The First Four Books of Xenophon's Anabasis

CHAPTER II.

Cyrus begins his march, proceeding from Sardis through Lydia into

Phrygia, where he is joined by new forces. The city of Celænæ; the

plain of Caystrus, where the soldiers demand their arrears of pay,

which Cyrus discharges with money received from the queen of

Cilicia. The town of Thymbrium; the fountain of Midas. Cyrus enters

Cilicia, and is met at Tarsus by Syennesis, the king of the

country.

1. When it seemed to him time to march up into the country, he made it his pretext for doing so that he wished to expel the Pisidians entirely from the territory, and mustered, as if for the purpose of attacking them, the whole of the troops, as well Barbarian as Greek, that were on the spot.[15] He also sent word to Clearchus to join him, bringing whatever force was at his command; and to Aristippus, as soon as he had come to terms with the party at home, to send him back the troops that he had. He also desired Xenias the Arcadian, who commanded for him the mercenaries in the several towns, to bring him all his men except such as would be required to garrison the citadels. 2. He summoned, too, the army that was besieging Miletus, and invited the exiles to accompany him on his expedition; promising them, that if he successfully accomplished the objects for which he undertook it, he would never rest till he had re-established them in their country. They cheerfully consented, as they had confidence in him, and, taking their arms, joined him at Sardis.

3. To Sardis also came Xenias, bringing with him the troops from the several towns, to the number of four thousand heavy-armed men. Thither came also Proxenus, with heavy-armed men to the number of fifteen hundred, and five hundred light-armed; Sophænetus the Stymphalian with a thousand heavy-armed; Socrates the Achæan with five hundred; and Pasion of Megara with three hundred heavy-armed, and the same number of peltasts.[16] Both Pasion and Socrates were among those serving in the army at Miletus.

4. These joined him at Sardis. Tissaphernes, observing these proceedings, and considering the force to be greater than was necessary to attack the Pisidians, set out, with all possible speed, to give notice of the matter to the king, taking with him about five hundred cavalry; 5. and the king, as soon as he heard from Tissaphernes of the preparations of Cyrus, made arrangements to oppose him.

Cyrus, at the head of the force which I have stated, commenced his journey from Sardis,[17] and proceeded through Lydia, three days' march,[18] a distance of twenty-two parasangs,[19] as far as the river Mæander. The breadth of this river is two plethra,[20] and a bridge was thrown over it, constructed of seven boats. 6. Having crossed the stream, he went forward through Phrygia, one day's march, eight parasangs, till he reached Colossæ, a populous city, wealthy and of considerable magnitude. Here he halted seven days; when Menon the Thessalian joined him with a thousand heavy-armed troops and five hundred peltasts, consisting of Dolopians, Ænianes, and Olynthians.

7. Hence he proceeded in three days' march, a distance of twenty parasangs, to Celænæ, a populous, large, and rich city of Phrygia. Here Cyrus had a palace, and an extensive park full of wild beasts, which he was accustomed to hunt on horseback whenever he wished to give himself and his horses exercise. Through the middle of this park flows the river Mæander; its springs issue from the palace itself; and it runs also through the city of Celænæ. 8. There is also at Celænæ a palace of the Great King,[21] situated near the source of the river Marsyas, under the citadel. This river too runs through the city, and falls into the Mæander. The breadth of the Marsyas is twenty-five feet. Here Apollo is said to have flayed Marsyas, after conquering him in a trial of musical skill, and to have hung up his skin in the cave, where the source of the stream rises: and on this account the river is called the Marsyas. 9. Xerxes is said to have built both this palace and the citadel of Celænæ, when he was returning from Greece after his discomfiture in battle.

Cyrus remained here thirty days; during which time Clearchus, the Lacedæmonian exile, joined him with a thousand heavy-armed men, eight hundred Thracian peltasts, and two hundred Cretan archers. At the same time Sosis[22] of Syracuse arrived with three hundred heavy-armed men, and Sophænetus, an Arcadian, with a thousand. Here Cyrus held a review of the Greeks in the park, and took their number; and they were in all eleven thousand heavy-armed troops, and about two thousand peltasts.[23] 10. Hence he proceeded two days' march, a distance of ten parasangs, to Peltæ, a well-peopled city, where he halted three days, during which Xenias the Arcadian celebrated the sacred rites of Lycæan Jove,[24] and held public games on the occasion; in which the prizes were golden strigiles.[25] Cyrus was present at the games as a spectator. Thence he proceeded, two days' march, twelve parasangs, to Ceramon Agora, a populous city, the last on the side of Mysia.

