Cyropaedia

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.