
for the supreme crises of supreme danger, and not dissipate his credit."

"By heaven, a most admirable suggestion!" cried Cyrus, "and one much
more to my mind! [20] As for enforcing obedience, I hope I have had some
training in that already; you began my education yourself when I was a
child by teaching me to obey you, and then you handed me over to masters
who did as you had done, and afterwards, when we were lads, my fellows
and myself, there was nothing on which the governors laid more stress.
Our laws themselves, I think, enforce this double lesson:--'Rule thou
and be thou ruled.' And when I come to study the secret of it all, I
seem to see that the real incentive to obedience lies in the praise and
honour that it wins against the discredit and the chastisement which
fall on the disobedient." [21] "That, my son," said the father, "is the
road to the obedience of compulsion. But there is a shorter way to a
nobler goal, the obedience of the will. When the interests of mankind
are at stake, they will obey with joy the man whom they believe to be
wiser than themselves. You may prove this on all sides: you may see how
the sick man will beg the doctor to tell him what he ought to do, how a
whole ship's company will listen to the pilot, how travellers will
cling to the one who knows the way better, as they believe, than they do
themselves. But if men think that obedience will lead them to disaster,
then nothing, neither penalties, nor persuasion, nor gifts, will avail
to rouse them. For no man accepts a bribe to his own destruction." [22]
"You would have me understand," said Cyrus, "that the best way to
secure obedience is to be thought wiser than those we rule?" "Yes," said
Cambyses, "that is my belief."

"And what is the quickest way," asked Cyrus, "to win that reputation?"

"None quicker, my lad, than this: wherever you wish to seem wise, be
wise. Examine as many cases as you like, and you will find that what I
say is true. If you wished to be thought a good farmer, a good horseman,
a good physician, a good flute-player, or anything else whatever,
without really being so, just imagine what a world of devices you would
need to invent, merely to keep up the outward show! And suppose you did
get a following to praise you and cry you up, suppose you did burden
yourself with all kinds of paraphernalia for your profession, what
would come of it all? You succeed at first in a very pretty piece of
deception, and then by and by the test comes, and the impostor stands
revealed."

[23] "But," said Cyrus, "how can a man really and truly attain to the
wisdom that will serve his turn?"

"Well, my son, it is plain that where learning is the road to wisdom,
learn you must, as you learnt your battalion-drill, but when it comes to
matters which are not to be learnt by mortal men, nor foreseen by mortal
minds, there you can only become wiser than others by communicating with
the gods through the art of divination. But, always, wherever you know
that a thing ought to be done, see that it is done, and done with care;
for care, not carelessness, is the mark of the wise man."

[24] "And now," said Cyrus, "to win the affection of those we rule--and
there is nothing, I take it, of greater importance--surely the path to
follow lies open to all who desire the love of their friends. We must, I
mean, show that we do them good." "Yes, my child, but to do good really
at all seasons to those we wish to help is not always possible: only one
way is ever open, and that is the way of sympathy; to rejoice with the
happy in the day of good things, to share their sorrow when ill befalls
them, to lend a hand in all their difficulties, to fear disaster for
them, and guard against it by foresight--these, rather than actual
benefits, are the true signs of comradeship. [25] And so in war; if the
campaign is in summer the general must show himself greedy for his share
of the sun and the heat, and in winter for the cold and the frost, and
in all labours for toil and fatigue. This will help to make him beloved
of his followers." "You mean, father," said Cyrus, "that a commander
should always be stouter-hearted in everything than those whom he
commands." "Yes, my son, that is my meaning," said he; "only be well
assured of this: the princely leader and the private soldier may be
alike in body, but their sufferings are not the same: the pains of the
leader are always lightened by the glory that is his and by the very
consciousness that all his acts are done in the public eye."

[26] "But now, father, suppose the time has come, and you are satisfied
that your troops are well supplied, sound in wind and limb, well able to
endure fatigue, skilled in the arts of war, covetous of honour, eager to
show their mettle, anxious to follow, would you not think it well to try
the chance of battle without delay?" "By all means," said the father,
"if you are likely to gain by the move: but if not, for my own part, the
more I felt persuaded of my own superiority and the power of my troops,
the more I should be inclined to stand on my guard, just as we put our
greatest treasures in the safest place we have." [27] "But how can a man
make sure that he will gain?" "Ah, there you come," said the father,
"to a most weighty matter. This is no easy task, I can tell you. If your
general is to succeed he must prove himself an arch-plotter, a king of
craft, full of deceits and stratagems, a cheat, a thief, and a robber,
defrauding and overreaching his opponent at every turn."

"Heavens!" said Cyrus, and burst out laughing, "is this the kind of man
you want your son to be!" "I want him to be," said the father, "as just
and upright and law-abiding as any man who ever lived." [28] "But how
comes it," said his son, "that the lessons you taught us in boyhood and
youth were exactly opposed to what you teach me now?" "Ah," said the
father, "those lessons were for friends and fellow-citizens, and for
them they still hold good, but for your enemies--do you not remember
that you were also taught to do much harm?"

"No, father," he answered, "I should say certainly not."

"Then why were you taught to shoot? Or to hurl the javelin? Or to trap
wild-boars? Or to snare stags with cords and caltrops? And why did you
never meet the lion or the bear or the leopard in fair fight on equal
terms, but were always trying to steal some advantage over them? Can you
deny that all that was craft and deceit and fraud and greed?"

[29] "Why, of course," answered the young man, "in dealing with animals,
but with human beings it was different; if I was ever suspected of a
wish to cheat another, I was punished, I know, with many stripes."

"True," said the father, "and for the matter of that we did not permit
you to draw bow or hurl javelin against human beings; we taught you
merely to aim at a mark. But why did we teach you that? Not so that you
might injure your friends, either then or now, but that in war you might
have the skill to make the bodies of living men your targets. So also we
taught you the arts of deceit and craft and greed and covetousness, not
among men it is true, but among beasts; we did not mean you ever to turn
these accomplishments against your friends, but in war we wished you to
be something better than raw recruits."

[30] "But, father," Cyrus answered, "if to do men good and to do men
harm were both of them things we ought to learn, surely it would have
been better to teach them in actual practice?"

[31] Then the father said, "My son, we are told that in the days of our
forefathers there was such a teacher once. This man did actually teach
his boys righteousness in the way you suggest, to lie and not to lie,
to cheat and not to cheat, to calumniate and not to calumniate, to be
grasping and not grasping. He drew the distinction between our duty to
friends and our duty to enemies; and he went further still; he taught
men that it was just and right to deceive even a friend for his own
good, or steal his property. [32] And with this he must needs teach
his pupils to practise on one another what he taught them, just as the
people of Hellas, we are told, teach lads in the wrestling-school to
fence and to feint, and train them by their practice with one another.
Now some of his scholars showed such excellent aptitudes for deception
and overreaching, and perhaps no lack of taste for common money-making,
that they did not even spare their friends, but used their arts on them.
[33] And so an unwritten law was framed by which we still abide, bidding
us teach our children as we teach our servants, simply and solely not to
lie, and not to cheat, and not to covert, and if they did otherwise to
punish them, hoping to make them humane and law-abiding citizens. [34]
But when they came to manhood, as you have come, then, it seemed, the
risk was over, and it would be time to teach them what is lawful against
our enemies. For at your age we do not believe you will break out into
savagery against your fellows with whom you have been knit together
since childhood in ties of friendship and respect. In the same way we do
not talk to the young about the mysteries of love, for if lightness were
added to desire, their passion might sweep them beyond all bounds."

[35] "Then in heaven's name, father," said Cyrus, "remember that
your son is but a backward scholar and a late learner in this lore of
selfishness, and teach me all you can that may help me to overreach the
foe."

"Well," said the father, "you must plot and you must plan, whatever the
size of his force and your own, to catch his men in disorder when yours
are all arrayed, unarmed when yours are armed, asleep when yours are
awake, or you must wait till he is visible to you and you invisible
to him, or till he is labouring over heavy ground and you are in your
fortress and can give him welcome there."

[36] "But how," asked Cyrus, "can I catch him in all these blunders?"

"Simply because both you and he are bound to be often in some such case;
both of you must take your meals sometime; both of you must sleep; your
men must scatter in the morning to satisfy the needs of nature, and,
for better for worse, whatever the roads are like, you will be forced
to make use of them. All these necessities you must lay to heart, and
wherever you are weaker, there you must be most on your guard, and
wherever your foe is most assailable, there you must press the attack."

[37] Then Cyrus asked, "And are these the only cases where one can apply
the great principle of greed, or are there others?"

"Oh, yes, there are many more; indeed in these simple cases any general
will be sure to keep good watch, knowing how necessary it is. But your
true cheat and prince of swindlers is he who can lure the enemy on
and throw him off his guard, suffer himself to be pursued and get the
pursuers into disorder, lead the foe into difficult ground and then
attack him there. [38] Indeed, as an ardent student, you must not
confine yourself to the lessons you have learnt; you must show yourself
a creator and discoverer, you must invent stratagems against the foe;
just as a real musician is not content with the mere elements of his
art, but sets himself to compose new themes. And if in music it is the
novel melody, the flower-like freshness, that wins popularity, still
more in military matters it is the newest contrivance that stands the
highest, for the simple reason that such will give you the best chance
of outwitting your opponent. [39] And yet, my son, I must say that if
you did no more than apply against human beings the devices you learnt
to use against the smallest game, you would have made considerable
progress in this art of overreaching. Do you not think so yourself?
Why, to snare birds you would get up by night in the depth of winter
and tramp off in the cold; your nets were laid before the creatures were
astir, and your tracks completely covered and you actually had birds of
your own, trained to serve you and decoy their kith and kin, while you
yourself lay in some hiding-place, seeing yet unseen, and you had learnt
by long practice to jerk in the net before the birds could fly away.
[40] Or you might be out after hares, and for a hare you had two breeds
of dogs, one to track her out by scent, because she feeds in the dusk
and takes to her form by day, and another to cut off her escape and run
her down, because she is so swift. And even if she escaped these, she
did not escape you; you had all her runs by heart and knew all her
hiding-places, and there you would spread your nets, so that they were
scarcely to be seen, and the very haste of her flight would fling her
into the snare. And to make sure of her you had men placed on the spot
to keep a look-out, and pounce on her at once. And there were you at her
heels, shouting and scaring her out of her wits, so that she was caught
from sheer terror, and there lay your men, as you had taught them,
silent and motionless in their ambuscade. [41] I say, therefore, that if
you chose to act like this against human beings, you would soon have no
enemies left to fight, or I am much mistaken. And even if, as well may
be, the necessity should arise for you to do battle on equal terms in
open field, even so, my son, there will still be power in those arts
which you have studied so long and which teach you to out-villain
villainy. And among them I include all that has served to train the
bodies and fire the courage of your men, all that has made them adepts
in every craft of war. One thing you must ever bear in mind: if you wish
your men to follow you, remember that they expect you to plan for them.
[42] Hence you must never know a careless mood; if it be night, you must
consider what your troops shall do when it is day; if day, how the night
had best be spent. [43] For the rest, you do not need me to tell you
now how you should draw up your troops or conduct your march by day or
night, along broad roads or narrow lanes, over hills or level ground, or
how you should encamp and post your pickets, or advance into battle
or retreat before the foe, or march past a hostile city, or attack a
fortress or retire from it, or cross a river or pass through a defile,
or guard against a charge of cavalry or an attack from lancers or
archers, or what you should do if the enemy comes into sight when you
are marching in column and how you are to take up position against him,
or how deploy into action if you are in line and he takes you in flank
or rear, and how you are to learn all you can about his movements, while
keeping your own as secret as may be; these are matters on which you
need no further word of mine; all that I know about them you have
heard a hundred times, and I am sure you have not neglected any other
authority on whom you thought you could rely. You know all their
theories, and you must apply them now, I take it, according to
circumstances and your need. [44] But," he added, "there is one lesson
that I would fain impress on you, and it is the greatest of them all.
Observe the sacrifices and pay heed to the omens; when they are against
you, never risk your army or yourself, for you must remember that men
undertake enterprises on the strength of probability alone and without
any real knowledge as to what will bring them happiness. [45] You may
learn this from all life and all history. How often have cities allowed
themselves to be persuaded into war, and that by advisers who were
thought the wisest of men, and then been utterly destroyed by those
whom they attacked! How often have statesmen helped to raise a city or a
leader to power, and then suffered the worst at the hands of those whom
they exalted! And many who could have treated others as friends and
equals, giving and receiving kindnesses, have chosen to use them as
slaves, and then paid the penalty at their hands; and many, not content
to enjoy their own share of good, have been swept on by the craving to
master all, and thereby lost everything that they once possessed; and
many have won the very wealth they prayed for and through it have found
destruction. [46] So little does human wisdom know how to choose the
best, helpless as a man who could but draw lots to see what he should
do. But the gods, my son, who live for ever, they know all things, the
things that have been and the things that are and the things that are to
be, and all that shall come from these; and to us mortals who ask their
counsel and whom they love they will show signs, to tell us what we
should do and what we should leave undone. Nor must we think it strange
if the gods will not vouchsafe their wisdom to all men equally; no
compulsion is laid on them to care for men, unless it be their will."


