making haste to possess himself of some important place, for they were stil ignorant of his death, and the defeat of the rest of his army, they determined therefore to return to their camp, and found the greatest part of the baggage taken, with all the provisions, and four hundred waggons laden with corn and wine, which Cyrus had expressly caused to be carried along with the army, for the Greeks, in case of any pressing necessity. They passed the night in the camp, the greatest part of them without any refreshment, concluding that Cyrus was alive and victorious.

The success of this battle shows the superiority of valour and military know. ledge over a multitude without them. The small army of the Greeks did not amount to more than twelve or thirteen thousand men; but they were veteran and disciplined troops, inured to fatigues, accustomed to confront dangers, sen sible to glory, and who, during the long Peloponnesian war, had not wanted either time or means to acquire and complete themselves in the art of war, and the different orders of battle. The army of Artaxerxes was computed at a million of men; but they were soldiers only in name, without force, courage, discipline, experience, or any sense of honour. Hence it was, that as soon as the Greeks appeared, terror and disorder ensued among the enemy; and in the second action, Artaxerxes himself did not dare to wait their attack, but shamefully betook himself to flight.

Plutarch here greatly blames Clearchus, the general of the Greeks, and imputes to him as an unpardonable neglect, his not having followed Cyrus's order, who recommended to him above all things to incline, and charge Artaxerxes in person. This reproach seems groundless. It is not easy to conceive, how it was possible for that captain, who was posted on the right wing, to attack Artaxerxes immediately, who, in the centre of his own army, lay beyond the utmost extent of the enemy's left, as has been said before. It seems that Cyrus, depending as he did with great reason upon the valour of the Greeks, and desiring they should charge Artaxerxes in his post, ought to have placed them in the left wing, which was directly opposite where the king was posted; that is to the main body, and not in the right, which was very remote from it. Clearchus may indeed be reproached with having followed the pursuit too warmly and too long. If, after having thrown the left wing, which opposed him, into disorder, he had charged the rest of the enemy in flank, and had opened his way to the centre, where Artaxerxes was, it is highly probable that he had gained a complete victory, and placed Cyrus upon the throne. The six hundred horse of that prince's guard committed the same fault; and by pursuing the body of troops they had put to flight too eagerly, left their master almost alone, and abandoned to the mercy of the enemy; without considering, that they were chosen from the whole army for the immediate guard of his person, and for no other purpose whatever. Too much ardour is often prejudicial in a battle; and it is the duty of an able general to know how to restrain and direct it.

Cyrus himself erred highly in this respect, and abandoned himself too much to his blind passion for glory and revenge. In running headlong to attack his brother, he forgot that there is a wide difference between a general and a pri vate soldier. He ought not to have exposed himself, but as it was consistent with a prince; as the head, not the hand; as the person who was to give orders, and not as those who were to execute them.

I speak in this manner after judges in the art of war; and would not choose to advance my own opinion upon things out of my sphere.

SECTION III.-EULOGY OF CYRUS.

"He

XENOPHON gives us a magnificent character of Cyrus; and that, not upon the credit of others, but from what he saw and knew of him in his own person. was," says he, in the opinion of all who were acquainted with him, after Cyrus the Great, a prince the most worthy of the supreme authority, and had the most noble and most truly royal soul. From his infancy he surpassed

all of Lis own age in every exercise, whether it were in managing the horse, drawing the bow, throwing the dart, or in the chase, in which he distinguished himself once by fighting and killing a bear that attacked him. Those advantages were exalted in him by the nobleness of his air, an engaging aspect, and by all the graces of nature that conduce to commend merit.*

When his father had made him satrap of Lydia, and the neighbouring provinces, Great Phrygia and Cappadocia, his chief care was to make the people sensible, that he had nothing so much at heart, as to keep his word inviolably, not only with regard to public treaties, but the most minute of his promises; a quality very rare among princes, but which however is the basis of all good government, and the source of their own, as well as their people's happiness. Not only the places under his authority, but the enemy themselves, reposed an

entire confidence in him.

