to Pasargadæ, in order that he might be initiated into the royal mystic
rites by the priests there. The temple is dedicated to a warlike goddess
whom one might liken to Athena. The person to be initiated enters this
temple, removes his own clothes, and puts on those which the ancient
Cyrus wore before he became king. He then eats some of a cake made of
preserved figs, tastes the fruit of the terebinth tree, and drinks a cup
of sour milk. Whether besides this he does anything else is known only
to the initiated. When Artaxerxes was about to do this Tissaphernes met
him, bringing with him one of the priests, who, when both the princes
were boys, had been Cyrus's teacher in the usual course of study, had
taught him to use incantations like a Magian, and had been especially
grieved at Cyrus not being proclaimed king. For this reason he more
easily obtained credit when he accused Cyrus; and the accusation he
brought against him was that Cyrus intended to conceal himself in the
temple, and when the king took off his clothes, to attack him and murder
him. Some writers say that this was how Cyrus came to be apprehended,
while others state that he actually got into the temple, and was there
betrayed by the priest. When he was about to be put to death, his mother
threw her arms round him, flung her hair over him, pressed his neck
against her own, and by her tears and entreaties obtained his pardon,
and got him sent back again to his government on the sea coast. He was
not satisfied with this position nor was he grateful for his pardon, but
remembered only how he had been taken into custody, and through anger
at this became all the more eager to gain the throne for himself.
IV. Some writers say that he revolted because his revenues did not
suffice for his daily expenses; but this is absurd, since, if he could
have obtained it from no other source, his mother was always ready to
supply him, and used to give as much as he wanted from her own income.
His wealth also is proved by the large mercenary force which, we learn
from Xenophon, was enlisted by his friends and guests in many different
places: for he never collected it together, as he wished to conceal his
preparations, but he kept many persons in different places who recruited
soldiers for him on various pretexts. His mother, who was present at
court, lulled the king's suspicions, and Cyrus himself constantly wrote
to him in dutiful terms, asking him to grant certain matters, and
bringing accusations against Tissaphernes, as though it was Tissaphernes
of whom he were jealous and with whom he had a quarrel. There was also a
certain slowness in the disposition of the king, which was mistaken by
the people for good nature. At the beginning of his reign, he seemed
inclined to rival the gentleness of his namesake, as he made himself
pleasant to all whom he met, distributed honours and favours even beyond
men's deserts, took no delight in insulting and torturing evil-doers,
and showed himself as affable and courteous to those from whom he
received favours as he was to those upon whom he bestowed them. No
present was so trifling that he did not receive it gladly, but even when
a man named Onisus brought him a pomegranate of unusual size, he said,
"By Mithras, if this man were given the charge of a small city he would
soon make it great!"
V. When during one of his journeys all men were bringing him presents, a
labouring man, not finding anything else to give, ran to the river, took
up some of the water in his two hands and offered it to him. Artaxerxes
was pleased with the man, and sent him a gold drinking-cup and a
thousand darics. When Eukleidas the Lacedæmonian had spoken his mind
very freely to him, he bade his general say to him, "You may say what
you please, but I may both say and do what I please." Once when they
were hunting, Teribazus pointed out to him that his coat was torn.
Artaxerxes asked what was to be done, to which Teribazus answered, "Put
on another coat, and give this one to me." He replied, "I will give it
to you, Teribazus, but I forbid you to wear it." Teribazus, however, who
was a loyal subject, but careless and flighty, immediately put on the
coat, and ornamented himself with women's necklaces belonging to the
king, so that all men were disgusted with him, for it was not lawful to
do so. The king, however, laughed, and said, "I allow you to wear the
jewelry as a woman, and the coat as a fool." Though no one eats at the
same table with the king of Persia except his mother, who sits above
him, or his wedded wife, who sits below him, Artaxerxes invited his
younger brothers also, Ostanes and Oxathres, to sit at the same table.
One of the sights which especially delighted the Persians was the
carriage in which Statira, the wife of Artaxerxes, drove, with the
curtains drawn back, for the queen allowed the people to greet her and
approach her, and was much beloved by them in consequence.