                                NOTES

[This work concludes the translation of Xenophon undertaken by Mr.
Dakyns. ("The Works of Xenophon," with maps, introductions, and notes,
Vols. I.-III., Macmillan.) From references in the earlier vols. (e.g.
Vol. I. pp. lvii., lxx., xc., cxiii., cxxxi.; Vol. III. Part I. pp.
v.-vii.) it is plain the translator considered that the historical
romance of the _Cyropaedia_ was written in Xenophon's old age (completed
_circa_ 365 B.C.) embodying many of his own experiences and his maturest
thoughts on education, on government, on the type of man,--a rare type,
alone fitted for leadership. The figure of his hero, Cyrus the Great,
the founder of the Persian empire, known to him by story and legend, is
modelled on the Spartan king Agesilaus, whom he loved and admired, and
under whom he served in Persia and in Greece (op. cit. Vol. II., see
under _Agesilaus_, Index, and _Hellenica_, Bks. III.-V. _Agesilaus_,
_an Encomium_, passim). Certain traits are also taken from the younger
Cyrus, whom Xenophon followed in his famous march against his brother,
the Persian king, up from the coast of Asia Minor into the heart of
Babylonia (see the _Anabasis_, Bk. I., especially c. ix.; op. cit. Vol.
I. p. 109). Clearly, moreover, many of the customs and institutions
described in the work as Persian are really Dorian, and were still in
vogue among Xenophon's Spartan friends (vide e.g. _Hellenica_, Bk. IV.,
i. S28; op. cit. Vol. II. p. 44).]

C2.4. Qy. Were these tribal customs of the Persians, as doubtless of the
Dorians, or is it all a Dorian idealisation?

C2.13. Good specimen of the "annotative" style with a parenthetic
comment. The passage in brackets might be a gloss, but is it?

C3.3. When did Xenophon himself first learn to ride? Surely this is a
boyish reminiscence, full of sympathy with boy-nature.

C3.12. Beautiful description of a child subject to his parents, growing
in stature and favour with God and man.

C4.2. Perhaps his own grandson, Xenophon the son of Grylus, is the
prototype, and Xenophon himself a sort of ancient Victor Hugo in this
matter of fondness for children.

C4.3. Contrast Autolycus in the _Symposium_, who had, however, reached
the more silent age [e.g. _Symp_., c. iii., fin. tr. Works, Vol. III.
Part I. p. 309].

C4.4. The touch about the puppy an instance of Xenophon's {katharotes}
[clear simplicity of style].

C4.8. Reads like a biographical incident in some hunt of Xenophon, boy
or father.

C4.9-10. The rapidity, one topic introducing and taken up by another,
wave upon wave, {anerithmon lelasma} ["the multitudinous laughter of the
sea"].

C4.12. The truth of this due to sympathy (cf. Archidamus and his father
Agesilaus, _Hell_., V. c. iv.; tr. Works, Vol. II. p. 126).

C4.22. Cyaxares recalls John Gilpin.

C4.24. An Hellenic trait; madness of battle-rage, {menis}. Something of
the fierceness of the _Iliad_ here.

C5.7. Cyrus. His first speech as a general; a fine one; a spirit
of athleticism breathes through it. Cf. _Memorabilia_ for a similar
rationalisation of virtuous self-restraint (e.g. _Mem_., Bk. I. c. 5, 6;
Bk. III. c. 8). Paleyan somewhat, perhaps Socratic, not devoid of common
sense. What is the end and aim of our training? Not only for an earthly
aim, but for a high spiritual reward, all this toil.

C5.10. This is Dakyns.

C5.11. "Up, Guards, and at 'em!"

C6. This chapter might have been a separate work appended to the
_Memorabilia_ on Polemics or Archics ["Science of War" and "Science of
Rule"].

C6.3-6. Sounds like some Socratic counsel; the righteous man's
conception of prayer and the part he must himself play.

C6.7. Personal virtue and domestic economy a sufficiently hard task,
let alone that still graver task, the art of grinding masses of men into
virtue.

C6.8, fin. The false theory of ruling in vogue in Media: the _plus_ of
ease instead of the _plus_ of foresight and danger-loving endurance. Cf.
Walt Whitman.

C6.30. Is like the logical remark of a disputant in a Socratic dialogue
of the Alcibiades type, and §§ 31-33 a Socratic _mythos_ to escape
from the dilemma; the breakdown of this ideal _plus_ and _minus_
righteousness due to the hardness of men's hearts and their feeble
intellects.

C6.31. Who is this ancient teacher or who is his prototype if he is an
ideal being? A sort of Socrates-Lycurgus? Or is Xenophon thinking of the
Spartan Crypteia?

C6.34. For _pleonexia_ and deceit in war, vide _Hipparch_., c. 5 [tr.
Works, Vol. III. Part II. p. 20]. Interesting and Hellenic, I think,
the mere raising of this sort of question; it might be done nowadays,
perhaps, with advantage _or_ disadvantage, less cant and more plain
brutality.

C6.39. Hunting devices applied: throws light on the date of the
_Cyropaedia_, after the Scilluntine days, probably. [After Xenophon was
exiled from Athens, his Spartan friends gave him a house and farm
at Scillus, a township in the Peloponnese, not far from Olympia. See
_Sketch of Xenophon's Life_, Works, Vol. I., p. cxxvi.]

C6.41, init. Colloquial exaggerated turn of phrase; almost "you could
wipe them off the earth."




BOOK II

[C.1] Thus they talked together, and thus they journeyed on until they
reached the frontier, and there a good omen met them: an eagle swept
into view on the right, and went before them as though to lead the way,
and they prayed the gods and heroes of the land to show them favour and
grant them safe entry, and then they crossed the boundary. And when they
were across, they prayed once more that the gods of Media might receive
them graciously, and when they had done this they embraced each other,
as father and son will, and Cambyses turned back to his own city, but
Cyrus went forward again, to his uncle Cyaxares in the land of Media.
[2] And when his journey was done and he was face to face with him and
they had greeted each other as kinsmen may, then Cyaxares asked
the prince how great an armament he had brought with him? And Cyrus
answered, "I have 30,000 with me, men who have served with you before as
mercenaries; and more are coming on behind, fresh troops, from the Peers
of Persia."

"How many of those?" asked Cyaxares. [3] And Cyrus answered, "Their
numbers will not please you, but remember these Peers of ours, though
they are few, find it easy to rule the rest of the Persians, who are
many. But now," he added, "have you any need of us at all? Perhaps
it was only a false alarm that troubled you, and the enemy are not
advancing?"

"Indeed they are," said the other, "and in full force."

[4] "How do you know?" asked Cyrus.

"Because," said he, "many deserters come to us, and all of them, in one
fashion or another, tell the same tale."

"Then we must give battle?" said Cyrus.

"Needs must," Cyaxares replied.

"Well," answered Cyrus, "but you have not told me yet how great their
power is, or our own either. I want to hear, if you can tell me, so that
we may make our plans."

"Listen, then," said Cyaxares. [5] "Croesus the Lydian is coming, we
hear, with 10,000 horse and more than 40,000 archers and targeteers.
Artamas the governor of Greater Phrygia is bringing, they say, 8000
horse, and lancers and targeteers also, 40,000 strong. Then there is
Aribaius the king of Cappadocia with 6000 horse and 30,000 archers
and targeteers. And Aragdus the Arabian with 10,000 horse, a hundred
chariots, and innumerable slingers. As for the Hellenes who dwell in
Asia, it is not clear as yet whether they will send a following or not.
But the Phrygians from the Hellespont, we are told, are mustering in the
Caystrian plain under Gabaidus, 6000 horse and 40,000 targeteers. Word
has been sent to the Carians, Cilicians, and Paphlagonians, but it is
said they will not rise; the Lord of Assyria and Babylon will himself,
I believe, bring not less than 20,000 horse, and I make no doubt as many
as 200 chariots, and thousands upon thousands of men on foot; such at
least has been his custom whenever he invaded us before."

[6] Cyrus answered: "Then you reckon the numbers of the enemy to be, in
all, something like 60,000 horse and 200,000 archers and targeteers. And
what do you take your own to be?"

"Well," he answered, "we ourselves can furnish over 10,000 horse and
perhaps, considering the state of the country, as many as 60,000 archers
and targeteers. And from our neighbours, the Armenians," he added, "we
look to get 4000 horse and 20,000 foot."

"I see," said Cyrus, "you reckon our cavalry at less than a third of the
enemy's, and our infantry at less than half."

[7] "Ah," said Cyaxares, "and perhaps you feel that the force you are
bringing from Persia is very small?"

"We will consider that later on," answered Cyrus, "and see then if we
require more men or not. Tell me first the methods of fighting that the
different troops adopt."

"They are much the same for all," answered Cyaxares, "that is to say,
their men and ours alike are armed with bows and javelins."

"Well," replied Cyrus, "if such arms are used, skirmishing at long range
must be the order of the day." "True," said the other. [8] "And in that
case," went on Cyrus, "the victory is in the hands of the larger force;
for even if the same numbers fall on either side, the few would be
exhausted long before the many." "If that be so," cried Cyaxares, "there
is nothing left for us but to send to Persia, and make them see that if
disaster falls on Media it will fall on Persia next, and beg them for
a larger force." "Ah, but," said Cyrus, "you must remember that even if
every single Persian were to come at once, we could not outnumber our
enemies." [9] "But," said the other, "can you see anything else to be
done?" "For my part," answered Cyrus, "if I could have my way, I would
arm every Persian who is coming here in precisely the same fashion as
our Peers at home, that is to say, with a corslet for the breast, a
shield for the left arm, and a sword or battle-axe for the right hand.
If you will give us these you will make it quite safe for us to close
with the enemy, and our foes will find that flight is far pleasanter
than defence. But we Persians," he added, "will deal with those who do
stand firm, leaving the fugitives to you and to your cavalry, who must
give them no time to rally and no time to escape."

[10] That was the counsel of Cyrus, and Cyaxares approved it. He thought
no more of sending for a larger force, but set about preparing the
equipment he had been asked for, and all was in readiness just about the
time when the Peers arrived from Persia at the head of their own troops.
[11] Then, so says the story, Cyrus called the Peers together and spoke
to them as follows: "Men of Persia, my friends and comrades, when I
looked at you first and saw the arms you bore and how you were all on
fire to meet the enemy, hand to hand, and when I remembered that your
squires are only equipped for fighting on the outskirts of the field,
I confess my mind misgave me. Few and forlorn they will be, I said to
myself, swallowed up in a host of enemies; no good can come of it. But
to-day you are here, and your men behind you, stalwart and stout of
limb, and to-morrow they shall have armour like our own. None could find
fault with their thews and sinews, and as for their spirit, it is for
us to see it does not fail. A leader must not only have a stout heart
himself; he must see to it that his followers are as valiant as he."