11. Hence he proceeded, in three days' march, the distance of thirty parasangs, to the Plain of Caystrus, a populous city. Here he halted five days; and at this time more than three months' pay was due to the troops, which they frequently went to his tent to demand. Cyrus put them off, giving them hopes, but was evidently distressed; for it was no part of his character not to pay when he had the means. 12. But while he was there, Epyaxa, the wife of Syennesis king of the Cilicians, paid him a visit, and was said to have presented him with a large sum of money. He in consequence gave the troops pay for four months. The Cilician queen had with her a body-guard of Cilicians and Aspendians; and it was reported that Cyrus had connexion with her.

13. Hence he proceeded two days' march, ten parasangs, to Thymbrium, a populous city. Here, by the road-side, was a fountain, called the fountain of Midas, king of Phrygia; at which Midas is said to have captured the Satyr,[26] by mixing wine with the water.

14. Hence he proceeded, two days' march, ten parasangs, to Tyriæum, a well-peopled city, where he stayed three days. The Cilician queen is said to have requested Cyrus to show her his army. With the desire therefore of exhibiting it to her, he reviewed his troops, as well Greek as Barbarian, in the plain. 15. He ordered the Greeks to be marshalled, and to take their places, as they were accustomed to do for battle, each captain arranging his own men. They were accordingly drawn up four deep; Menon and his troops took the right wing; Clearchus and his men the left; and the other captains occupied the centre. 16. First of all, then, Cyrus reviewed the Barbarians, who marched past him, drawn up in troops and companies;[27] and afterwards the Greeks, riding by them in his chariot, with the Cilician queen in her car.[28] They had all brazen helmets, scarlet tunics, greaves, and polished shields. 17. When he had ridden past them all, he stopped his chariot in front of their phalanx, and sent Pigres the interpreter to the Greek officers, with orders for them to present arms,[29] and to advance with their whole phalanx. The officers communicated these orders to their soldiers; and, when the trumpeter gave the signal, they presented arms and advanced. Then, as they proceeded with a quicker pace and loud shouts, the soldiers of their own accord took to running, bearing down upon the tents of the Persians. 18. Upon this, there arose great terror among the rest of the Barbarians; the Cilician queen fled from her car; and the people in the market deserted their goods and took to their heels; while the Greeks marched up to the tents with laughter. The Cilician queen, on beholding the splendour and discipline of the army, was struck with admiration; and Cyrus was delighted when he saw the terror with which the Greeks inspired the Barbarians.

19. Hence he advanced, three days' march, a distance of twenty parasangs, to Iconium, the last town of Phrygia; where he halted three days. He then went forward through Lycaonia, five days' march, a distance of thirty parasangs; and this country, as being that of an enemy, he permitted the Greeks to ravage.

20. From hence Cyrus despatched the Cilician queen, by the shortest road, into Cilicia; and sent with her the troops which Menon had, and Menon himself. Cyrus, with the rest of the army, proceeded through Cappadocia, four days' march, a distance of twenty-five parasangs, to Dana, a populous, large, and wealthy city. Here he stayed three days; in the course of which he put to death a Persian, named Megaphernes, a wearer of the royal purple,[30] and a certain other person in power, one of the provincial governors having accused them of conspiring against him.

