Greeks to be marshalled, and to take their places, as they were accustomed to do for battle, each captain arranging his own men. They were accordingly drawn up four deep; Menon and his troops took the right wing; Clearchus and his men the left; and the other captains occupied the centre. 16. First of all, then, Cyrus reviewed the Barbarians, who marched past him, drawn up in troops and companies;[27] and afterwards the Greeks, riding by them in his chariot, with the Cilician queen in her car.[28] They had all brazen helmets, scarlet tunics, greaves, and polished shields. 17. When he had ridden past them all, he stopped his chariot in front of their phalanx, and sent Pigres the interpreter to the Greek officers, with orders for them to present arms,[29] and to advance with their whole phalanx. The officers communicated these orders to their soldiers; and, when the trumpeter gave the signal, they presented arms and advanced. Then, as they proceeded with a quicker pace and loud shouts, the soldiers of their own accord took to running, bearing down upon the tents of the Persians. 18. Upon this, there arose great terror among the rest of the Barbarians; the Cilician queen fled from her car; and the people in the market deserted their goods and took to their heels; while the Greeks marched up to the tents with laughter. The Cilician queen, on beholding the splendour and discipline of the army, was struck with admiration; and Cyrus was delighted when he saw the terror with which the Greeks inspired the Barbarians.
19. Hence he advanced, three days' march, a distance of twenty parasangs, to Iconium, the last town of Phrygia; where he halted three days. He then went forward through Lycaonia, five days' march, a distance of thirty parasangs; and this country, as being that of an enemy, he permitted the Greeks to ravage.
20. From hence Cyrus despatched the Cilician queen, by the shortest road, into Cilicia; and sent with her the troops which Menon had, and Menon himself. Cyrus, with the rest of the army, proceeded through Cappadocia, four days' march, a distance of twenty-five parasangs, to Dana, a populous, large, and wealthy city. Here he stayed three days; in the course of which he put to death a Persian, named Megaphernes, a wearer of the royal purple,[30] and a certain other person in power, one of the provincial governors having accused them of conspiring against him.
21. They then made an attempt to enter Cilicia; but the sole entrance was a road broad enough only for a single carriage, very steep, and impracticable for an army to pass, if any one opposed them. Syennesis, besides, was said to be stationed on the heights, guarding the defile; on which account Cyrus halted for a day in the plain. The next day, a messenger came to inform him that Syennesis had quitted the heights, on receiving information that Menon's army was already in Cilicia within the mountains, and hearing that Tamos had a number of galleys, belonging to the Lacedæmonians and Cyrus himself, sailing round from Ionia to Cilicia. 22. Cyrus accordingly ascended the mountains without any opposition, and saw[31] the tents in which the Cilicians kept guard. Hence he descended into a large and beautiful plain, well watered, and abounding with all kinds of trees, as well as vines. It also produced great quantities of sesamum, panic, millet,[32] wheat, and barley. A chain of hills, strong and high, encompasses it on all sides from sea to sea. 23. Descending through this plain, he proceeded, in four days' march, a distance of twenty-five parasangs, to Tarsus, a large and opulent city of Cilicia. Here was the palace of Syennesis, the king of the Cilicians; and through the midst of the city runs a river, called the Cydnus, the breadth of which is two plethra. 24. This city the inhabitants, with Syennesis, had deserted for a strong-hold upon the mountains, except those who kept shops.[33] Those also remained behind, who lived near the sea at Soli and at Issi.
25. Epyaxa, the wife of Syennesis, had arrived at Tarsus five days before Cyrus. But in passing over the mountains which skirt the plain, two companies of Menon's troops had perished; some said that they had been cut to pieces by the Cilicians, while committing some depredations; others, that being left behind, and unable to find the rest of the army or their road, they had been destroyed while wandering about. They amounted to a hundred heavy-armed men. 26. When the rest of Menon's troops came up, full of resentment at the fate of their comrades, they plundered both the city of Tarsus and the palace in it. Cyrus, on entering the city, sent for Syennesis to come to him; but Syennesis answered, that he had never yet put himself in the power of one stronger than himself; nor would he then consent to go to Cyrus, until his wife prevailed upon him, and he received solemn assurances of safety. 27. Afterwards, when they had met, Syennesis gave Cyrus a large sum of money for the support of his army, and Cyrus in return presented him with such gifts as are held in estimation by a king, a horse with a golden bit, a golden chain and bracelets, and a golden scimitar and Persian robe. He also engaged that his country should no more be plundered, and that he should receive back the captured slaves, if they anywhere met with them.