[12] Thus Cyrus spoke, and the Peers were well satisfied at his words,
feeling that on the day of battle they would have more to help them in
the struggle. [13] And one of them said, "Perhaps it will seem strange
if I ask Cyrus to speak in our stead to our fellow-combatants when they
receive their arms, and yet I know well that the words of him who has
the greatest power for weal or woe sink deepest into the listener's
heart. His very gifts, though they should be less than the gifts of
equals, are valued more. These new comrades of ours," he went on, "would
rather be addressed by Cyrus himself than by us, and now that they are
to take their place among the Peers their title will seem to them
far more secure if it is given them by the king's own son and our
general-in-chief. Not that we have not still our own duties left. We are
bound to do our best in every way to rouse the spirit of our men. Shall
we not gain ourselves by all they gain in valour?"

[14] So it came about that Cyrus had the new armour placed before him
and summoned a general meeting of the Persian soldiery, and spoke to
them as follows:

[15] "Men of Persia, born and bred in the same land as ourselves, whose
limbs are as stout and as strong as our own, your hearts should be as
brave. I know they are; and yet at home in the land of our fathers you
did not share our rights; not that we drove you out ourselves, but
you were banished by the compulsion that lay upon you to find your
livelihood for yourselves. Now from this day forward, with heaven's
help, it shall be my care to provide it for you; and now, if so
you will, you have it in your power to take the armour that we wear
ourselves, face the same perils and win the same honours, if so be you
make any glorious deed your own. [16] In former days you were trained,
like ourselves, in the use of bow and javelin, and if you were at all
inferior to us in skill, that was not to be wondered at; you had not
the same leisure for practice as we; but now in this new accoutrement we
shall have no pre-eminence at all. Each of us will wear a corslet fitted
to his breast and carry a shield on his left arm of the type to which we
are all accustomed, and in his right hand a sabre or a battle-axe. With
these we shall smite the enemy before us, and need have no fear that we
shall miss the mark. [17] How can we differ from one another with these
arms? There can be no difference except in daring. And daring you may
foster in your hearts as much as we in ours. What greater right have we
than you to love victory and follow after her, victory who wins for us
and preserves to us all things that are beautiful and good? Why should
you, any more than we, be found lacking in that power which takes the
goods of weaklings and bestows them on the strong?"

[18] He ended: "Now you have heard all. There lie your weapons; let him
who chooses take them up and write his name with the brigadier in the
same roll as ours. And if a man prefers to remain a mercenary, let him
do so; he carries the arms of a servant."

[19] Thus spoke Cyrus; and the Persians, every man of them, felt they
would be ashamed for the rest of their days, and deservedly, if they
drew back now, when they were offered equal honour in return for equal
toil. One and all they inscribed their names and took up the new arms.

[20] And now in the interval, before the enemy were actually at hand,
but while rumour said they were advancing, Cyrus took on himself a
three-fold task: to bring the physical strength of his men to the
highest pitch, to teach them tactics, and to rouse their spirit for
martial deeds. [21] He asked Cyaxares for a body of assistants whose
duty it should be to provide each of his soldiers with all they could
possibly need, thus leaving the men themselves free for the art of war.
He had learnt, he thought, that success, in whatever sphere, was only to
be won by refusing to attempt a multitude of tasks and concentrating the
mind on one.

Thus in the military training itself he gave up the practice with bow
and javelin, leaving his men to perfect themselves in the use of sabre,
shield, and corslet, accustoming them from the very first to the thought
that they must close with the enemy, or confess themselves worthless as
fellow-combatants; a harsh conclusion for those who knew that they were
only protected in order to fight on behalf of their protectors. [22] And
further, being convinced that wherever the feeling of emulation can
be roused, there the eagerness to excel is greatest, he instituted
competitions for everything in which he thought his soldiers should be
trained. The private soldier was challenged to prove himself prompt
to obey, anxious to work, eager for danger, and yet ever mindful of
discipline, an expert in the science of war, an artist in the conduct
of his arms, and a lover of honour in all things. The petty officer
commanding a squad of five was not only to equal the leading private, he
must also do what he could to bring his men to the same perfection; the
captain of ten must do the same for his ten, and the company's captain
for the company, while the commander of the whole regiment, himself
above reproach, must take the utmost care with the officers under him so
that they in their turn should see that their subordinates were perfect
in all their duties. [23] For prizes, Cyrus announced that the brigadier
in command of the finest regiment should be raised to the rank of
general, the captain of the finest company should be made a brigadier,
the captain of the finest squad of ten captain of a company, and the
captain of the best five a captain of ten, while the best soldiers from
the ranks should become captains of five themselves. Every one of these
officers had the privilege of being served by those beneath him, and
various other honours also, suited to their several grades, while ampler
hopes were offered for any nobler exploits. [24] Finally prizes were
announced to be won by a regiment or a company or a squad taken as a
whole, by those who proved themselves most loyal to their leaders and
most zealous in the practice of their duty. These prizes, of course,
were such as to be suitable for men taken in the mass.

Such were the orders of the Persian leader, and such the exercises of
the Persian troops. [25] For their quarters, he arranged that a separate
shelter should be assigned to every brigadier, and that it should be
large enough for the whole regiment he commanded; a regiment consisting
of 100 men. Thus they were encamped by regiments, and in the mere fact
of common quarters there was this advantage, Cyrus thought, for the
coming struggle, that the men saw they were all treated alike, and
therefore no one could pretend that he was slighted, and no one sink to
the confession that he was a worse man than his neighbours when it came
to facing the foe. Moreover the life in common would help the men to
know each other, and it is only by such knowledge, as a rule, that a
common conscience is engendered; those who live apart, unknowing and
unknown, seem far more apt for mischief, like those who skulk in the
dark. [26] Cyrus thought the common life would lead to the happiest
results in the discipline of the regiments. By this system all the
officers--brigadiers, company-captains, captains of the squads--could
keep their men in as perfect order as if they were marching before them
in single file. [27] Such precision in the ranks would do most to guard
against disorder and re-establish order if ever it were broken; just as
when timbers and stones have to be fitted together it is easy enough
to put them into place, wherever they chance to lie, provided only that
they are marked so as to leave no doubt where each belongs. [28] And
finally, he felt, there was the fact that those who live together are
the less likely to desert one another; even the wild animals, Cyrus
knew, who are reared together suffer terribly from loneliness when they
are severed from each other.

[29] There was a further matter, to which he gave much care; he wished
no man to take his meal at morning or at night till he had sweated for
it. He would lead the men out to hunt, or invent games for them, or
if there was work to be done, he would so conduct it that they did not
leave it without sweat. He believed this regimen gave them zest for
their food, was good for their health, and increased their powers of
toil; and the toil itself was a blessed means for making the men more
gentle towards each other; just as horses that work together grow
gentle, and will stand quietly side by side. Moreover the knowledge of
having gone through a common training would increase tenfold the courage
with which they met the foe.

[30] Cyrus had his own quarters built to hold all the guests he might
think it well to entertain, and, as a rule, he would invite such of the
brigadiers as the occasion seemed to call for, but sometimes he would
send for the company-captains and the officers in command of the smaller
squads, and even the private soldiers were summoned to his board, and
from time to time a squad of five, or of ten, or an entire company, or
even a whole regiment, or he would give a special invitation by way of
honour to any one whom he knew had undertaken some work he had at heart
himself. In every case there was no distinction whatever between the
meats for himself and for his guests. [31] Further he always insisted
that the army servants should share and share alike with the soldiers
in everything, for he held that those who did such service for the army
were as much to be honoured as heralds or ambassadors. They were bound,
he said, to be loyal and intelligent, alive to all a soldier's needs,
active, swift, unhesitating, and withal cool and imperturbable. Nor
was that all; he was convinced that they ought also to possess those
qualities which are thought to be peculiar to what we call "the better
classes," and yet never despise their work, but feel that everything
their commander laid upon them must be fit for them to do.

[C.2] It was the constant aim of Cyrus whenever he and his soldiers
messed together, that the talk should be lively and full of grace, and
at the same time do the listeners good. Thus one day he brought the
conversation round to the following theme:--

"Do you think, gentlemen," said he, "that our new comrades appear
somewhat deficient in certain respects simply because they have not been
educated in the same fashion as ourselves? Or will they show themselves
our equals in daily life and on the field of battle when the time comes
to meet the foe?"

[2] Hystaspas took up the challenge:--"What sort of warriors they will
prove I do not pretend to know, but this I do say, in private life some
of them are cross-grained fellows enough. Only the other day," he went
on, "Cyaxares sent a present of sacrificial meat to every regiment.
There was flesh enough for three courses apiece or more, and the
attendant had handed round the first, beginning with myself. So when he
came in again, I told him to begin at the other end of the board, and
serve the company in that order. [3] But I was greeted by a yell from
the centre: one of these men who was sitting there bawled out, 'Equality
indeed! There's not much of it here, if we who sit in the middle
are never served first at all!' It nettled me that they should fancy
themselves treated worse than we, so I called him up at once and made
him sit beside me. And I am bound to say he obeyed that order with the
most exemplary alacrity. But when the dish came round to us, we found,
not unnaturally, since we were the last to be served, that only a few
scraps were left. At this my man fell into the deepest dudgeon, and made
no attempt to conceal it, muttering to himself, 'Just like my ill-luck!
To be invited here just now and never before!' [4] I tried to comfort
him. 'Never mind,' I said, 'presently the servant will begin again with
us, and then you will help yourself first and you can take the biggest
piece.' Just then the third course, and, as it proved, the last, came
round, and so the poor fellow took his helping, but as he did so it
struck him that the piece he had chosen first was too small, and he put
it back, meaning to pick out another. But the carver, thinking he had
changed his mind and did not want any more, passed on to the next man
before he had time to secure his second slice. [5] At this our friend
took his loss so hard that he only made matters worse: his third course
was clean gone, and now in his rage and his bad luck he somehow managed
to overset the gravy, which was all that remained to him. The captain
next to us seeing how matters stood rubbed his hands with glee and went
into peals of laughter. And," said Hystaspas, "I took refuge in a fit
of coughing myself, for really I could not have controlled my laughter.
There, Cyrus," said he, "that is a specimen of our new comrades, as
nearly as I can draw his portrait."

[6] The description, as may be guessed, was greeted with shouts of
laughter, and then another brigadier took up the word: "Well, Cyrus,"
said he, "our friend here has certainly met with an absolute boor: my
own experience is somewhat different. You remember the admonitions you
gave us when you dismissed the regiments, and how you bade each of us
instruct his own men in the lessons we had learnt from you. Well, I,
like the rest of us, went off at once and set about instructing one of
the companies under me. I posted the captain in front with a fine young
fellow behind him, and after them the others in the order I thought
best; I took my stand facing them all, and waited, with my eyes fixed on
the captain, until I thought the right moment had come, and then I gave
the order to advance. [7] And what must my fine fellow do but get in
front of the captain and march off ahead of the whole troop. I cried
out, 'You, sir, what are you doing?' 'Advancing as you ordered.' 'I
never ordered you to advance alone,' I retorted, 'the order was given
to the whole company.' At which he turned right round and addressed the
ranks: 'Don't you hear the officer abusing you? The orders are for all
to advance!' Whereupon the rest of them marched right past their captain
and up to me. [8] Of course the captain called them back, and they began
to grumble and growl: 'Which of the two are we to obey? One tells us to
advance, the other won't let us move.'

"Well, I had to take the whole matter very quietly and begin again from
the beginning, posting the company as they were, and explaining that no
one in the rear was to move until the front rank man led off: all they
had to do was to follow the man in front. [9] As I was speaking, up came
a friend of mine; he was going off to Persia, and had come to ask me for
a letter I had written home. So I turned to the captain who happened to
know where I had left the letter lying, and bade him fetch it for me.
Off he ran, and off ran my young fellow at his heels, breast-plate,
battle-axe, and all. The rest of the company thought they were bound to
follow suit, joined in the race, and brought my letter back in style.
That is how my company, you see, carries out your instructions to the
full."

[10] He paused, and the listeners laughed to their hearts' content, as
well as they might, over the triumphant entry of the letter under its
armed escort. Then Cyrus spoke:

"Now heaven be praised! A fine set they are, these new friends of ours,
a most rare race! So grateful are they for any little act of courtesy,
you may win a hundred hearts by a dish of meat! And so docile, some of
them must needs obey an order before they have understood it! For my
part I can only pray to be blest with an army like them all."