Whether good or ill were done him, he always desired to return it double, and that he might live no longer, as he said himself, than till he surpassed his friends in benefits, and his enemies in vengeance. (It had been more glorious for him to have overcome the latter by the force of favour and benevolence.) Nor was there ever a prince that his people were more afraid to offend, nor for whose sake they were more ready to hazard their possessions, lives, and fortunes.

Less intent upon being feared than beloved, his study was to make his greatness appear only where it was useful and beneficial, and to extinguish all sentiments, except those which flow from gratitude and affection. He was industrious to do good upon all occasions, to confer his favours with judgment and in season, and to show, that he thought himself rich, powerful, and happy, only as he made others sensible of his being so, by his benevolence and liberality. But he took care not to exhaust the means by an imprudent profusion. He did not lavish, but distributed his favours. He chose rather to make his liberalities the rewards of merit, than mere donations; and that they should be subservient in promoting virtue, and not in supporting the soft and abject sloth of vice.

He was particularly pleased with conferring his favours upon valiant men; and governments and rewards were only bestowed on those who had distinguished themselves by their actions. He never granted any honour or dignity to favour, intrigue, or faction, but to merit only; upon which depends not only the glory, but the prosperity of governments. By these means he soon made virtue estimable, and the pursuit of men, and rendered vice contemptible and horrid. The provinces, animated with a noble emulation to deserve, furnished him, in a very short time, with a considerable number of excellent subjects of every kind, who under a different government would have remained unknown, obscure and useless.

Never did any one know how to oblige with a better grace, or to win the hearts of those who could serve him with more engaging behaviour. As he was fully sensible that he stood in need of the assistance of others for the execution of his designs, he thought justice and gratitude required that he should render his adherents all the services in his power. All the presents made him, whether of splendid arms or rich apparel, he distributed among his friends, according to their several tastes or occasions: and used to say, that the brightest ornament and most exalted riches of a prince, consisted in adorning and enriching those who served him well. "In fact," says Xenophon, " to do good to one's friends, and to excel them in liberality, does not seem so admirable in so high a fortune; but to transcend them in goodness of heart and sentiments of friendship and affection, and to take more pleasure in conferring than receiving obligations; in this I find Cyrus truly worthy of esteem and admiration. The first of these advantages he derives from his rank; and the other from himself, and his intrinsic merit."

De Exped. 1. i. p. 266, 267.

Habebit sinum facilem nos perforatum: ex que multa exeant, nihil excidat.-Senec. de Vit Beat 1.23.

By these extraordinary qualities he acquired the universal esteem and affec tion, as well of the Greeks as barbarians. A great proof of what Xenophen here says, is, that none ever quitted the service of Cyrus for the king's; whereas great numbers went over daily to him from the king's party after the war was declared; and even of such as had most influence at the court, because they were all convinced that Cyrus knew best how to distinguish and reward their

services.

It is most certain that young Cyrus did not want great virtues, and a superior merit; but I am surprised that Xenophon, in drawing his character, has described only the most beautiful features, and such as are proper to excite our admiration of him, without saying the least word of his defects, and espe cially of that immoderate ambition that was the soul of all his actions, and which at length put arms into his hands against his elder brother and king. Is it allowable in a historian, whose chief duty it is to paint virtue and vice in their proper colours, to relate at large an enterprise of such a nature, without intimating the least dislike or imputation against it? But with the pagans, ambition was so far from being considered as a vice, that it often passed for a virtue.

SECTION IV. THE KING IS FOR COMPELLING THE GREEKS TO DELIVER

UP THEIR ARMS.