[Footnote 15: [Greek: To te barbarikon kai to Hellênikon to entautha strateuma].] There has been much dispute about the exact signification of [Greek: entautha] in this place. Zeune would have it mean 'illuc, in illum locum ubi sunt Pisidæ;' and Krüger thinks that 'towards Sardis' is intended. But this is to do violence to the word; I have followed Weiske and Kühner, who give it its ordinary signification. 'Barbarorum et Græcorum [exercitum],' says Kühner, 'quem Cyrus ibi, ubi versabatur, collectum habebat.' The [Greek: to] before [Greek: entautha] is an addition of Dindorf's, which Kühner pronounces unnecessary.]
[Footnote 16: The [Greek: peltastai] were troops armed with a light shield, called [Greek: peltê], holding a middle place between the [Greek: hoplitai] and [Greek: psiloi]. They were first made an efficient part of the Greek forces by Iphicrates: see his Life in Corn. Nep.; and Xen. Hellen. iv. 4. 16; 3. 12.]
[Footnote 17: Xenophon begins his account of the expedition from Sardis, because he there joined the army, but afterwards constantly computes from Ephesus, the sea-port from whence he began his journey.
[Footnote 18: [Greek: Stathmoos].] The word [Greek: stathmos] means properly a
[Footnote 19: The parasang in Xenophon is equal to thirty stadia; see ii. 2. 6. So Herodotus, ii. 6; v. 53. Mr. Ainsworth, following Mr. Hamilton and Colonel Leake, makes the parasang equal to 3 English miles, 180 yards, or 3 geographical miles of 1822 yards each.
[Footnote 20: The
[Footnote 21: The king of Persia was called the Great King by the Greek writers, on account of the great extent of his dominions, or of the number of kings subject to him; a title similar to that of the successors of Mahomet, Grand Signior.]
[Footnote 22: This is the reading of the name adopted by Dindorf and Kühner; most other editors have
[Footnote 23: The word is here used, as Spelman observes, in a more general sense than ordinary, to signify all that were not heavy-armed.]
[Footnote 24: [Greek: Ta Lykaia].] The festival of Lycæan Jove is mentioned by Pausanias, viii. 2. 1, and the gymnastic contests held in it by Pindar, Ol. ix. 145; xiii. 153; Nem. x. 89.
[Footnote 25: [Greek: Stlengides].] Generally supposed to be the same as the Latin strigilis, a flesh-scraper; an instrument used in the bath for cleansing the skin. To this interpretation the preference seems to be given by Kühner and Bornemann, to whom I adhere. Schneider, whom Krüger follows, would have it a head- band or fillet, such as was worn by women, and by persons that went to consult oracles. Poppo observes that the latter sort of prizes would be less acceptable to soldiers than the former. There were, however, women in the Grecian camp, as will afterwards be seen, to whom the soldiers that gained the prizes might have presented them. The sense of the word must therefore be left doubtful. The sense of
[Footnote 26: [Greek: Ton Satyron].] Silenus. See Servius ad Virg. Ecl. vi. 13.]
[Footnote 27: [Greek: Kata ilas kai kata taxeis].] [Greek: Ilê] signifies properly a troop of horse, consisting of 64 men; and [Greek: taxis], a company of foot, which Xenophon, in the Cyropædia, makes to consist of 100 men.]
[Footnote 28: [Greek: Eph' harmamaxês].] The
[Footnote 29: [Greek: Probalesthai ta hopla].] 'To hold out the shield and the spear, the one to defend the person, and the other to repel or attack an adversary.'