[11] Thus he joined in the mirth, but he turned the laughter to the
praise of his new recruits.

Then one of the company, a brigadier called Aglaïtadas, a somewhat
sour-tempered man, turned to him and said:

"Cyrus, do you really think the tales they tell are true?"

"Certainly," he answered, "why should they say what is false?"

"Why," repeated the other, "simply to raise a laugh, and make a brag
like the impostors that they are." [12] But Cyrus cut him short, "Hush!
hush! You must not use such ugly names. Let me tell you what an impostor
is. He is a man who claims to be wealthier or braver than he is in fact,
and who undertakes what he can never carry out, and all this for the
sake of gain. But he who contrives mirth for his friends, not for his
own profit, or his hearers' loss, or to injure any man, surely, if we
must needs give him a name, we ought to call him a man of taste and
breeding and a messenger of wit."

[13] Such was the defence of Cyrus in behalf of the merrymakers. And the
officer who had begun the jest turned to Aglaïtadas and said:

"Just think, my dear sir, if we had tried to make you weep! What
fault you would have found with us! Suppose we had been like the
ballad-singers and story-tellers who put in lamentable tales in the hope
of reducing their audience to tears! What would you have said about us
then? Why, even now, when you know we only wish to amuse you, not to
make you suffer, you must needs hold us up to shame."

[14] "And is not the shame justified?" Aglaïtadas replied. "The man who
sets himself to make his fellows laugh does far less for them than he
who makes them weep. If you will but think, you will admit that what
I say is true. It is through tears our fathers teach self-control unto
their sons, and our tutors sound learning to their scholars, and the
laws themselves lead the grown man to righteousness by putting him to
sit in the place of penitence. But your mirth-makers, can you say they
benefit the body or edify the soul? Can smiles make a man a better
master or a better citizen? Can he learn economy or statesmanship from a
grin?"

[15] But Hystaspas answered back:

"Take my advice, Aglaïtadas, pluck up heart and spend this precious gift
of yours on your enemies: make them sit in the seat of the sorrowful,
and fling away on us, your friends, that vile and worthless laughter.
You must have an ample store of it in reserve: it cannot be said you
have squandered it on yourself, or ever wasted a smile on friend or
foreigner if you could help it. So you have no excuse to be niggardly
now, and cannot refuse us a smile."

"I see," said Aglaïtadas, "you are trying to get a laugh out of me, are
you not?"

But the brigadier interposed, "Then he is a fool for his pains, my
friend: one might strike fire out of you, perhaps, but not a laugh, not
a laugh."

[16] At this sally all the others shouted with glee, and even Aglaïtadas
could not help himself: he smiled.

And Cyrus, seeing the sombre face light up said:

"Brigadier, you are very wrong to corrupt so virtuous a man, luring him
to laughter, and that too when he is the sworn foe of gaiety."

So they talked and jested. [17] And then Chrysantas began on another
theme.

[18] "Cyrus," he said, "and gentlemen all, I cannot help seeing that
within our ranks are men of every kind, some better and some worse, and
yet if anything is won every man will claim an equal share. Now to my
mind nothing is more unfair than that the base man and the good should
be held of equal account."

"Perhaps it would be best, gentlemen," said Cyrus in answer, "to bring
the matter before the army in council and put it to them, whether,
if God grant us success, we should let all share and share alike, or
distribute the rewards and honours in proportion to the deserts of
each."

[19] "But why," asked Chrysantas, "why discuss the point? Why not simply
issue a general order that you intend to do this? Was not that enough in
the case of the competitions?"

"Doubtless," Cyrus answered, "but this case is different. The troops, I
take it, will feel that all they win by their services on the campaign
should belong to them in common: but they hold that the actual command
of the expedition was mine by right even before we left home, so that I
was fully entitled, on their view, to appoint umpires and judges at my
own will."

[20] "And do you really expect," asked Chrysantas, "that the mass of the
army will pass a resolution giving up the right of all to an equal share
in order that the best men should receive the most?"

"Yes, I do," said Cyrus, "partly because we shall be there to argue for
that course, but chiefly because it would seem too base to deny that
he who works the hardest and does most for the common good deserves
the highest recompense. Even the worst of men must admit that the brave
should gain the most."

[21] It was, however, as much for the sake of the Peers themselves as
for any other reason that Cyrus wished the resolution to be passed.
They would prove all the better men, he thought, if they too were to be
judged by their deeds and rewarded accordingly. And this was the right
moment, he felt, to raise the question and put it to the vote, now when
the Peers were disposed to resent being put on a level with the common
people. In the end it was agreed by all the company that the question
should be raised, and that every one who claimed to call himself a man
was bound to argue in its favour.

[22] And on that one of the brigadiers smiled to himself and said: "I
know at least one son of the soil who will be ready to agree that the
principle of share and share alike should not be followed everywhere."

"And who is he?" another asked.

"Well," said the first, "he is a member of our quarters, I can tell you
that, and he is always hunting after the lion's share of every single
thing."

"What? Of everything?" said a third. "Of work as well?" "Oh, no!" said
the first, "you have caught me there. I was wrong to say so much, I must
confess. When it comes to work, I must admit, he is quite ready to go
short: he will give up his own share of that, without a murmur, to any
man whatever."

[23] "For my part, gentlemen," said Cyrus, "I hold that all such idlers
ought to be turned out of the army, that is, if we are ever to cultivate
obedience and energy in our men. The bulk of our soldiers, I take it,
are of the type to follow a given lead: they will seek after nobleness
and valour if their leaders are valiant and noble, but after baseness if
these are base. [24] And we know that only too often the worthless will
find more friends than the good. Vice, passing lightly along her path
of pleasure, wins the hearts of thousands with her gifts; but Virtue,
toiling up the steep ascent, has little skill to snare the souls of men
and draw them after her, when all the while their comrades are calling
to them on the easy downward way. [25] It is true there are degrees,
and where the evil springs only from sloth and lethargy, I look on the
creatures as mere drones, only injuring the hive by what they cost: but
there are others, backward in toil and forward in greed, and these are
the captains in villainy: for not seldom can they show that rascality
has its advantages. Such as they must be removed, cut out from among us,
root and branch. [26] And I would not have you fill their places from
our fellow-citizens alone, but, just as you choose your horses from
the best stocks, wherever you find them, not limiting yourselves to
the national breed, so you have all mankind before you, and you should
choose those, and those only, who will increase your power and add
to your honour. Let me clinch my argument by examples: no chariot can
travel fast if the horses in the team are slow, or run straight if they
will not be ruled; no house can stand firm if the household is evil:
better empty walls than traitors who will bring it to the ground.

[27] "And be sure, my friends," he added, "the removal of the bad means
a benefit beyond the sheer relief that they are taken away and will
trouble us no more: those who are left and were ripe for contagion are
purified, and those who were worthy will cleave to virtue all the closer
when they see the dishonour that falls on wickedness."

[28] So Cyrus spoke, and his words won the praise of all his friends,
and they set themselves to do as he advised.

But after that Cyrus began to jest again. His eye fell on a certain
captain who had chosen for his comrade at the feast a great hairy lad, a
veritable monster of ugliness, and Cyrus called to the captain by name:
"How now, Sambulas? Have you adopted the Hellenic fashion too? And
will you roam the world together, you and the lad who sits beside you,
because there is none so fair as he?" "By heaven," answered Sambulas,
"you are not far wrong. It is bliss to me to feast my eyes upon him."
[29] At that all the guests turned and looked on the young man's
face, but when they saw how ugly it was, they could not help laughing
outright. "Heavens, Sambulas, tell us the valiant deed that knit your
souls together! How has he drawn you to himself?" [30] "Listen then," he
answered, "and I will tell you the whole truth. Every time I call
him, morning, noon, or night, he comes to me; never yet has he excused
himself, never been too busy to attend; and he comes at a run, he does
not walk. Whatever I have bidden him do, he has always done it, and at
the top of his speed. He has made all the petty captains under him the
very models of industry; he shows them, not by word but deed, what they
ought to be." [31] "And so," said another, "for all these virtues you
give him, I take it, the kiss of kinship?" But the ugly lad broke out:
"Not he! He has no great love for work. And to kiss me, if it came to
that, would mean more effort than all his exercises."

[C.3] So the hours passed in the general's tent, from grave to gay,
until at last the third libation was poured out, and the company bent
in prayer to the gods--"Grant us all that is good"--and so broke up, and
went away to sleep.

But the next day Cyrus assembled the soldiers in full conclave, and
spoke to them: [2] "My men," he said, "my friends, the day of struggle
is at hand, and the enemy are near. The prizes of victory, if victory
is to be ours--and we must believe it will be ours, we must make it
ours--the prizes of victory will be nothing short of the enemy himself
and all that he possesses. And if the victory should be his, then, in
like manner, all the goods of the vanquished must lie at the victor's
feet. [3] Therefore I would have you take this to your hearts: wherever
those who have joined together for war remember that unless each and
every one of them play his part with zeal nothing good can follow; there
we may look for glorious success. For there nothing that ought to be
done will be left undone. But if each man thinks 'My neighbour will
toil and fight, even though my own heart should fail and my own arm
fall slack,' then, believe me, disaster is at the door for each and all
alike, and no man shall escape. [4] Such is the ordinance of God: those
who will not work out their own salvation he gives into the hands of
other men to bear rule over them. And now I call on any man here," he
added, "to stand up and say whether he believes that virtue will best
be nourished among us if he who bears the greatest toil and takes the
heaviest risk shall receive the highest honours. Or whether we should
hold that cowardice makes no difference in the end, seeing that we all
must share alike?"

[5] Thereupon Chrysantas of the Peers rose up. He was a man of
understanding, but his bodily presence was weak. And now he spoke thus:

"I do not imagine, Cyrus, that you put this question with any belief
that cowards ought really to receive the same share as the brave. No,
you wished to make trial of us and see whether any man would dare to
claim an equal part in all that his fellows win by their nobleness,
though he never struck a single valiant stroke himself. [6] I myself,"
he continued, "am neither fleet of foot nor stout of limb, and for aught
I can do with my body, I perceive that on the day of trial neither the
first place nor the second can be mine, no, nor yet the hundredth, nor
even, it may be, the thousandth. But this I know right well, that if
our mighty men put forth all their strength, I too shall receive such
portion of our blessings as I may deserve. But if the cowards sit at
ease and the good and brave are out of heart, then I fear that I shall
get a portion, a larger than I care to think, of something that is no
blessing but a curse."

