Cyropaedia

At this juncture, representatives from the[*](Envoys from India are sent as spies) Indian king arrived with money; they announced also that the Indian king sent him the following message: I am glad, Cyrus, that you let me know what you needed. I desire to be your friend, and I am sending you the money, and if you need more, send for it. Moreover, my representatives have been instructed to do whatever you ask.

Well then, said Cyrus, when he heard this, I ask some of you to remain where you have been assigned quarters and keep guard of this money and live as best pleases you, while three of you will please go to the enemy on pretence of having been sent by the king of India to make an alliance between them and him; and when you have learned how things stand there, what they are doing and proposing to do, bring word of it as soon as possible to me and to your king. And if you perform this service acceptably, I shall be even more grateful to you for that than I am for your bringing the money with which you have come. And this is service which you are eminently fitted to perform; for spies disguised as slaves can give information of nothing more in their reports than what every one knows; whereas men in your capacity often discover even what is being planned.

The Indians were naturally pleased to hear this, and when they had been entertained by Cyrus, they made ready and set out on the following day with the solemn promise that when they had learned as much as they could they would return from the enemy’s side with all possible dispatch.

The rest of his preparations for war Cyrus now[*](Further preparations for the conflict) continued on a magnificent scale, for he was planning no mean enterprise; and he provided not only for that which his allies had agreed upon but he also inspired his friends to rivalry among themselves, in order that each complement might strive to show its men the best armed soldiers, the most skilled horsemen, the best marksmen with spear or bow, and the most industrious workers.

And, as a means of accomplishing this, he took them out to hunt and rewarded those who were in each particular most efficient. Furthermore, those officers who, he saw, were eager to have their own soldiers most efficient he spurred on with praise and with whatever favours he could bestow.

And then, too, whenever he performed a sacrifice or celebrated a festival, he instituted in connection with it contests in all those events in which people train as a discipline for war, and to the victors he offered splendid prizes; and the whole camp was in the best of spirits.

Cyrus now had almost everything ready that he wished to have for his expedition except the engines of war. For the ranks of his Persian horse were now filled up to the number of ten thousand, the scythe-bearing chariots that he himself had had constructed had now reached the full number of one hundred, and those which Abradatas of Susa had undertaken to secure like those of Cyrus had also reached the full number of one hundred more.

And Cyrus had persuaded Cyaxares to transform the Median chariots also from the Trojan and Libyan type to this same style, and these amounted to another full hundred. For the camel corps, bowmen were detailed, two upon each camel. Thus the rank and file of the army generally cherished the feeling that the victory was already perfectly assured and that the enemy’s side was as nothing.

While they were in this state of mind, the[*](The report of the Indian spies) Indians that Cyrus had sent as spies to the enemy’s camp returned with the report that Croesus had been chosen field-marshal and commander-in-chief of all the enemy’s hosts, that all the allied kings had decided to join him with their entire forces, to contribute vast sums of money, and to expend them in hiring what soldiers they could and in giving presents to those whom they were under obligations to reward.

They reported also that many Thracian swordsmen had already been hired and that Egyptians were under sail to join them, and they gave the number as one hundred and twenty thousand men armed with shields that came to their feet, with huge spears, such as they carry even to this day, and with sabres. Besides these, there was also the Cyprian army. The Cilicians were all present already, they said, as were also the contingents from both Phrygias, Lycaonia, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, Arabia, and Phoenicia; the Assyrians were there under the king of Babylon; the Ionians also and the Aeolians and almost all the Greek colonists in Asia had been compelled to join Croesus, and Croesus had even sent to Lacedaemon to negotiate an alliance.

This army, they said, was being mustered at the River Pactolus, but it was their intention to advance to Thymbrara, where even to-day is the rendezvous of the king’s barbarians from the interior. And a general call had been issued to bring provisions to market there. The prisoners also told practically the same story as the Indian spies; for this was another thing that Cyrus always looked out for—that prisoners should be taken, from whom he was likely to gain some intelligence. And he used also to send out spies disguised as slaves to pretend that they were deserters from him.

When Cyrus’s army heard this report, they[*](General alarm at the report) were disturbed, as was natural; they went about more subdued than had been their wont, they gathered in groups, and every corner was full of people discussing the situation and asking one another’s opinion.

When Cyrus perceived that a panic was spreading through his army, he called together the officers of the different divisions and all others whose despondency he thought might cause injury and whose enthusiasm would be a help. And he sent word to his aides-de-camp that if any one else of the armed soldiers wished to attend the meeting and listen to the speeches, they should not hinder him. And when they had come together, he addressed them as follows:

Friends and allies, I have called you[*](Cyrus calms their fears) together because I observed that when this news came from the enemy, some of you looked as if you were frightened. Now it seems strange to me that any of you should really be afraid because the enemy are mustering; but when you see that we are mustered in much larger numbers than we had when we defeated them and that we are now, thank heaven, much better equipped than we were then—it is strange that when you see this you are not filled with courage!

What in the name of heaven, pray, would you who are now afraid have done, if the situation were reversed and some one told you that these forces that we have now were coming against us? And what, if you heard, in the first place, that those who had defeated us before were coming again, their hearts full of the victory they then gained; and, in the second place, that those who before made short work of the skirmishing lines of bowmen and spearmen were now coming and others like them many times their number;

and, in the third place, that, equipped in the same armour in which they were armed when their infantry defeated our infantry, they have cavalry now coming to meet our cavalry; that they have rejected the bow and the javelin, and that each man has adopted one heavy lance and is resolved to ride up and fight hand to hand?

And again, what would you have done, if you heard that chariots are coming which are not, as before, to stand still facing back as if for flight, but that the horses harnessed to the chariots are covered with mail, while the drivers stand in wooden towers and the parts of their body not defended by the towers are completely panoplied in breast-plates and helmets; and that scythes of steel have been fitted to the axles, and that it is the intention to drive these also into the ranks of the enemy?

Or again, if you heard that they[*](and fills them with new enthusiasm) have camels on which they will ride up to us, and a hundred horses could not endure the sight of any one of them? And again, that they are coming with towers, from which they will protect their comrades and by throwing missiles hinder us from fighting in a fair field?

If any one reported to you that this was the condition of things among the enemy, what would you, who are now so frightened, have done, seeing that you were terrified when the report came that Croesus had been elected commander-in-chief of the enemy—Croesus, who was a worse coward than the Syrians; for the Syrians fled because they were defeated in the battle, whereas Croesus, instead of standing by his allies, beat a hasty retreat when he saw that they were defeated?

And finally, you see, the report is brought that the enemy do not feel that they are strong enough to fight us by themselves, but are hiring others in the hope that these will fight for them more valiantly than they can for themselves. However, if there are any to whom the situation over there—such as it is—seems formidable, while our own condition seems contemptible, I say, men, that we ought to send them over to the enemy, for they would be much more useful to us over there than in our ranks.