VI. However, all turbulent and unsettled spirits thought that the empire
required Cyrus at its head, since he was a brilliant and warlike prince,
a staunch friend to his comrades, and a man of intellect and ambition,
capable of wielding the enormous power of Persia. Cyrus, when he began
the war, relied upon the attachment of the people of the interior of
Asia as much as he did upon that of his own followers; and he wrote to
the Lacedæmonians, begging them to help him and to send soldiers to him,
declaring that if the soldiers came to him on foot, he would give them
horses, and if they came on horseback, he would give them carriages and
pairs, that if they possessed fields, he would give them villages, and
if they possessed villages he would give them cities; and that his
soldiers' pay should be given them by measure, instead of being counted
out to them. At the same time he boasted loudly about himself, averring
that he had a greater heart than his brother, was a better philosopher,
and was a more learned Magian, and also that he could drink and carry
more wine than his brother, who, he declared, was so lazy and cowardly
that he would not even mount a horse when hunting, or a throne in time
of peril. The Lacedæmonians now sent a skytale[581] to Klearchus,
bidding him obey the bidding of Cyrus in all things. Cyrus marched
against the King of Persia with a large force and nearly thirteen
thousand Greek mercenary troops, whom he had engaged upon various
pretences. His treason was not long undiscovered, for Tissaphernes went
in person to tell the king of it, upon which there was a terrible scene
of disorder in the palace, since Parysatis was blamed as being the chief
instigator of the war, and her friends were all viewed with suspicion as
traitors. Parysatis was especially enraged by the reproaches of Statira,
who asked her loudly, "Where now are the pledges you gave us? What has
come of the entreaties by which you begged off Cyrus when he plotted
against his brother's life, now that you have plunged us into war and
misery?" In consequence of these reproaches Parysatis conceived a
vehement hatred for Statira, and being of a fierce passionate
unforgiving temper, she plotted her destruction. Deinon states that she
effected her purpose during the war, but Ktesias says that she did the
deed afterwards, and I shall adopt his account of the matter, for it is
not probable that he, who was an eye-witness of these events, did not
know the order in which they took place, or that in his history he
should have had any reason for misrepresenting them, although he often
departs from the exact truth with a view to dramatic effect.
VII. As Cyrus marched onwards, many rumours and reports were brought to
him, that the king had determined not to fight at once, and was not
anxious to meet him in battle, but that he intended to remain in Persia
until his forces had assembled there from all parts of the empire.
Indeed, although he had dug a trench across the plain ten fathoms wide,
as many deep, and four hundred stadia long, yet he remained quiet and
permitted Cyrus to cross it, and to march close to Babylon itself.
Teribazus, we are told, was the first who ventured to tell the king that
he ought not to avoid a battle, and retreat from Media and from Babylon,
and even from Susa itself into Persia, when he possessed an army many
times as great as that of the enemy, and numberless satraps and generals
who were better generals and better soldiers than Cyrus. Upon hearing
this advice, the king determined to fight as soon as possible. At first
his sudden appearance with a splendidly equipped force of nine hundred
thousand men caused great surprise and confusion among the rebels, who
had gained such confidence that they were marching without their arms;
and it was not without much shouting and disorder that Cyrus was able to
rally them and place them in array. The king moved forward slowly and in
silence, so that the Greeks were filled with admiration at the
discipline of his army, for they had expected that in such a host there
would be disorderly shouts and irregularity and intervals in the line.
The strongest of the scythed chariots were judiciously posted by
Artaxerxes in front of his line, in order that before the two armies
engaged hand to hand they might break the enemy's ranks by the force of
their charge.