[7] And so spoke Chrysantas, and then Pheraulas stood up. He was a
man of the people, but well known to Cyrus in the old days at home and
well-beloved by him: no mean figure to look at, and in soul like a man
of noble birth. Now he spoke as follows:

[8] "Cyrus, friends, and Persians, I hold to the belief that on this
day we all start equal in that race where valour is the goal. I speak of
what I see: we are trained on the same fare; we are held worthy of the
same comradeship; we contend for the same rewards. All of us alike are
told to obey our leaders, and he who obeys most frankly never fails
to meet with honour at the hands of Cyrus. Valour is no longer the
privilege of one class alone: it has become the fairest prize that can
fall to the lot of any man. [9] And to-day a battle is before us where
no man need teach us how to fight: we have the trick of it by nature,
as a bull knows how to use his horns, or a horse his hoofs, or a dog
his teeth, or a wild boar his tusks. The animals know well enough," he
added, "when and where to guard themselves: they need no master to tell
them that. [10] I myself, when I was a little lad, I knew by instinct
how to shield myself from the blow I saw descending: if I had nothing
else, I had my two fists, and used them with all my force against my
foe: no one taught me how to do it, on the contrary they beat me if they
saw me clench my fists. And a knife, I remember, I never could resist:
I clutched the thing whenever I caught sight of it: not a soul showed me
how to hold it, only nature herself, I do aver. I did it, not because I
was taught to do it, but in spite of being forbidden, like many another
thing to which nature drove me, in spite of my father and mother both.
Yes, and I was never tired of hacking and hewing with my knife whenever
I got the chance: it did not seem merely natural, like walking or
running, it was positive joy. [11] Well, to-day we are to fight in
this same simple fashion: energy, rather than skill, is called for, and
glorious it will be to match ourselves against our friends, the Peers of
Persia. And let us remember that the same prizes are offered to us
all, but the stakes differ: our friends give up a life of honour,
the sweetest life there can be, but we escape from years of toil and
ignominy, and there can be no life worse than that. [12] And what fires
me most of all, my friends, and sends me into the lists most gladly, is
the thought that Cyrus will be our judge: one who will give no partial
verdict. I call the gods to witness when I say that he loves a valiant
man as he loves his own soul: I have seen him give such an one more than
he ever keeps for himself. [13] And now," he added, "I know that our
friends here pride themselves upon their breeding and what it has done
for them. They have been brought up to endure hunger and thirst, cold
and nakedness, and yet they are aware that we too have been trained in
the self-same school and by a better master than they: we were taught by
Necessity, and there is no teacher so good, and none so strict. [14] How
did our friends here learn their endurance? By bearing arms, weapons
of war, tools that the wit of the whole human race has made as light as
well could be: but Necessity drove us, my fellows and myself, to stagger
under burdens so heavy that to-day, if I may speak for myself, these
weapons of mine seem rather wings to lift me than weights to bear. [15]
I for one am ready, Cyrus, to enter the lists, and, however I prove, I
will ask from you no more than I deserve: I would have you believe this.
And you," he added, turning to his fellows, "you, men of the people, I
would have you plunge into the battle and match yourselves with these
gentlemen-warriors: the fine fellows must meet us now, for this is the
people's day."

[16] That is what Pheraulas said, and many rose to follow him and
support his views. And it was resolved that each man should be honoured
according to his deserts and that Cyrus should be the judge. So the
matter ended, and all was well.

[17] Now Cyrus gave a banquet and a certain brigadier was the chief
guest, and his regiment with him. Cyrus had marked the officer one
day when he was drilling his men; he had drawn up the ranks in two
divisions, opposite each other, ready for the charge. They were all
wearing corslets and carrying light shields, but half were equipped
with stout staves of fennel, and half were ordered to snatch up clods of
earth and do what they could with these. [18] When all were ready, the
officer gave the signal and the artillery began, not without effect: the
missiles fell fast on shields and corslets, on thighs and greaves. But
when they came to close quarters the men of the staves had their turn:
they struck at thighs and hands and legs, or, if the adversary stooped
and twisted, they belaboured back and shoulders, till they put the foe
to utter rout, delivering their blows with shouts of laughter and the
glee of boys. Then there was an exchange of weapons, and the other side
had their revenge: they took the staves in their turn, and once more the
staff triumphed over the clod. [19] Cyrus was full of admiration, partly
at the inventiveness of the commander, partly at the discipline of the
men; it was good to see the active exercise, and the gaiety of heart,
and good to know that the upshot of the battle favoured those who fought
in the Persian style. In every way he was pleased, and then and there
he bade them all to dinner. But at the feast many of the guests wore
bandages, some on their hands, others on their legs, and Cyrus saw it
and asked what had befallen them. They told him they had been bruised
by the clods. [20] "At close quarters?" said he, "or at long range?" "At
long range," they answered, and all the club-bearers agreed that when
it came to close quarters, they had the finest sport. But here those who
had been carbonaded by that weapon broke in and protested loudly that
it was anything but sport to be clubbed at short range, and in proof
thereof they showed the weals on hand and neck and face. Thus they
laughed at one another as soldiers will; and on the next day the whole
plain was studded with combats of this type, and whenever the army had
nothing more serious in hand, this sport was their delight.

[21] Another day Cyrus noticed a brigadier who was marching his regiment
up from the river back to their quarters. They were advancing in single
file on his left, and at the proper moment he ordered the second company
to wheel round and draw up to the front alongside the first, and then
the third, and then the fourth; and when the company-captains were
all abreast, he passed the word along, "Companies in twos," and the
captains-of-ten came into line; and then at the right moment he gave the
order, "Companies in fours," and the captains of five wheeled round and
came abreast, and when they reached the tent doors he called a halt,
made them fall into single file once more, and marched the first company
in first, and then the second at its heels, and the third and fourth
behind them, and as he introduced them, he seated them at the table,
keeping the order of their entry. What Cyrus commended was the quiet
method of instruction and the care the officer showed, and it was for
that he invited him and all his regiment to dinner in the royal tent.

[22] Now it chanced that another brigadier was among the guests, and
he spoke up and said to Cyrus: "But will you never ask my men to dinner
too? Day after day, morning and evening, whenever we come in for a meal
we do just the same as they, and when the meal is over the hindmost
man of the last company leads out his men with their fighting-order
reversed, and the next company follows, led by their hindmost man, and
then the third, and then the fourth: so that all of them, if they have
to retire before an enemy, will know how to fall back in good order.
And as soon as we are drawn up on the parade-ground we set off marching
east, and I lead off with all my divisions behind me, in their regular
order, waiting for my word. By-and-by we march west, and then the
hindmost man of the last division leads the way, but they must still
look to me for commands, though I am marching last: and thus they learn
to obey with equal promptitude whether I am at the head or in the rear."

[23] "Do you mean to tell me," said Cyrus, "that this is a regular rule
of yours?"

"Truly yes," he answered, "as regular as our meals, heaven help us!"

"Then I hereby invite you all to dinner, and for three good reasons; you
practice your drill in both forms, you do this morning and evening both,
and by your marching and counter-marching you train your bodies and
benefit your souls. And since you do it all twice over every day, it is
only fair to give you dinner twice."

[24] "Not twice in one day, I beg you!" said the officer, "unless you
can furnish us with a second stomach apiece."

And so the conversation ended for the time. But the next day Cyrus was
as good as his word. He had all the regiment to dinner; and the day
after he invited them again: and when the other regiments knew of it
they fell to doing as they did.

[C.4] Now it chanced one day as Cyrus was holding a review, a messenger
came from Cyaxares to tell him that an embassy from India had just
arrived, and to bid him return with all despatch.

"And I bring with me," said the messenger, "a suit of splendid apparel
sent from Cyaxares himself: my lord wishes you to appear in all possible
splendour, for the Indians will be there to see you."

[2] At that Cyrus commanded the brigadier of the first regiment to draw
up to the front with his men behind him on the left in single file, and
to pass the order on to the second, and so throughout the army. Officers
and men were quick to obey; so that in a trice the whole force on the
field was drawn up, one hundred deep and three hundred abreast, with
their officers at the head. [3] When they were in position Cyrus bade
them follow his lead and off they went at a good round pace. However the
road leading to the royal quarters was too narrow to let them pass
with so wide a front and Cyrus sent word along the line that the first
detachment, one thousand strong, should follow as they were, and then
the second, and so on to the last, and as he gave the command he led
on without a pause and all the detachments followed in due order, one
behind the other. [4] But to prevent mistakes he sent two gallopers up
to the entrance with orders to explain what should be done in case the
men were at a loss. And when they reached the gates, Cyrus told the
leading brigadier to draw up his regiment round the palace, twelve deep,
the front rank facing the building, and this command he was to pass on
to the second, and the second to the third, and so on till the last. [5]
And while they saw to this he went in to Cyaxares himself, wearing his
simple Persian dress without a trace of pomp. Cyaxares was well pleased
at his celerity, but troubled by the plainness of his attire, and said
to him, "What is the meaning of this, Cyrus? How could you show yourself
in this guise to the Indians? I wished you to appear in splendour:
it would have done me honour for my sister's son to be seen in great
magnificence."

[6] But Cyrus made answer: "Should I have done you more honour if I had
put on a purple robe, and bracelets for my arms, and a necklace about my
neck, and so presented myself at your call after long delay? Or as now,
when to show you respect I obey you with this despatch and bring you
so large and fine a force, although I wear no ornament but the dust and
sweat of speed, and make no display unless it be to show you these
men who are as obedient to you as I am myself." Such were the words of
Cyrus, and Cyaxares felt that they were just, and so sent for the
Indian ambassadors forthwith. [7] And when they entered they gave this
message:--The king of the Indians bade them ask what was the cause of
strife between the Assyrians and the Medes, "And when we have heard
you," they said, "our king bids us betake ourselves to the Assyrian and
put the same question to him, and in the end we are to tell you both
that the king of the Indians, when he has enquired into the justice of
the case, will uphold the cause of him who has been wronged."

[8] To this Cyaxares replied:

"Then take from me this answer: we do the Assyrian no wrong nor any
injustice whatsoever. And now go and make inquiry of him, if you are so
minded, and see what answer he will give."

Then Cyrus, who was standing by, asked Cyaxares, "May I too say what
is in my mind?" "Say on," answered Cyaxares. Then Cyrus turned to the
ambassadors: "Tell your master," he said, "unless Cyaxares is otherwise
minded, that we are ready to do this: if the Assyrian lays any injustice
to our charge we choose the king of the Indians himself to be our judge,
and he shall decide between us."

[9] With that the embassy departed. And when they had gone out Cyrus
turned to his uncle and began, "Cyaxares, when I came to you I had scant
wealth of my own and of the little I brought with me only a fragment is
left. I have spent it all on my soldiers. You may wonder at this," he
added, "when it is you who have supported them, but, believe me, the
money has not been wasted: it has all been spent on gifts and rewards
to the soldiers who deserved it. [10] And I am sure," he added, "if
we require good workers and good comrades in any task whatever, it is
better and pleasanter to encourage them by kind speeches and kindly acts
than to drive them by pains and penalties. And if it is for war that we
need such trusty helpers, we can only win the men we want by every charm
of word and grace of deed. For our true ally must be a friend and not a
foe, one who can never envy the prosperity of his leader nor betray him
in the day of disaster. [11] Such is my conviction, and such being so,
I do not hide from myself the need of money. But to look to you for
everything, when I know that you spend so much already, would be
monstrous in my eyes. I only ask that we should take counsel together so
as to prevent the failure of your funds. I am well aware that if you won
great wealth, I should be able to help myself at need, especially if I
used it for your own advantage. [12] Now I think you told me the other
day that the king of Armenia has begun to despise you, because he hears
we have an enemy, and therefore he will neither send you troops nor pay
the tribute which is due." [13] "Yes," answered Cyaxares, "such are his
tricks. And I cannot decide whether to march on him at once and try
to subdue him by force, or let the matter be for the time, for fear of
adding to the enemies we have." Then Cyrus asked, "Are his dwellings
strongly fortified, or could they be attacked?" And Cyaxares answered,
"The actual fortifications are not very strong: I took good care of
that. But he has the hill-country to which he can retire, and there for
the moment lie secure, knowing that he himself is safely out of reach,
with everything that he can convoy thither; unless we are prepared to
carry on a siege, as my father actually did."

[14] Thereupon Cyrus said, "Now if you are willing to send me with
a moderate force of cavalry--I will not ask for many men--I believe,
heaven helping me, I could compel him to send the troops and the
tribute. And I even hope that in the future he may become a firmer
friend that he is now." [15] And Cyaxares said: "I think myself they are
more likely to listen to you than to me. I have been told that his sons
were your companions in the chase when you were lads, and possibly old
habits will return and they will come over to you. Once they were in our
power, everything could be done as we desire." "Then," said Cyrus,
"this plan of ours had better be kept secret, had it not?" "No doubt,"
answered Cyaxares. "In that way they would be more likely to fall into
our hands, and if we attack them they would be taken unprepared."

[16] "Listen then," said Cyrus, "and see what you think of this. I have
often hunted the marches between your country and Armenia with all
my men, and sometimes I have taken horsemen with me from our comrades
here." "I see," said Cyaxares, "and if you chose to do the like again
it would seem only natural, but if your force was obviously larger than
usual, suspicion would arise at once." [17] "But it is possible," said
Cyrus, "to frame a pretext which would find credit with us and with them
too, if any rumour reached them. We might give out that I intend to hold
a splendid hunt and I might ask you openly for a troop of horse."

