Cyropaedia

When they were gone, Cyrus said: Medes[*](General orders for dinner) and Armenians, it is now high time for us all to go to dinner; and everything necessary has been prepared for you to the best of our ability. Go, then, and send to us half of the bread that has been baked—enough has been made for all; but do not send us any meat nor anything to drink; for enough has been provided for us at our own quarters.

And you, Hyrcanians, he said to these, lead them to their several tents—the officers to the largest (you know which they are), and the rest as you think best. And you yourselves also may dine where it best pleases you. For your own tents also are safe and sound, and there also the same provision has been made as for these.

And all of you may be assured of this, that we shall keep the night-watches for you outside the camp, but do you look out for what may happen in the tents and have your arms stacked conveniently; for the men in the tents are not yet our friends.

Then the Medes and Tigranes and his men bathed, changed their clothes (for they were provided with a change), and went to dinner. Their horses also were provided for. Of the bread, half was sent to the Persians; but neither meat for relish nor wine was sent, for they thought that Cyrus and his men had those articles left in abundance. But what Cyrus meant was that hunger was their relish and that they could drink from the river that flowed by.

Accordingly, when Cyrus had seen that the[*](How the night was spent by the Persians) Persians had their dinner, he sent many of them out, when it was dark, in squads of five and ten, with orders to lie in hiding round about the camp; for he thought that they would serve as sentinels, in case any one should come to attack from the outside, and at the same time that they would catch any one who tried to run away with his possessions. And it turned out so; for many did try to run away, and many were caught.

And Cyrus permitted those who effected the capture to keep the spoil, but the men he bade them slay; and so after that you could not easily have found, had you tried, any one attempting to get away by night.

Thus, then, the Persians employed their time;[*](by the Medes) but the Medes drank and revelled and listened to the music of the flute and indulged themselves to the full with all sorts of merry-making. For many things that contribute to pleasure had been captured, so that those who stayed awake were at no loss for something to do.

Now the night in which Cyrus had marched out,[*](by Cyaxares) Cyaxares, the king of the Medes, and his messmates got drunk in celebration of their success; and he supposed that the rest of the Medes were all in camp except a few, for he heard a great racket. For inasmuch as their masters had gone off, the servants of the Medes were drinking and carousing without restraint, especially as they had taken from the Assyrian army wine and many other supplies.

But when it was day and no one came to his headquarters except those who had been dining with him, and when he heard that the camp was forsaken by the Medes and the cavalry, and when he discovered on going out that such was really the case, then he fumed and raged against both Cyrus and the Medes because they had gone off and left him deserted. And straightway, in keeping with his reputation for being violent and unreasonable, he ordered one of those present to take his own cavalry corps and proceed at topmost speed to Cyrus’s army and deliver the following message:

I should think that even you, Cyrus,[*](The king’s message to Cyrus) would not have shown such want of consideration toward me; and if Cyrus were so minded, I should think that at least you Medes would not have consented to leave me thus deserted. And now, if Cyrus will, let him come with you; if not, do you at least return to me as speedily as possible.

Such was his message. But he to whom he gave the marching order said: And how shall I find them, your majesty?How, he answered, did Cyrus and those with him find those against whom they went? Why said the man, by Zeus, I am told that some Hyrcanians who had deserted from the enemy came hither and went away as his guides.

Upon hearing this, Cyaxares was much more angry than ever with Cyrus for not even having told him that, and he sent off in greater haste to recall the Medes, for he hoped to strip him of his forces; and with even more violent threats than before, he ordered the Medes to return. And he threatened the messenger also if he did not deliver his message in all its emphasis.

Accordingly, the officer assigned to this duty set out with his cavalry, about a hundred in number, vexed with himself for not having gone along with Cyrus when he went. And as they proceeded on their journey, they were misled by a certain by-path and so lost their way and did not reach the army of their friends, until they fell in with some deserters from the Assyrians and compelled them to act as their guides. And so they came in sight of the camp-fires sometime about midnight.

And when they came up to the camp, the sentinels, following the instructions of Cyrus, refused to admit them before daylight. Now at peep of day the first thing that Cyrus did was to call the magi and bid them select the gifts ordained for the gods in acknowledgment of such success;

and they proceeded to attend to this, while he called the peers together and said: Friends, God holds out before us many blessings. But we Persians are, under the present circumstances, too few to avail ourselves of them. For if we fail to guard what we win, it will again become the property of others; and if we leave some of our own men to guard what falls into our possession, it will very soon be found out that we have no strength.

Accordingly, I have decided that one of you should[*](Cyrus sends to Persia for reinforcements) go with all speed to Persia, present my message and ask them to send reinforcements with the utmost dispatch, if the Persians desire to have control of Asia and the revenues accruing therefrom.

Do you, therefore, go, for you are the senior officer, and when you arrive tell them this; and say also that for whatever soldiers they send I will provide maintenance after they come. Conceal from them nothing in regard to what we have, and you see for yourself what there is. And what portion of these spoils honour and the law require that I should send to Persia—in regard to what is due the gods, ask my father; in regard to what is due to the State, ask the authorities. And let them send men also to observe what we do and to answer our questions. And you, said he, make ready and take your own platoon to escort you.

After this he called in the Medes also and[*](The king’s message is received) at the same moment the messenger from Cyaxares presented himself and in the presence of all reported his king’s anger against Cyrus and his threats against the Medes; and at the last he said that Cyaxares ordered the Medes to return, even if Cyrus wished to stay.

On hearing the messenger, therefore, the Medes were silent, for they were at a loss how they could disobey him when he summoned them, and they asked themselves in fear how they could obey him when he threatened so, especially as they had had experience of his fury.

But Cyrus said: Well, Sir Messenger and you Medes, inasmuch as Cyaxares saw in our first encounter that the enemy were numerous and as he does not know how we have been faring, I am not at all surprised that he is concerned for us and for himself. But when he discovers that many of the enemy have been slain and all have been routed, in the first place he will banish his fears and in the second place he will realize that he is not deserted now, when his friends are annihilating his enemies.