VIII. The battle[582] has been described by many writers, and as
Xenophon's narrative is so clear that the reader seems almost to be
present, and to see the different events in the act of taking place, it
would be folly for me to do more than to mention some important
particulars which he has omitted. The place where the two armies met is
called Kunaxa, and is five hundred stadia distant from Babylon. Before
the battle Klearchus is said to have advised Cyrus to post himself
behind the ranks of the soldiers, and not to risk his life; to which
Cyrus replied "What say you, Klearchus? Just when I am striving to win a
kingdom, do you bid me prove myself unworthy of one?" In the action
itself, though Cyrus made a great mistake in plunging so rashly into the
midst of the enemy without regarding the risk that he ran, yet Klearchus
was quite as much, if not more to blame for not arraying his Greeks
opposite to the Persian king, and for resting his right wing upon the
river for fear he should be surrounded. If he valued safety more than
anything else, and cared only to avoid the slightest risk of loss, he
had better have stayed at home; but after he had marched ten thousand
stadia from the sea, under no compulsion, but solely in order to place
Cyrus upon the throne of Persia, then to be solicitous, not for a post
where he might win the victory for his chief and paymaster, but merely
for one where he might fight without exposing himself, was to act like a
man who, on the first appearance of danger, abandons the whole
enterprise and gives up the object for which the expedition was made. It
is abundantly clear from what took place, that if the Greeks had charged
the troops who defended the king's person, they would have met with no
resistance, and if these men had been routed, and the king slain or
forced to take flight, Cyrus's victory would at once have placed him on
the throne. It was, therefore, the overcaution of Klearchus more than
the rashness of Cyrus which really caused the death of the latter and
the ruin of his cause; for the Persian King himself could not, if he had
wished, have placed the Greeks in a position where they could do him
less harm, for they were so far away from him and his main body that he
did not even perceive that they had routed their antagonists, and Cyrus
was slain before Klearchus could reap any advantage from his victory.
Yet Cyrus knew what was best, for he ordered Klearchus to post his men
in the centre; but Klearchus, saying that he would manage as well as he
could, ruined everything.
IX. The Greeks put the Persians to flight with the greatest ease, and
pursued them for a long distance. Cyrus, as he rode forward, mounted
upon a spirited, but hard-mouthed and unmanageable horse, which, we
learn from Ktesias was named Pasakas, was met by Artagerses, the leader
of the Kadousians, who shouted loudly, saying, "Most wicked and foolish
of men, who hast disgraced the name of Cyrus, erst the noblest in
Persia, and bringest thy base Greeks on a base errand, to plunder the
good things of the Persians, and to slay thy brother and thy lord, who
hath ten thousand times ten thousand slaves, each one better than thou
art. Soon shalt thou find out the truth of this; for before thou seest
the king's face thou shalt lose thine own head." Saying thus, he hurled
his javelin against Cyrus, but his breastplate resisted the blow, and
Cyrus was not wounded, although he reeled in his saddle from the
violence of the stroke. As Artagerses wheeled round his horse, Cyrus
struck him with a javelin, driving the point through his throat, beside
the collar-bone. That Artagerses was slain by Cyrus nearly all
historians agree, but as to the death of Cyrus himself, since Xenophon
has described it very shortly, as he was not an eye-witness of it, we
may as well give the accounts of it which Deinon and which Ktesias have
written.
X. Deinon says that when Artagerses fell, Cyrus charged violently among
the troops round the king, and wounded the king's horse. Artaxerxes was
thrown from his horse, but Teribazus quickly mounted him upon another
horse, saying, "My king, remember this day, for you ought not to forget
it." Artaxerxes, he states, was again thrown from his horse by the
vehement onset of Cyrus, and again mounted. At the third charge the king
who was violently enraged, and cried out to those around him that it was
better to die than be treated thus, rode straight against Cyrus, who
rashly and heedlessly exposed himself to the missiles of his enemies.
The king hurled a dart at Cyrus, and so did all his followers. Cyrus
fell, struck, some say by the king himself, but according to others he
was slain by a Carian soldier, on whom the king afterwards, as a reward
for this feat of arms, bestowed the honour of marching at the head of
the army, carrying a golden cock upon a spear. Indeed the Persians call
the Carians themselves cocks, because of the plumes with which they
ornament their helmets.