"Admirable!" said Cyaxares. "And I shall refuse to give you more than a
certain number, my reason being that I wish to visit the outposts on the
Syrian side. And as a matter of fact," he added, "I do wish to see them
and put them in as strong a state as possible. Then, as soon as you have
started with your men, and marched, let us say, for a couple of days,
I could send you a good round number of horse and foot from my own
detachment. And when you have them at your back, you could advance at
once, and I will follow with the rest of my men as near you as I may,
close enough to appear in time of need."

[18] Accordingly, Cyaxares proceeded to muster horse and foot for his
own march, and sent provision-waggons forward to meet him on the road.
Meanwhile Cyrus offered sacrifice for the success of his expedition and
found an opportunity to ask Cyaxares for a troop of his junior cavalry.
But Cyaxares would only spare a few, though many wished to go. Soon
afterwards he started for the outposts himself with all his horse and
foot, and then Cyrus found the omens favourable for his enterprise, and
led his soldiers out as though he meant to hunt. [19] He was scarcely
on his way when a hare started up at their feet, and an eagle, flying on
the right, saw the creature as it fled, swooped down and struck it,
bore it aloft in its talons to a cliff hard by, and did its will upon it
there. The omen pleased Cyrus well, and he bowed in worship to Zeus the
King, and said to his company, "This shall be a right noble hunt, my
friends, if God so will."

[20] When he came to the borders he began the hunt in his usual way, the
mass of horse and foot going on ahead in rows like reapers, beating out
the game, with picked men posted at intervals to receive the animals and
give them chase. And thus they took great numbers of boars and stags and
antelopes and wild-asses: even to this day wild-asses are plentiful in
those parts. [21] But when the chase was over, Cyrus had touched the
frontier of the Armenian land, and there he made the evening meal. The
next day he hunted till he reached the mountains which were his goal.
And there he halted again and made the evening meal. At this point he
knew that the army from Cyaxares was advancing, and he sent secretly to
them and bade them keep about eight miles off, and take their evening
meal where they were, since that would make for secrecy. And when their
meal was over he told them to send their officers to him, and after
supper he called his own brigadiers together and addressed them thus:

[22] "My friends, in old days the Armenian was a faithful ally and
subject of Cyaxares, but now when he sees an enemy against us, he
assumes contempt: he neither sends the troops nor pays the tribute. He
is the game we have come to catch, if catch we can. And this, I think,
is the way. You, Chrysantas," said he, "will sleep for a few hours, and
then take half the Persians with you, make for the hill country, and
seize the heights which we hear are his places of refuge when alarmed.
I will give you guides. [23] The hills, they tell us, are covered with
trees and scrub, so that we may hope you will escape unseen: still you
might send a handful of scouts ahead of you, disguised as a band of
robbers. If they should come across any Armenians they can either make
them prisoners and prevent them from spreading the news, or at least
scare them out of the way, so that they will not realise the whole of
your force, and only take measures against a pack of thieves. [24] That
is your task, Chrysantas, and now for mine. At break of day I shall take
half the foot and all the cavalry and march along the level straight to
the king's residence. If he resists, we must fight, if he retreats
along the plain we must run him down, if he makes for the mountains, why
then," said Cyrus, "it will be your business to see that none of your
visitors escape. [25] Think of it as a hunt: we down below are the
beaters rounding up the game, and you are the men at the nets: only bear
in mind that the earths must all be stopped before the game is up, and
the men at the traps must be hidden, or they will turn back the flying
quarry. [26] One last word, Chrysantas: you must not behave now as I
have known you do in your passion for the chase: you must not sit up the
whole night long without a wink of sleep, you must let all your men have
the modicum of rest that they cannot do without. [27] Nor must you--just
because you scour the hills in the hunt without a guide, following the
lead of the quarry and that alone, checking and changing course wherever
it leads you--you must not now plunge into the wildest paths: you must
tell your guides to take you by the easiest road unless it is much the
longest. [28] In war, they say, the easiest way is the quickest. And
once more, because you can race up a mountain yourself you are not to
lead on your men at the double; suit your pace to the strength of all.
[29] Indeed, it were no bad thing if some of your best and bravest were
to fall behind here and there and cheer the laggards on: and it would
quicken the pace of all, when the column has gone ahead, to see them
racing back to their places past the marching files."

[30] Chrysantas listened, and his heart beat high at the trust reposed
in him. He took the guides, and gave the necessary orders for those who
were to march with him, and then he lay down to rest. And when all his
men had had the sleep he thought sufficient he set out for the hills.
[31] Day dawned, and Cyrus sent a messenger to the Armenian with these
words: "Cyrus bids you see to it that you bring your tribute and troops
without delay." "And if he asks you where Cyrus is, tell the truth and
say I am on the frontier. And if he asks whether I am advancing myself,
tell the truth again and say that you do not know. And if he enquires
how many we are, bid him send some one with you to find out."

[32] Having so charged the messenger he sent him on forthwith, holding
this to be more courteous than to attack without warning. Then he drew
up his troops himself in the order best suited for marching, and, if
necessary, for fighting, and so set forth. The soldiers had orders that
not a soul was to be wronged, and if they met any Armenians they were
to bid them to have no fear, but open a market wherever they wished, and
sell meat or drink as they chose.


                                NOTES

C1.5. Is this historical, i.e. _quasi_-historical? Are any of the names
real or all invented to give verisimilitude?

C1.13. Any touch of the sycophancy of the future in it? As in modern
Germany, a touch of that involved in the system of royalty.

C1.15. The raw material is good, but not worked up. Important for
the conception of Hellenic democracy (cf. § 17). Daring, courage,
virtue--there is no monopoly of these things.

C1.21. (Cf. below VIII. C2.5) Worthy of Adam Smith. Xenophon has bump of
economy strongly developed; he resembles J. P.[*] in that respect. The
economic methodism, the mosaic interbedding, the architectonic structure
of it all, a part and parcel of Xenophon's genius. Was Alexander's
army a highly-organised, spiritually and materially built-up, vitalised
machine of this sort? What light does Arrian, that younger Xenophon,
throw upon it?

[* "J. P." = John Percival, Bishop of Hereford (the writer of the
Introduction to this volume), at the time the notes were written
Headmaster of Clifton College.--F.M.S.]

C1.25. Camaraderie encouraged and developed through a sense of equality
and fraternity, the life _au grand jour_ in common, producing a common
consciousness (cf. Comte and J. P.; Epaminondas and the Sacred Band at
Thebes).

C2. Contrast of subject enlivening the style--light concrete as a foil
to the last drier abstract detail. Humorous also, with a dramatising
and development of the characters, Shakespeare-wise--Hystaspas, and the
rest. Aglaïtadas, a type of educator we know well (cf. Eccles. "Cocker
not a child"), grim, dry person with no sense of humour. Xenophon's own
humour shines out.

C2.12. The term given to the two stories {eis tagathon}. T. E. B.[*]
could do it, or Socrates, without dullness or seeming to preach. There
is a crispness in the voice which is anti-pedantic.

[* "T. E. B." = T. E. Brown, the Manx poet, at that time a colleague of
Mr. Dakyns at Clifton.--F.M.S.]

C2.19. Cyrus recognises the ideal principle of co-operation and
collective ownership. Xenophon, Economist, ahead of the moderns.

C2.26. Xenophon's breadth of view: virtue is not confined to citizens,
but we have the pick of the whole world. Cosmopolitan Hellenism.

C3.4. Xenophon's theory of rule (cf. Ruskin): a right, inalienable,
God-bestowed, of the virtuous; subjection an inevitable consequence on
lack of self-discipline.

C3.5, init. Is this a carelessness, or what? Chrysantas has been
introduced before, but here he is described as if stepping on the stage
for the first time. The sentence itself suggests the mould for the New
Testament narrative.

C3.7. Pheraulas, and of him we shall hear much. A sharp contrast to
Chrysantas, the Peer, with his pointed plebeian similes. His speech
important again for Xenophon's sympathetic knowledge of children and
also of the hard-working poor.

C3.10. How true to nature this. Cannot one see the little boy doubling
his little fists, a knife in his pocket, possibly a ball of string?

C3.11. Is there a touch of flunkeyism in this? Not so; it is the
clear-sighted scientific Greek, that is all.

C3.14. Very Scotch all this.

C3.21-22. _Locus classicus_ for regimental marching tactics. Qy.: Are
any of these tactical improvements by Xenophon himself?

C3.21. The "regiment" of a hundred men was divided into four
"companies" of twenty-five, to each of these one company-captain and
twenty-four men, viz.: twenty privates, two captains-of-ten, and two
captains-of-five, the two captains of ten having also especial charge
over the two remaining squads of five. A condensed diagram may make
the little manoeuvre clear. An X represents one group of five plus its
captain, either a captain-of-five or a captain-of-ten. A C represents a
company-captain.

  First position--One long column. All in single file.

  Second position--Four columns. Single file for each company.

  Third position--Eight columns. Double files.

  Fourth position--Sixteen columns. Quadruple files.

    C      C   C       C     C          C       C
    X      X   X  ->  X X   X X  ->  X X X X X X X X
    X  ->  X   X      X X   X X
    X      X   X
    X      X   X
    C
    X
    X
    X
    X]

C4.15. Cyaxares means to kidnap them, doesn't he? That is not quite
Cyrus' method. If so, it contrasts Cyaxares and Cyrus again.

C4.17. Cyaxares the old fox improves upon the plan.

C4.30, init. It is these touches which give the thrilling subjective
feeling to the writings of Xenophon, or, rather, thus his nerves tingle,
just as the external touches give a sense of objective health (e.g.
above, C1.29).

C4.32. All this is entirely modern, never yet excelled, I imagine.




BOOK III


[C.1] Thus Cyrus made his preparations. But the Armenian, when he heard
what the messenger had to say, was terror-stricken: he knew the wrong
he had done in neglecting the tribute and withholding the troops, and,
above all, he was afraid it would be discovered that he was beginning
to put his palace in a fit state for defence. [2] Therefore, with much
trepidation, he began to collect his own forces, and at the same time
he sent his younger son Sabaris into the hills with the women, his own
wife, and the wife of his elder son and his daughters, taking the best
of their ornaments and furniture with them and an escort to be their
guide. Meanwhile he despatched a party to discover what Cyrus was doing,
and organised all the Armenian contingents as they came in. But it was
not long before other messengers arrived, saying that Cyrus himself was
actually at hand. [3] Then his courage forsook him; he dared not come
to blows and he withdrew. As soon as the recruits saw this they took to
their heels, each man bent on getting his own property safely out of
the way. When Cyrus saw the plains full of them, racing and riding
everywhere, he sent out messengers privately to explain that he had no
quarrel with any who stayed quietly in their homes, but if he caught a
man in flight, he warned them he would treat him as an enemy. Thus
the greater part were persuaded to remain, though there were some who
retreated with the king.

[4] But when the escort with the women came on the Persians in the
mountain, they fled with cries of terror, and many of them were taken
prisoners. In the end the young prince himself was captured, and the
wife of the king, and his daughters, and his daughter-in-law, and
all the goods they had with them. And when the king learnt what had
happened, scarcely knowing where to turn, he fled to the summit of a
certain hill. [5] Cyrus, when he saw it, surrounded the spot with his
troops and sent word to Chrysantas, bidding him leave a force to
guard the mountains and come down to him. So the mass of the army was
collected under Cyrus, and then he sent a herald to the king with this
enquiry:

"Son of Armenia, will you wait here and fight with hunger and thirst,
or will you come down into the plain and fight it out with us?" But the
Armenian answered that he wished to fight with neither. [6] Cyrus sent
again and asked, "Why do you sit there, then, and refuse to come down?"
"Because I know not what to do," answered the other. "It is simple
enough," said Cyrus, "come down and take your trial." "And who shall try
me?" asked the king. "He," answered Cyrus, "to whom God has given the
power to treat you as he lists, without a trial at all."

Thereupon the Armenian came down, yielding to necessity, and Cyrus took
him and all that he had and placed him in the centre of the camp, for
all his forces were now at hand.