21. They then made an attempt to enter Cilicia; but the sole entrance was a road broad enough only for a single carriage, very steep, and impracticable for an army to pass, if any one opposed them. Syennesis, besides, was said to be stationed on the heights, guarding the defile; on which account Cyrus halted for a day in the plain. The next day, a messenger came to inform him that Syennesis had quitted the heights, on receiving information that Menon's army was already in Cilicia within the mountains, and hearing that Tamos had a number of galleys, belonging to the Lacedæmonians and Cyrus himself, sailing round from Ionia to Cilicia. 22. Cyrus accordingly ascended the mountains without any opposition, and saw[31] the tents in which the Cilicians kept guard. Hence he descended into a large and beautiful plain, well watered, and abounding with all kinds of trees, as well as vines. It also produced great quantities of sesamum, panic, millet,[32] wheat, and barley. A chain of hills, strong and high, encompasses it on all sides from sea to sea. 23. Descending through this plain, he proceeded, in four days' march, a distance of twenty-five parasangs, to Tarsus, a large and opulent city of Cilicia. Here was the palace of Syennesis, the king of the Cilicians; and through the midst of the city runs a river, called the Cydnus, the breadth of which is two plethra. 24. This city the inhabitants, with Syennesis, had deserted for a strong-hold upon the mountains, except those who kept shops.[33] Those also remained behind, who lived near the sea at Soli and at Issi.

25. Epyaxa, the wife of Syennesis, had arrived at Tarsus five days before Cyrus. But in passing over the mountains which skirt the plain, two companies of Menon's troops had perished; some said that they had been cut to pieces by the Cilicians, while committing some depredations; others, that being left behind, and unable to find the rest of the army or their road, they had been destroyed while wandering about. They amounted to a hundred heavy-armed men. 26. When the rest of Menon's troops came up, full of resentment at the fate of their comrades, they plundered both the city of Tarsus and the palace in it. Cyrus, on entering the city, sent for Syennesis to come to him; but Syennesis answered, that he had never yet put himself in the power of one stronger than himself; nor would he then consent to go to Cyrus, until his wife prevailed upon him, and he received solemn assurances of safety. 27. Afterwards, when they had met, Syennesis gave Cyrus a large sum of money for the support of his army, and Cyrus in return presented him with such gifts as are held in estimation by a king, a horse with a golden bit, a golden chain and bracelets, and a golden scimitar and Persian robe. He also engaged that his country should no more be plundered, and that he should receive back the captured slaves, if they anywhere met with them.

[Footnote 15: [Greek: To te barbarikon kai to Hellênikon to entautha strateuma].] There has been much dispute about the exact signification of [Greek: entautha] in this place. Zeune would have it mean "illuc, in illum locum ubi sunt Pisidæ;" and Krüger thinks that "towards Sardis" is intended. But this is to do violence to the word; I have followed Weiske and Kühner, who give it its ordinary signification. "Barbarorum et Græcorum [exercitum]," says Kühner, "quem Cyrus ibi, ubi versabatur, collectum habebat." The [Greek: to] before [Greek: entautha] is an addition of Dindorf's, which Kühner pronounces unnecessary.]

[Footnote 16: The [Greek: peltastai] were troops armed with a light shield, called [Greek: peltê], holding a middle place between the [Greek: hoplitai] and [Greek: psiloi]. They were first made an efficient part of the Greek forces by Iphicrates: see his Life in Corn. Nep.; and Xen. Hellen. iv. 4. 16; 3. 12.]

[Footnote 17: Xenophon begins his account of the expedition from Sardis, because he there joined the army, but afterwards constantly computes from Ephesus, the sea-port from whence he began his journey. Stanford.]

[Footnote 18: [Greek: Stathmoos].] The word [Greek: stathmos] means properly a station or halting-place at the end of a day's march, of which the length varied, but was generally about five parasangs.]

[Footnote 19: The parasang in Xenophon is equal to thirty stadia; see ii. 2. 6. So Herodotus, ii. 6; v. 53. Mr. Ainsworth, following Mr. Hamilton and Colonel Leake, makes the parasang equal to 3 English miles, 180 yards, or 3 geographical miles of 1822 yards each. Travels in the Track, pref. p. xii. Thus five parasangs would be a long day's march; these marches were more than seven; and the next day's was eight. But Rennell thinks the parasang not more than 2.78 English miles. Mr. Hussey, Anc. Weights, &c., Append. sect. 12, makes it 3 miles, 787-1/2 yards.]

[Footnote 20: The plethrum was 100 Greek or 101.125 English feet. See Hussey, Append. sect. 10, p. 232.]