XI. The story of Ktesias, reduced to a succinct form, is as
follows:--Cyrus, after slaying Artagerses, rode towards the king himself,
and the king rode towards him, both of them in silence. Ariaeus, the
friend of Cyrus, struck the king first but did not wound him. The king
hurled his spear and missed Cyrus, but struck Satiphernes, a man of
noble birth and a trusted friend of Cyrus, and slew him. Cyrus hurled
his javelin at the king, drove it through his breastplate, making a
wound in his breast two fingers' breadths deep, and cast him from his
horse. Upon this there was much disorder, and many took to flight. The
king rose, and with a few followers, among whom was Ktesias, took
refuge on a hill hard by. Meanwhile Cyrus was carried by his horse a
long distance forward into the midst of his enemies, and, as it was now
growing dark, he was not recognised by his foes, and was being sought
for in vain by his friends. Excited by his victory, and full of spirit
and pride, he rode about through the ranks, crying, "Out of my way,
wretches." As Cyrus shouted these words in Persian, some made way for
him, but the tiara fell from his head, and a young man named
Mithridates, not knowing who he was, hurled a javelin and struck him on
the temple near the eye. The wound bled profusely, and Cyrus became
dizzy and faint, so that he fell from his horse. The horse rushed away
from him and was lost, but the servant of the man who struck Cyrus took
up his saddle-cloth, which fell from his horse, and which was drenched
with blood.
When Cyrus began to recover from the effects of this blow, some few of
his eunuchs tried to mount him upon another horse and get him safe away
from the field. As, however, he could not mount, he proposed to walk,
and the eunuchs supported him as he went, faint and weak in his body,
but still imagining himself to be the victor as he heard the fugitives
calling Cyrus their king and begging him for mercy. At this time certain
men of Kaunus, of mean and low condition, who followed the king's army
to perform menial services, happened to join the party with Cyrus,
supposing them to be friends. When, however, they managed to distinguish
that the surcoats which they wore over their armour were purple, while
all the king's soldiers wore white ones, they perceived that they were
enemies. One of them ventured to strike Cyrus from behind with a spear,
not knowing who he was. The javelin struck Cyrus behind the knee,
cutting the vein there, and in his fall he also struck his wounded
temple against a stone, and so died. This is the story of Ktesias, in
which he seems, as it were, to hack poor Cyrus to death with a blunt
sword.
XII. When Cyrus was dead it happened that Artasyras, who was called the
king's eye,[583] rode past. Recognising the eunuchs who were mourning
over the body, he asked the most trusted of them, "Pariskas, who is this
beside whom you sit weeping?" He answered, "Artasyras, do you not see
that it is Cyrus, who is dead?" Artasyras was astonished at this news,
bade the eunuch be of good courage and guard the body, and himself rode
in haste to Artaxerxes, who had given up all hope of success, and was in
great bodily suffering from his wound and from thirst. Artasyras, with
great delight, told him that he had seen Cyrus lying dead. On hearing
this Artaxerxes at first wished to go to see it himself, and bade
Artasyras lead him to the spot; but as there was much talk and fear of
the Greeks, who were said to be advancing and carrying all before them;
he decided to send a party to view the body; and thirty men went
carrying torches. Meanwhile, as the king himself was almost dying of
thirst the eunuch Satibarzanes went in search of drink for him; for
there was no water in the place where he was, nor indeed anywhere near
the army. After much trouble the eunuch at length fell in with one of
the low Kaunian camp followers, who had about four pints of putrid water
in a skin, which he took from the man and carried it to the king. When
the king had drunk it all, he asked him if he was not disgusted with the
water; and the king swore by the gods that he never had drank either
wine or the purest of water with such pleasure. "So," added he, "if I be
not able to find the man who gave you this water and reward him for it,
I pray that the gods may make him rich and happy."
XIII. While they were talking thus, the thirty men rode up in high
spirits, announcing to him his unlooked-for good fortune. Artaxerxes now
began to recover his courage from the number of men who began to
assemble round him, and descended from the hill amidst the glare of many
torches. When he reached the body, the head and right hand were cut off,
in accordance with some Persian custom. He ordered the head to be
brought to him, took hold of it by the long thick hair, and showed it to
those who were still wavering or fleeing. They all were filled with
amazement, and did homage to him, so that he soon collected a force of
seventy thousand men, accompanied by whom he re-entered his camp. He had
left it in the morning, according to Ktesias, with an army of four
hundred thousand men; though Deinon and Xenophon both estimate the
forces actually engaged at a higher figure. Ktesias states that the
number of the dead was returned to Artaxerxes as nine thousand, but that
he himself thought that the corpses which he saw lying on the field must
amount to more than twenty thousand. This point admits of discussion;
but Ktesias tells an obvious untruth when he says that he was sent on an
embassy to the Greeks, together with Phalinus of Zakynthus, and some
other persons. Xenophon knew that Ktesias was at the king's court, for
he makes mention of him, and has evidently read his history; so that he
never would have passed him over, and only mentioned Phalinus of
Zakynthus, if Ktesias had really come as interpreter on a mission of
such importance. But Ktesias, being a wonderfully vain man, and
especially attached to the Lacedæmonians and to Klearchus, constantly in
his history introduces himself, while he sings the praises of Lacedæmon
and of Klearchus.
