Cyropaedia

Very well, said Cyaxares then; if indeed[*](Cyaxares accepts Cyrus’s proposal) any one will volunteer to follow you, I for my part should be really grateful to you.Well, then, said he, send with me some one of these notables in positions of trust to announce your commands. Take any of them you wish, said the other, and go.

Now it happened that the man who had once[*](I. iv. 27-28) pretended to be a kinsman of his and had got a kiss from him was present there. Cyrus, therefore, said at once: This man will do. Let him follow you, then, said Cyaxares. And do you, he added to Artabazus, say that whoever will may go with Cyrus.

So then he took the man and went away. And when they had come out, Cyrus said: Now then, you shall prove if you spoke the truth when you said that you liked to look at me. If you talk that way, said the Mede, I shall never leave you. Will you do your best, then, to bring others also with you? asked Cyrus. Yes, by Zeus, he answered with an oath, to such an extent that I shall make you also glad to look at me.

Then, as he had his commission from Cyaxares also, he not only gave his message to the Medes with enthusiasm, but he added that, for his part, he himself would never leave the noblest and best of men, and what was more than all, a man descended from the gods.