[Footnote 21: The king of Persia was called the Great King by the Greek writers, on account of the great extent of his dominions, or of the number of kings subject to him; a title similar to that of the successors of Mahomet, Grand Signior.]

[Footnote 22: This is the reading of the name adopted by Dindorf and Kühner; most other editors have Socrates, which occurs in four manuscripts; two have Sosias, and one Sostes.]

[Footnote 23: The word is here used, as Spelman observes, in a more general sense than ordinary, to signify all that were not heavy-armed.]

[Footnote 24: [Greek: Ta Lykaia].] The festival of Lycæan Jove is mentioned by Pausanias, viii. 2. 1, and the gymnastic contests held in it by Pindar, Ol. ix. 145; xiii. 153; Nem. x. 89. Schneider.-Mount Lycæum was sacred to both Jupiter and Pan. Kühner.]

[Footnote 25: [Greek: Stlengides].] Generally supposed to be the same as the Latin strigilis, a flesh-scraper; an instrument used in the bath for cleansing the skin. To this interpretation the preference seems to be given by Kühner and Bornemann, to whom I adhere. Schneider, whom Krüger follows, would have it a head-band or fillet, such as was worn by women, and by persons that went to consult oracles. Poppo observes that the latter sort of prizes would be less acceptable to soldiers than the former. There were, however, women in the Grecian camp, as will afterwards be seen, to whom the soldiers that gained the prizes might have presented them. The sense of the word must therefore be left doubtful. The sense of strigilis is supported by Suidas; see Sturz's Lex. s. v.]

[Footnote 26: [Greek: Ton Satyron].] Silenus. See Servius ad Virg. Ecl. vi. 13.]

[Footnote 27: [Greek: Kata ilas kai kata taxeis].] [Greek: Ilê] signifies properly a troop of horse, consisting of 64 men; and [Greek: taxis], a company of foot, which Xenophon, in the Cyropædia, makes to consist of 100 men.]

[Footnote 28: [Greek: Eph' harmamaxês].] The harmamaxa was a Persian carriage, probably covered, for women and children. See Q. Curt. iii. 3, 23; Wesseling ad Herod, vii. 41.]

[Footnote 29: [Greek: Probalesthai ta hopla].] "To hold out the shield and the spear, the one to defend the person, and the other to repel or attack an adversary." Kühner.]

[Footnote 30: [Greek: Phoinikistên basileion].] Æmilius Portus, on the authority of Zonaras, Lex. p. 1818, interprets this "dyer of the king's purple;" an interpretation repugnant to what follows. Morus makes it purpuratus; Larcher, vexillarius, because in Diod. Sic. xiv. 26 a standard is called [Greek: phoinikis]: Brodæus gives 'unus è regiis familiaribus, puniceâ veste indutus, non purpurea.' "Without doubt he was one of the highest Persian nobles, as he is joined with the [Greek: hyparchoi dynastai]." Kühner.]

[Footnote 31: [Greek: Eide].] This seems to be the reading of all the manuscripts, and is retained by Poppo, Bornemann, Dindorf, and Kühner. But Schneider and Weiske read [Greek: eile], "took possession of," on the suggestion of Muretus, Var. Lect. xv. 10, who thought it superfluous for Xenophon to say that Cyrus merely saw the tents. Lion, however, not unreasonably supposes this verb to be intended to mark the distance at which Cyrus passed from the tents, that is, that he passed within sight of them, the Cilicians having retired only a short space to the rear.]

[Footnote 32: [Greek: Sêsamon kai melinên kai kenchron].] Sesamum is a leguminous plant, well known in the East; the seeds of it resemble hemp-seed, and are boiled and eaten like rice. [Greek: Melinê], panicum, is a plant resembling millet. [Greek: Kenchros], milium, millet, is far the best known of the three to Europeans. Panic bears its grain in ears; millet, in bunches.]

[Footnote 33: [Greek: Kapêleia].] [Greek: Kapêleion] is often used in the sense of a tavern; sometimes in a more general sense, as any kind of shop. We may suppose that all those remained behind who had anything to sell, with the hope of getting profit.]