XIV. After the battle, Artaxerxes sent most splendid and valuable
presents to Artagerses, the son of the man who had been slain by Cyrus,
and handsomely rewarded Ktesias and the rest of his companions. He
sought out the Kaunian from whom he had received the water-skin, who was
a poor and humble man, and made him rich and honoured. He also took
pains to appoint suitable punishments to those who had misconducted
themselves. One Arbakes, a Mede, deserted to Cyrus during the battle,
and when Cyrus fell again returned to his allegiance. Artaxerxes,
perceiving that he had done so not from treachery but from sheer
cowardice, ordered him to carry a naked courtesan about the market-place
upon his shoulders for the whole of one day. Another deserter, who
besides changing sides falsely boasted that he had slain two of the
enemy, was condemned by the king to have his tongue pierced with three
needles. As Artaxerxes believed, and wished all men to think that he had
himself slain Cyrus, he sent presents to Mithridates, who was the first
man that wounded Cyrus, and bade those who carried the presents say,
"The king honours you with these presents, because you found Cyrus's
saddle-cloth and brought it to him." And when the Carian, who had
struck Cyrus under the knee, demanded a present, he bade those who
carried the presents say, "The king gives you these for having been
second to bring him the good news; for Artasyras first, and you next,
brought him the news of the death of Cyrus." Mithridates retired in
silence, much vexed at this; but the unhappy Carian, as often happens,
was ruined by his own folly. Excited by his good fortune into trying to
obtain more than became him, he refused to take what was offered him for
having brought good news, but remonstrated loudly, declaring that he,
and no one else, slew Cyrus, and that he was most unjustly being
deprived of the credit of the action. The king, when he heard this, was
greatly angered, and ordered the man's head to be struck off. His
mother, Parysatis, who was present, said, "My king, do not thus rid
yourself of this pestilent Carian. He shall receive from me a fitting
punishment for what he has dared to say." The king handed him over to
her, and Parysatis ordered the executioners to torture him for ten days,
and then to tear out his eyes and pour molten copper into his ears until
he died.
XV. Mithridates also came to an evil end after a few days by his folly.
He came dressed in the robe, and adorned with the ornaments which he had
received from the king, to a banquet at which the eunuchs of the king
and of the king's mother were present. When they began to drink the most
influential of the eunuchs of Parysatis said to him: "What a fine dress,
Mithridates, and what fine necklaces and bracelet the king has given
you! How valuable is your scimitar? Indeed, he has made you fortunate
and envied by all men." Mithridates, who was already in liquor,
answered: "What are these things, Sparamixes? I proved myself on that
day worth more than these to the king." Sparamixes smiled and said, "I
do not grudge you them, Mithridates, but come--as the Greeks say that
there is truth in wine--tell us how it can be so great or brilliant an
achievement to find a saddle-cloth that has fallen off a horse, and to
bring it to the king." This the eunuch said, not because he did not know
the truth, but because he wished to lead Mithridates, whose tongue was
loosened by wine, to expose his folly before the company. Mithridates
could not restrain himself, and said: "You may say what you please
about saddle-cloths and such nonsense; I tell you plainly, that it was
by my hand that Cyrus fell. I did not hurl my javelin in vain, like
Artagerses, but I just missed his eye, struck him through the temple,
and felled him to the ground; and with that blow he died." All the rest
of the guests, foreseeing the miserable end to which Mithridates would
certainly come, cast their eyes upon the ground; but the host said: "My
good Mithridates, let us now eat and drink, adoring the fortune of the
king, but let us not talk about subjects which are too high for us."