Anabasis

For, just as the precise object for which he thought he needed friends himself was that he might have co-workers, so he tried on his own part to be a most vigorous co-worker with his friends to secure that which he found each one of them desired.

Again, he received more gifts, I presume, than any other one man, and for many reasons; and surely he of all men distributed gifts most generously among his friends, with an eye to the tastes of each one and to whatever particular need he noted in each case.

As for all the gifts which people sent him to wear upon his person, whether intended for war or merely for show, it is reported that he said of them that his own person could not be adorned with all these things, but that in his opinion friends nobly adorned were a man’s greatest ornament.

To be sure, the fact that he outdid his friends in the greatness of the benefits he conferred is nothing surprising, for the manifest reason that he had greater means than they; but that he surpassed them in solicitude and in eagerness to do favours, this in my opinion is more admirable.

For example, when Cyrus got some particularly good wine, he would often send the half-emptied jar to a friend with the message: Cyrus says that he has not chanced upon better wine than this for a long time; so he sends it to you, and asks you to drink it up today in company with the friends you love best.

So he would often send halves of geese and of loaves and so forth, instructing the bearer to add the message: Cyrus enjoyed this, and therefore wants you also to take a taste of it.

And wherever fodder was exceedingly scarce and he was able to get it for his own use because of the large number of his servants and because of his good planning, he would distribute this fodder among his friends and tell them to give it to the horses that carried their own bodies, that they might not be hungry while carrying his friends.

And whenever he was on the march and was likely to be seen by very many people, he would call his friends to him and engage them in earnest conversation, in order to show whom he honoured. Hence, as I at least conclude from what comes to my ears, no man, Greek or barbarian, has ever been loved by a greater number of people.

Here is a fact to confirm that conclusion: although Cyrus was a slave,[*](A term habitually applied by the Greeks to the subjects of an absolute monarch, especially those of the Persian king.) no one deserted him to join the King, save that Orontas attempted to do so (and he, mark you, speedily found out that the man he imagined was faithful to him, was more devoted to Cyrus than to him); on the other hand, many went over from the King to Cyrus after the two had become enemies (these being, moreover, the men who were most highly regarded by the King), because they thought that if they were deserving, they would gain a worthier reward with Cyrus than with the King.

Furthermore, what happened to Cyrus at the end of his life is a strong indication that he was a true man himself and that he knew how to judge those who were faithful, devoted, and constant.

When he died, namely, all his bodyguard of friends and table companions died fighting in his defence, with the exception of Ariaeus; he, it chanced, was stationed on the left wing at the head of the cavalry, and when he learned that Cyrus had fallen, he took to flight with the whole army that he commanded.

Then the head of Cyrus and his right hand were cut off. But the King, pursuing Ariaeus, burst into the camp of Cyrus; and Ariaeus and his men no longer stood their ground, but fled through their own camp to the stopping-place from which they had set out that morning, a distance, it was said, of four parasangs.

So the King and his troops proceeded to secure plunder of various sorts in abundance, while in particular he captured the Phocaean woman, Cyrus’ concubine, who, by all accounts, was clever and beautiful.

The Milesian woman, however, the younger one, after being seized by the King’s men made her escape, lightly clad, to some Greeks who had chanced to be standing guard amid the baggage train and, forming themselves in line against the enemy, had killed many of the plunderers, although some of their own number had been killed also; nevertheless, they did not take to flight, but they saved this woman and, furthermore, whatever else came within their lines, whether persons or property, they saved all alike.

At this time the King and the Greeks were distant from one another about thirty stadia, the Greeks pursuing the troops in their front, in the belief that they were victorious over all the enemy, the King and his followers plundering, in the belief that they were all victorious already.

When, however, the Greeks learned that the King and his forces were in their baggage train, and the King, on the other hand, heard from Tissaphernes that the Greeks were victorious over the division opposite them and had gone on ahead in pursuit, then the King proceeded to gather his troops together and form them in line of battle, and Clearchus called Proxenus (for he was nearest him in the line) and took counsel with him as to whether they should send a detachment or go in full force to the camp, for the purpose of lending aid.

Meanwhile the Greeks saw the King advancing again, as it seemed, from their rear, and they accordingly countermarched and made ready to meet his attack in case he should advance in that direction[*](The Greeks had advanced straight forward from their position on the right wing and the King straight forward from his centre (which was beyond the left wing of Cyrus’ entire, i.e. Greek and barbarian, army); hence the two had passed by one another at a considerable distance. The question now was, whether the King on his return march would move obliquely, so as to meet the Greeks, or would follow the same route by which he advanced, thus keeping clear of them again.); the King, however, did not do so, but returned by the same route he had followed before, when he passed outside of Cyrus’ left wing, and in his return picked up not only those who had deserted to the Greeks during the battle, but also Tissaphernes and his troops.

For Tissaphernes had not taken to flight in the first encounter, but had charged along the river through the Greek peltasts[*](See Xen. Anab. 1.8.4-5.); he did not kill anyone in his passage, but the Greeks, after opening a gap for his men, proceeded to deal blows and throw javelins upon them as they went through. The commander of the Greek peltasts was Episthenes of Amphipolis, and it was said that he proved himself a sagacious man.

At any rate, after Tissaphernes had thus come off with the worst of it, he did not wheel round again, but went on to the camp of the Greeks and there fell in with the King; so it was that, after forming their lines once more, they were proceeding together.

When they were over against the left wing of the Greeks,[*](At this point the fronts of the two armies—which were facing in opposite directions, and, further, each in the direction opposite to that which it took in the first encounter—were in approximately the same straight line. It should be noted that Xenophon means by the left wing of the Greeks that which had been the left wing in the original formation, but had now become the right.) the latter conceived the fear that they might advance against that wing and, by outflanking them on both sides, cut them to pieces; they thought it best, therefore, to draw the wing back and get the river in their rear.[*](The Greek line was now, as in the beginning, at right angles to the Euphrates. The movement here described would (if executed) have made it parallel to the river, the latter serving as a defence in the rear.)