[7] Meanwhile Tigranes, the elder son of the king, was on his way home
from a far country. In old days he had hunted with Cyrus and been his
friend, and now, when he heard what had happened, he came forward just
as he was; but when he saw his father and his mother, his brother and
sisters, and his own wife all held as prisoners, he could not keep back
the tears. [8] But Cyrus gave him no sign of friendship or courtesy, and
only said, "You have come in time, you may be present now to hear your
father tried." With that he summoned the leaders of the Persians and the
Medes, and any Armenian of rank and dignity who was there, nor would
he send away the women as they sat in covered carriages, but let them
listen too. [9] When all was ready he began: "Son of Armenia, I would
counsel you, in the first place, to speak the truth, so that at least
you may stand free from what deserves the utmost hate: beyond all
else, be assured, manifest lying checks the sympathy of man and man.
Moreover," said he, "your own sons, your daughters, and your wife are
well aware of all that you have done, and so are your own Armenians
who are here: if they perceive that you say what is not true, they must
surely feel that out of your own lips you condemn yourself to suffer
the uttermost penalty when I learn the truth." "Nay," answered the king,
"ask me whatever you will, and I will answer truly, come what come may."
[10] "Answer then," said Cyrus, "did you once make war upon Astyages,
my mother's father, and his Medes?" "I did," he answered. "And were you
conquered by him, and did you agree to pay tribute and furnish troops
whenever he required, and promise not to fortify your dwellings?" "Even
so," he said. "Why is it, then, that to-day you have neither brought the
tribute nor sent the troops, and are building forts?" "I set my heart on
liberty: it seemed to me so fair a thing to be free myself and to leave
freedom to my sons." [11] "And fair and good it is," said Cyrus, "to
fight for freedom and choose death rather than slavery, but if a man is
worsted in war or enslaved by any other means and then attempts to rid
himself of his lord, tell me yourself, would you honour such a man as
upright, and a doer of noble deeds, or would you, if you got him in
your power, chastise him as a malefactor?" "I would chastise him," he
answered, "since you drive me to the truth." [12] "Then answer me now,
point by point," said Cyrus. "If you have an officer and he does wrong,
do you suffer him to remain in office, or do you set up another in his
stead?" "I set up another." "And if he have great riches, to you leave
him all his wealth, or do you make him a beggar?" "I take away from him
all that he has." "And if you found him deserting to your enemies, what
would you do?" "I would kill him," he said: "why should I perish with a
lie on my lips rather than speak the truth and die?"

[13] But at this his son rent his garments and dashed the tiara from his
brows, and the women lifted up their voices in wailing and tore their
cheeks, as though their father was dead already, and they themselves
undone. But Cyrus bade them keep silence, and spoke again. "Son of
Armenia, we have heard your own judgment in this case, and now tell us,
what ought we to do?" But the king sat silent and perplexed, wondering
whether he should bid Cyrus put him to death, or act in the teeth of the
rule he had laid down for himself. [14] Then his son Tigranes turned to
Cyrus and said, "Tell me, Cyrus, since my father sits in doubt, may I
give counsel in his place and say what I think best for you?"

Now Cyrus remembered that, in the old hunting days, he had noticed a
certain man of wisdom who went about with Tigranes and was much admired
by him, and he was curious to know what the youth would say. So he
readily agreed and bade him speak his mind.

[15] "In my view, then," said Tigranes, "if you approve of all that my
father has said and done, certainly you ought to do as he did, but if
you think he has done wrong, then you must not copy him."

"But surely," said Cyrus, "the best way to avoid copying the wrongdoer
is to practise what is right?"

"True enough," answered the prince.

"Then on your own reasoning, I am bound to punish your father, if it is
right to punish wrong."

"But would you wish your vengeance to do you harm instead of good?"

"Nay," said Cyrus, "for then my vengeance would fall upon myself."

[16] "Even so," said Tigranes, "and you will do yourself the greatest
harm if you put your own subjects to death just when they are most
valuable to you."

"Can they have any value," asked Cyrus, "when they are detected doing
wrong?"

"Yes," answered Tigranes, "if that is when they turn to good and learn
sobriety. For it is my belief, Cyrus, that without this virtue all
others are in vain. What good will you get from a strong man or a brave
if he lack sobriety, be he never so good a horseman, never so rich,
never so powerful in the state? But with sobriety every friend is a
friend in need and every servant a blessing."

[17] "I take your meaning," answered Cyrus; "your father, you would have
me think, has been changed in this one day from a fool into a wise and
sober-minded man?"

"Exactly," said the prince.

"Then you would call sober-mindedness a condition of our nature, such
as pain, not a matter of reason that can be learnt? For certainly, if
he who is to be sober-minded must learn wisdom first, he could not be
converted from folly in a day."

[18] "Nay, but, Cyrus," said the prince, "surely you yourself have
known one man at least who out of sheer folly has set himself to fight
a stronger man than he, and on the day of defeat his senselessness has
been cured. And surely you have known a city ere now that has marshalled
her battalions against a rival state, but with defeat she changes
suddenly and is willing to obey and not resist?"

[19] "But what defeat," said Cyrus, "can you find in your father's case
to make you so sure that he has come to a sober mind?"

"A defeat," answered the young man, "of which he is well aware in the
secret chambers of his soul. He set his heart on liberty, and he has
found himself a slave as never before: he had designs that needed
stealth and speed and force, and not one of them has he been able to
carry through. With you he knows that design and fulfilment went hand
in hand; when you wished to outwit him, outwit him you did, as though he
had been blind and deaf and dazed; when stealth was needed, your stealth
was such that the fortresses he thought his own you turned into traps
for him; and your speed was such that you were upon him from miles away
with all your armament before he found time to muster the forces at his
command."

[20] "So you think," said Cyrus, "that merely to learn another is
stronger than himself is defeat enough to bring a man to his senses?"

"I do," answered Tigranes, "and far more truly than mere defeat in
battle. For he who is conquered by force may fancy that if he trains
he can renew the war, and captured cities dream that with the help of
allies they will fight again one day, but if we meet with men who are
better than ourselves and whom we recognise to be so, we are ready to
obey them of our own free will." [21] "You imagine then," said
Cyrus, "that the bully and the tyrant cannot recognise the man
of self-restraint, nor the thief the honest man, nor the liar the
truth-speaker, nor the unjust man the upright? Has not your own father
lied even now and broken his word with us, although he knew that we had
faithfully observed every jot and tittle of the compact Astyages made?"
[22] "Ah, but," replied the prince, "I do not pretend that the bare
knowledge alone will bring a man to his senses, it cannot cure him
unless he pays the penalty as my father pays it to-day." "But," answered
Cyrus, "your father has suffered nothing at all so far: although he
fears, I know, that the worst suffering may be his." [23] "Do you
suppose then," asked Tigranes, "that anything can enslave a man more
utterly than fear? Do you not know that even the men who are beaten with
the iron rod of war, the heaviest rod in all the world, may still be
ready to fight again, while the victims of terror cannot be brought to
look their conquerors in the face, even when they try to comfort them?"
"Then, you maintain," said Cyrus, "that fear will subdue a man more than
suffering?" [24] "Yes," he answered, "and you of all men know that what
I say is true: you know the despondency men feel in dread of banishment,
or on the eve of battle facing defeat, or sailing the sea in peril of
shipwreck--they cannot touch their food or take their rest because
of their alarm: while it may often be that the exiles themselves, the
conquered, or the enslaved, can eat and sleep better than men who have
not known adversity. [25] Think of those panic-stricken creatures who
through fear of capture and death have died before their day, have
hurled themselves from cliffs, hanged themselves, or set the knife to
their throats; so cruelly can fear, the prince of horrors, bind and
subjugate the souls of men. And what, think you, does my father feel at
this moment? He, whose fears are not for himself alone, but for us all,
for his wife, and for his children." [26] And Cyrus said, "To-day and
at this time, it may be with him as you say: but I still think that the
same man may well be insolent in good fortune and cringing in defeat:
let such an one go free again, and he will return to his arrogance and
trouble us once more." [27] "I do not deny it, Cyrus," said the prince.
"Our offences are such that you may well mistrust us: but you have it in
your power to set garrisons in our land and hold our strong places and
take what pledges you think best. And even so," he added, "you will not
find that we fret against our chains, for we shall remember we have only
ourselves to blame. Whereas, if you hand over the government to some
who have not offended, they may either think that you mistrust them, and
thus, although you are their benefactor, you cannot be their friend, or
else in your anxiety not to rouse their enmity you may leave no check
on their insolence, and in the end you will need to sober them even
more than us." [28] "Nay, but by all the gods," cried Cyrus, "little joy
should I ever take in those who served me from necessity alone. Only if
I recognise some touch of friendship or goodwill in the help it is their
duty to render, I could find it easier to forgive them all their faults
than to accept the full discharge of service paid upon compulsion by
those who hate me."

Then Tigranes answered, "You speak of friendship, but can you ever find
elsewhere so great a friendship as you may find with us?" "Surely I
can," he answered, "and with those who have never been my enemies, if
I choose to be their benefactor as you would have me yours." [29] "But
to-day, and now, can you find another man in the world whom you could
benefit as you can benefit my father? Say you let a man live who has
never done you wrong, will he be grateful for the boon? Say he need not
lose his children and his wife, will he love you for that more than one
who knows he well deserved the loss? Say he may not sit upon the throne
of Armenia, will he suffer from that as we shall suffer? And is it not
clear that the one who feels the pain of forfeiture the most will be the
one most grateful for the granting of the gift? [30] And if you have it
at all at heart to leave matters settled here, think for yourself, and
see where tranquillity will lie when your back is turned. Will it be
with the new dynasty, or with the old familiar house? And if you want
as large a force as possible at your command, where will you find a man
better fitted to test the muster-roll than the general who has used it
time and again? If you need money, who will provide the ways and means
better than he who knows and can command all the resources of the
country? I warn you as a friend," he added, "that if you throw us aside
you will do yourself more harm than ever my father could have done."

[31] Such were the pleadings of the prince, and Cyrus, as he listened,
was overjoyed, for he felt he would accomplish to the full all he had
promised Cyaxares; his own words came back to him, "I hope to make the
Armenian a better friend than before."

Thereupon he turned to the king and said, "Son of Armenia, if I were
indeed to hearken unto you and yours in this, tell me, how large an army
would you send me and how much money for the war?"

[32] And the king replied, "The simplest answer I can make and the most
straightforward is to tell you what my power is, and then you may take
the men you choose, and leave the rest to garrison the country. And so
with the money: it is only fair that you should know the whole of our
wealth, and with that knowledge to guide you, you will take what you
like and leave what you like." [33] And Cyrus said, "Tell me then, and
tell me true: how great is your power and your wealth?" Whereupon the
Armenian replied: "Our cavalry is 8000 strong and our infantry 40,000;
and our wealth," said he, "if I include the treasures which my father
left, amounts in silver to more than 3000 talents."

[34] And Cyrus, without more ado, said at once, "Of your whole armament
you shall give me half, not more, since your neighbours the Chaldaeans
are at war with you: but for the tribute, instead of the fifty talents
which you paid before, you shall hand over twice as much to Cyaxares
because you made default; and you will lend me another hundred for
myself, and I hereby promise you, if God be bountiful, I will requite
you for the loan with things of higher worth, or I will pay the money
back in full, if I can; and if I cannot, you may blame me for want of
ability, but not for want of will." [35] But the Armenian cried, "By all
the gods, Cyrus, speak not so, or you will put me out of heart. I beg
you to look on all I have as yours, what you leave behind as well as
what you take away."

"So be it then," answered Cyrus, "and to ransom your wife, how much
money would you give?" "All that I have," said he. "And for your sons?"
"For them too, all that I have." "Good," answered Cyrus, "but is not
that already twice as much as you possess? [36] And you, Tigranes," said
he, "at what price would you redeem your bride?" Now the youth was but
newly wedded, and his wife was beyond all things dear to him. "I would
give my life," said he, "to save her from slavery." [37] "Take her
then," said Cyrus, "she is yours. For I hold that she has never yet been
made a prisoner, seeing that her husband never deserted us. And you,
son of Armenia," said he, turning to the king, "you shall take home your
wife and children, and pay no ransom for them, so that they shall not
feel they come to you from slavery. But now," he added, "you shall stay
and sup with us, and afterwards you shall go wherever you wish."

