Anabasis

At this juncture arrived Epyaxa, the wife of Syennesis, the king[*](King in name, but in fact a dependent of the king of Persia. Syennesis was seeking, as the narrative indicates, to keep on good terms with both Cyrus and Artaxerxes, secretly aiding the former, while still making a show of resistance (see 21 below) to his march.) of the Cilicians, coming to visit Cyrus, and the story was that she gave him a large sum of money; at any rate, Cyrus paid the troops at that time four months’ wages. The Cilician queen was attended by a body-guard of Cilicians and Aspendians; and people said that Cyrus had intimate relations with the queen.

Thence he marched two stages, ten parasangs, to the inhabited city of Thymbrium. There, alongside the road, was the so-called spring of Midas, the king of the Phrygians, at which Midas, according to the story, caught the satyr by mixing wine with the water of the spring.[*](This story is less familiar than its sequel, viz. that for his kindly treatment of the satyr (Silenus) Midas was granted by Dionysus the fulfilment of any request he might make; he requested that all he touched should turn to gold, and so died of hunger.)

Thence he marched two stages, ten parasangs, to Tyriaeum, an inhabited city. There he remained three days. And the Cilician queen, as the report ran, asked Cyrus to exhibit his army to her; such an exhibition was what he desired to make, and accordingly he held a review of the Greeks and the barbarians on the plain.

He ordered the Greeks to form their lines and take their positions just as they were accustomed to do for battle, each general marshalling his own men. So they formed the line four deep, Menon and his troops occupying the right wing, Clearchus and his troops the left, and the other generals the centre.

Cyrus inspected the barbarians first, and they marched past with their cavalry formed in troops and their infantry in companies; then he inspected the Greeks, driving past them in a chariot, the Cilician queen in a carriage. And the Greeks all had helmets of bronze, crimson tunics, and greaves, and carried their shields uncovered.

When he had driven past them all, he halted his chariot in front of the centre of the phalanx, and sending his interpreter Pigres to the generals of the Greeks, gave orders that the troops should advance arms and the phalanx move forward in a body. The generals transmitted these orders to the soldiers, and when the trumpet sounded, they advanced arms and charged. And then, as they went on faster and faster, at length with a shout the troops broke into a run of their own accord, in the direction of the camp.

As for the barbarians, they were terribly frightened; the Cilician queen took to flight in her carriage, and the people in the market[*](Greek troops were not supplied with rations in the modern way, but bought their provisions from day to day from sutlers who accompanied the army. The commander’s duty ended with providing a market (ἀγορὰν παρέχειν).) left their wares behind and took to their heels; while the Greeks with a roar of laughter came up to their camp. Now the Cilician queen was filled with admiration at beholding the brilliant appearance and the order of the Greek army; and Cyrus was delighted to see the terror with which the Greeks inspired the barbarians.

Thence he marched three stages, twenty parasangs, to Iconium, the last city of Phrygia. There he remained three days. Thence he marched through Lycaonia five stages, thirty parasangs. This country he gave over to the Greeks to plunder, on the ground that it was hostile territory.[*](In leaving Phrygia Cyrus was passing beyond the limits of his own satrapy. Introd. p. viii.)

From there Cyrus sent the Cilician queen back to Cilicia by the shortest route, and he sent some of Menon’s troops to escort her, Menon himself commanding them. With the rest of the army Cyrus marched through Cappadocia four stages, twenty-five parasangs, to Dana, an inhabited city, large and prosperous. There they remained three days; and during that time Cyrus put to death a Persian named Megaphernes, who was a wearer of the royal purple,[*](A title of honour at the Persian court.) and another dignitary among his subordinates, on the charge that they were plotting against him.

From there they made ready to try to enter Cilicia. Now the entrance was by a wagon-road, exceedingly steep and impracticable for an army to pass if there was anybody to oppose it; and in fact, as report ran, Syennesis was upon the heights, guarding the entrance; therefore Cyrus remained for a day in the plain. On the following day, however, a messenger came with word that Syennesis had abandoned the heights, because he had learned that Menon’s army was already in Cilicia, on his own side of the mountains, and because, further, he was getting reports that triremes belonging to the Lacedaemonians[*](Cyrus had asked the Lacedaemonians to show themselves as good friends to him as he had been to them in their war against Athens (Xen. Hell. 2.1.1). The aid they now rendered (see also Xen. Anab. 1.4.2-3) was in response to that request.) and to Cyrus himself were sailing around from Ionia to Cilicia under the command of Tamos.

At any rate[*](i.e. whether or not the reasons just given were the true ones.) Cyrus climbed the mountains without meeting any opposition, and saw the camp where the Cilicians had been keeping guard. Thence he descended to a large and beautiful plain, well-watered and full of trees of all sorts and vines; it produces an abundance of sesame, millet, panic, wheat, and barley, and it is surrounded on every side, from sea to sea, by a lofty and formidable range of mountains.