Anabasis

Thence he marched three stages, twenty parasangs, to Celaenae, an inhabited city of Phrygia, large and prosperous. There Cyrus had a palace and a large park full of wild animals, which he used to hunt on horseback whenever he wished to give himself and his horses exercise. Through the middle of this park flows the Maeander river; its sources are beneath the palace, and it flows through the city of Celaenae also.

There is likewise a palace of the Great King[*](A title often given by the Greeks to the king of Persia.) in Celaenae, strongly fortified and situated at the foot of the Acropolis over the sources of the Marsyas river; the Marsyas also flows through the city, and empties into the Maeander, and its width is twenty-five feet. It was here, according to the story, that Apollo flayed Marsyas,[*](Marsyas, a Phrygian satyr, was so proud of his skill with the flute that he presumed to challenge Apollo, god of music and master of the lyre. The myth appears to be a record of the supersession of the flute by the lyre in Greek favour.) after having defeated him in a contest of musical skill; he hung up his skin in the cave from which the sources issue, and it is for this reason that the river is called Marsyas.

It was here also, report has it, that Xerxes, when he was on his retreat from Greece after losing the famous battle,[*](viz. of Salamis, in 480 B.C.) built the palace just mentioned and likewise the citadel of Celaenae. Here Cyrus remained thirty days; and Clearchus, the Lacedaemonian exile, arrived, with a thousand hoplites, eight hundred Thracian peltasts, and two hundred Cretan bowmen. At the same time came also Sosis the Syracusan with three hundred hoplites and Agias the Arcadian with a thousand hoplites. And here Cyrus held a review and made an enumeration of the Greeks in the park, and they amounted all told to eleven thousand hoplites and about two thousand peltasts.[*](Here used in the general sense, i.e. to include all kinds of light-armed troops; cp. note on 3 above. Xenophon here uses round numbers. The exact totals, according to the figures previously given, are 10,600 hoplites and 2,300 light-armed troops.)

Thence he marched two stages, ten parasangs, to Peltae, an inhabited city. There he remained three days, during which time Xenias the Arcadian celebrated the Lycaean[*](In honour of Lycaean Zeus, i.e. Zeus of Mt. Lycaeus, in Arcadia.) festival with sacrifice and held games; the prizes were golden strigils, and Cyrus himself was one of those who watched the games. Thence he marched two stages, twelve parasangs, to the inhabited city of Ceramon-agora,[*](Or Tilemarket.) the last Phrygian city as one goes toward Mysia.

Thence he marched three stages, thirty parasangs, to Caystru-pedion,[*](Or Ca sterfield.) an inhabited city. There he remained five days. At this time he was owing the soldiers more than three months’ pay, and they went again and again to his headquarters and demanded what was due them. He all the while expressed hopes, and was manifestly troubled; for it was not Cyrus’ way to withhold payment when he had money.

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.)