And so the Armenians stayed. [38] But when the company broke up after
the evening meal, Cyrus asked Tigranes, "Tell me, where is that friend
of yours who used to hunt with us, and whom, as it seemed to me, you
admired so much?" "Do you not know," he said, "that my father put him
to death?" "And why?" said Cyrus, "what fault did he find in him?" "He
thought he corrupted me," said the youth; "and yet, I tell you, Cyrus,
he was so gentle and so brave, so beautiful in soul, that when he came
to die, he called me to him and said, 'Do not be angry with your father,
Tigranes, for putting me to death. What he does is not done from
malice, but from ignorance; and the sins of ignorance, I hold, are
unintentional.'"

[39] And at that Cyrus could not but say: "Poor soul! I grieve for him."
But the king spoke in his own defence: "Remember this, Cyrus, that the
man who finds another with his wife kills him not simply because he
believes that he has turned the woman to folly, but because he has
robbed him of her love. Even so I was jealous of that man who seemed to
put himself between my son and me and steal away his reverence." [40]
"May the gods be merciful to us!" said Cyrus, "you did wrong, but your
fault was human. And you, Tigranes," said he, turning to the son, "you
must forgive your father."

And so they talked in all friendliness and kindliness, as befitted
that time of reconciliation; and then the father and son mounted their
carriages, with their dear ones beside them, and drove away rejoicing.

[41] But when they were home again, they all spoke of Cyrus, one
praising his wisdom, another his endurance, a third the gentleness
of his nature, and a fourth his stature and his beauty. Then Tigranes
turned to his wife and asked, "Did Cyrus seem so beautiful in your
eyes?" But she answered, "Ah, my lord, he was not the man I saw." "Who
was it then?" asked Tigranes. "He," she answered, "who offered his own
life to free me from slavery."

And so they took their delight together, as lovers will, after all their
sufferings.

[42] But on the morrow the king of Armenia sent gifts of hospitality to
Cyrus and all his army, and bade his own contingent make ready to march
on the third day, and himself brought Cyrus twice the sum which he had
named. But Cyrus would take no more than he had fixed, and gave the
rest back to the king, only asking whether he or his son was to lead the
force. And the father answered that it should be as Cyrus chose, but the
son said, "I will not leave you, Cyrus, if I must carry the baggage to
follow you." [43] And Cyrus laughed and said, "What will you take to let
us tell your wife that you have become a baggage-bearer?" "She will not
need to be told," he answered, "I mean to bring her with me, and she can
see for herself all that her husband does." "Then it is high time," said
Cyrus, "that you got your own baggage together now." "We will come,"
said he, "be sure of that, in good time, with whatever baggage my father
gives."

So the soldiers were the guests of Armenia for the day, and rested for
that night.

[C.2] But on the day following Cyrus took Tigranes and the best of the
Median cavalry, with chosen followers of his own, and scoured the whole
country to decide where he should build a fort. He halted on the top of
a mountain-pass and asked Tigranes where the heights lay down which the
Chaldaeans swept when they came to plunder. Tigranes showed him. Then
Cyrus asked him if the mountains were quite uninhabited. "No, indeed,"
said the prince, "there are always men on the look-out, who signal to
the others if they catch sight of anything." "And what do they do," he
asked, "when they see the signal?" "They rush to the rescue," he said,
"as quickly as they can." [2] Cyrus listened and looked, and he could
see that large tracts lay desolate and untilled because of the war. That
day they came back to camp and took their supper and slept. [3] But the
next morning Tigranes presented himself with all his baggage in order
and ready for the march, 4000 cavalry at his back, 10,000 bowmen, and as
many targeteers. While they were marching up, Cyrus offered sacrifice,
and finding that the victims were favourable, he called the leaders of
the Persians together and the chief captains of the Medes and spoke to
them thus:

[4] "My friends, there lie the Chaldaean hills. If we could seize
them and set a garrison to hold the pass, we should compel them both,
Chaldaeans and Armenians alike, to behave themselves discreetly. The
victims are favourable; and to help a man in such a work as this there
is no ally half so good as speed. If we scale the heights before the
enemy have time to gather, we may take the position out of hand without
a blow, and at most we shall only find a handful of weak and scattered
forces to oppose us. [5] Steady speed is all I ask for, and surely I
could ask for nothing easier or less dangerous. To arms then! The Medes
will march on our left, half the Armenians on our right, and the rest
in the van to lead the way, the cavalry in our rear, to cheer us on and
push us forward and let none of us give way."

[6] With that Cyrus led the advance, the army in column behind him.
As soon as the Chaldaeans saw them sweeping up from the plain, they
signalled to their fellows till the heights re-echoed with answering
shouts, and the tribesmen gathered on every side. Then Cyrus sent word
along his lines, "Soldiers of Persia, they are signalling to us to make
haste. If only we reach the top before them, all they can do will be in
vain."

[7] Now the Chaldaeans were said to be the most warlike of all the
tribes in that country, and each of them was armed with a shield and a
brace of javelins. They fight for pay wherever they are needed, partly
because they are warriors born, but partly through poverty; for their
country is mountainous, and the fertile part of it small. [8] As Cyrus
and his force drew near the head of the pass, Tigranes, who was marching
at his side, said:

"Do you know, Cyrus, that before long we shall be in the thick of the
fight ourselves? Our Armenians will never stand the charge." Cyrus
answered that he was well aware of that, and immediately sent word that
the Persians should be ready to give chase at once, "as soon as we see
the Armenians decoying the enemy by feigning flight and drawing them
within our reach."

[9] Thus they marched up with the Armenians in the van: and the
Chaldaeans who had collected waited till they were almost on them,
and then charged with a tremendous shout, as their custom was, and the
Armenians, as was ever theirs, turned and ran. [10] But in the midst
of the pursuit the Chaldaeans met new opponents streaming up the pass,
armed with short swords, and some of them were cut to pieces at once
before they could withdraw, while others were taken prisoners and the
rest fled, and in a few moments the heights were won. From the top
of the pass Cyrus and his staff looked down and saw below them the
Chaldaean villages with fugitives pouring from the nearest houses. [11]
Soon the rest of the army came up, and Cyrus ordered them all to take
the morning meal. When it was over, and he had ascertained that the
look-out was really in a strong position, and well supplied with water,
he set about fortifying a post without more ado, and he bade Tigranes
send to his father and bid him come at once with all the carpenters and
stonemasons he could fetch, and while a messenger went off to the king
Cyrus did all he could with what he had at hand.

[12] Meanwhile they brought up the prisoners, all of them bound in
chains and some wounded. But Cyrus when he saw their plight ordered the
chains to be struck off, and sent for surgeons to dress their wounds,
and then he told them that he came neither to destroy them nor to war
against them, but to make peace between them and the Armenians. "I
know," he said, "before your pass was taken you did not wish for peace.
Your own land was in safety and you could harry the Armenians: but you
can see for yourselves how things stand to-day. [13] Accordingly I will
let you all go back to your homes in freedom, and I will allow you and
your fellows to take counsel together and choose whether you will have
us for your enemies or your friends. If you decide on war, you had
better not come here again without your weapons, but if you choose
peace, come unarmed and welcome: it shall be my care to see that all is
well with you, if you are my friends."

[14] And when the Chaldaeans heard that, they poured out praises and
thanks, and then they turned homewards and departed.

Meanwhile the king, receiving the call of Cyrus, and hearing the
business that was at hand, had gathered his workmen together and took
what he thought necessary and came with all speed. [15] And when he
caught sight of Cyrus, he cried: "Ah, my lord, blind mortals that we
are! How little can we see of the future, and how much we take in hand
to do! I set myself to win freedom and I made myself a slave, and now,
when we were captured and said to ourselves that we were utterly undone,
suddenly we find a safety we never had before. Those who troubled us are
taken now, even as I would have them. [16] Be well assured, Cyrus," he
added, "that I would have paid the sum you had from me over and over
again simply to dislodge the Chaldaeans from these heights. The things
of worth you promised me when you took the money have been paid in full
already, and we discover that we are not your creditors, but deep in
your debt for many kindnesses; and we shall be ashamed not to return
them, or we should be base indeed, for try as we may, we shall never be
able to requite in full so great a benefactor."

[17] Such thanks the Armenian gave.

Then the Chaldaeans came back, begging Cyrus to make peace with them.
And Cyrus asked them: "Am I right in thinking that you desire peace
to-day because you believe it will be safer for you than war, now that
we hold these heights?"

And the Chaldaeans said that so it was. [18] "Well and good," said he.
"And what if other benefits were gained by peace?" "We should be all the
better pleased," said they. "Is there any other reason," he asked, "for
your present poverty, except your lack of fertile soil?" They said that
there was none. "Well then," Cyrus went on, "would you be willing to pay
the same dues as the Armenians, if you were allowed to cultivate as much
of their land as you desired?" And the Chaldaeans said they would, if
only they could rely on being fairly treated. [19] "Now," said Cyrus,
turning to the Armenian king, "would you like that land of yours which
is now lying idle to be tilled and made productive, supposing the
workers paid you the customary dues?" "I would, indeed," said the king,
"so much so that I am ready to pay a large sum for it. It would mean a
great increase to my revenue." [20] "And you, Chaldaeans," said Cyrus,
"with your splendid mountains, would you let the Armenians use them for
pasture if the graziers paid you what was fair?" "Surely yes," said the
Chaldaeans, "it would mean much profit and no pains."

"Son of Armenia," said Cyrus, "would you take this land for grazing,
if by paying a small sum to the Chaldaeans you got a far greater return
yourself?"

"Right willingly," said he, "if I thought my flocks could feed in
safety."

"And would they not be safe enough," suggested Cyrus, "if this pass were
held for you?" To which the king agreed. [21] But the Chaldaeans cried,
"Heaven help us! We could not till our own fields in safety, not to
speak of theirs, if the Armenians held the pass." "True," answered
Cyrus, "but how would it be if the pass were held for you?" "Ah, then,"
said they, "all would be well enough." "Heaven help us!" cried the
Armenian in his turn, "all might be well enough for them, but it would
be ill for us if these neighbours of ours recovered the post, especially
now that it is fortified." [22] Then Cyrus said, "See, then, this is
what I will do: I will hand over the pass to neither of you: we Persians
will guard it ourselves, and if either of you injure the other, we will
step in and side with the sufferers."

[23] Then both parties applauded the decision, and said that only thus
could they establish a lasting peace, and on these terms they exchanged
pledges, and a covenant was made that both nations alike were to be free
and independent, but with common rights of marriage, and tillage, and
pasturage, and help in time of war if either were attacked. [24] Thus
the matter was concluded, and to this day the treaty holds between the
Chaldaeans and Armenia.

Peace was no sooner made than both parties began building what they now
considered their common fortress, working side by side and bringing up
all that was needed. [25] And when evening fell, Cyrus summoned them all
as fellow-guests to his board, saying that they were friends already.
At the supper as they sat together, one of the Chaldaeans said to Cyrus
that the mass of his nation would feel they had received all they
could desire, "But there are men among us," he added, "who live as
freebooters: they do not know how to labour in the field, and they could
not learn, accustomed as they are from youth up to get their livelihood
either by plundering for themselves or serving as mercenaries, often
under the king of India, for he is a man of much wealth, but sometimes
under Astyages." [26] Then Cyrus said: "Why should they not take service
with me? I undertake to give them at least as much as they ever got
elsewhere." The Chaldaeans readily agreed with him and prophesied that
he would have many volunteers.

[27] So this matter was settled to the mind of all. But Cyrus, on
hearing that the Chaldaeans were in the habit of going to India,
remembered how Indian ambassadors had come to the Medes to spy out their
affairs, and how they had gone on to their enemies--doubtless to do the
same there--and he felt a wish that they should hear something of
what he had achieved himself. [28] So he said to the company: "Son of
Armenia, and men of the Chaldaeans, I have something to ask you. Tell
me, if I were to send ambassadors to India, would yo

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