THE Greeks having learned the day after the battle, that Cyrus was dead, sent deputies to Ariæus the general of the barbarians, who had retired with his troops to the place from whence they had marched the day before the action, to offer him, as victor, the crown of Persia in the room of Cyrus. At the same time arrived Persian heralds at arms from the king, to summon them to deliver up their arms; to whom they answered with a haughty air, that they used a strange language to conquerors; that if the king would have their arms, he might come and take them if he could; but that they would die before they would part with them; that if he would receive them into the number of his allies, they would serve him with fidelity and valour; but if he imagined to reduce them into slavery as conquered, he might know they had wherewithal to defend themselves, and were determined to lose their lives and liberty together.* The heralds added, that they had orders to tell them, that if they continued in the place where they were, they would be allowed a suspension of arms; but that if they advanced or retired, they would be treated as enemies. The Greeks after having consulted among themselves, were asked by the heralds what answer they should report. "Peace in continuing here, or war in marching," replied Clearchus, without explaining himself farther; from the view of keeping the king always in suspense and uncertainty.†

The answer of Ariæus to the Grecian deputies was, that there were many Persians more considerable than himself, who would not suffer him upon the throne, and that he should set out early the next day to return to Ionia; that if they would march thither with him, they might join him in the night. Clearchus, with the advice of the officers, prepared to depart. He commanded from thenceforth, as being the sole person of sufficient capacity; for he had not been actually elected general in chief.

The same night, Milthocytes the Thracian, who commanded forty horse and about three hundred foot of his own country, went and surrendered himself to the king; the rest of the Greeks began their march under the conduct of Clearchus, and arrived about midnight at the camp of Ariæus. After they had drawn up in battle, the principal officers waited on him at his tent, where they swore alliance with him; and the barbarian engaged to conduct the army out fraud. In confirmation of the treaty, they sacrificed a wolf, a ram, a boar,

with

* Sin ut victis servitium indiceretur, esse sibi ferrum et juventutem, et promptum liberati rut ad mor Lem animum.--Tacit. Annal. 1. iv. c. 46. Xenoph. in Exped. Cyr. 1. ii. p. 272-292. Diod. 1. ziv. p. 25–257.

ard a bull; the Greeks di ped their swords, and the barbarians the points of their javelins, in the blood of the victims.

Ariæus did not think proper to return by the same rout they came; because, having found nothing for their subsistence the last seventeen days of their march, they must have suffered much more had they taken the same way back again. He therefore took another; exhorting them only to make long marches at first, in order to evade the king's pursuit; which they could not otherwise effect. Towards evening, when they were not far from some villages where they proposed to halt, the scouts came in with advice that they had seen several equipages and convoys, which made it reasonable to suppose that the enemy were not far off: upon which they stood their ground, and waited their coming up; and the next day before sun-rise, drew up in the same order as in the preceding battle. So bold an appearance terrified the king, who sent heralds, not to demand as before the surrender of their arms, but to propose peace and a treaty. Clearchus, who was informed of their arrival while he was busy in drawing up his troops, gave orders to bid them wait, and to tell them that he was not yet at leisure to hear them. He assumed purposely an air of haughtiness and grandeur, to denote his intrepidity, and at the same time to show the fine appearance and good condition of his phalanx When he advanced with the most showy of his officers, expressly chosen for the occasion, and had heard what the heralds had to propose, he made answer, that they must begin with giving battle, because the army, being in want of provisions, had no time to lose. The heralds, having carried back this answer to their master, returned immediately; which showed that the king, or whoever spoke in his name, was not very distant. They said they had orders to conduct them to villages, where they should find provisions in abundance, and conducted them thither accordingly.

The army staid there three days, during which Tissaphernes arrived from the king with the queen's brother, and three other Persian grandees, attended by a great number of officers and domestics. After having saluted the generals, who advanced to receive him, he told them by his interpreter, that being a neighbour of Greece, and seeing them engaged in dangers out of which it would be difficult to extricate themselves, he had used his good offices with the king to obtain permission to reconduct them into their own country; being convinced, that neither themselves nor their cities would ever be unmindful of that favour; that the king, without having declared himself positively upon that head, had commanded him to come to them, to know for what cause they had taken arms against him; and he advised them to make the king such an answer as might not give any offence, and might enable him to do thein service. "We call the gods to witness," replied Clearchus, "that we did not enlist ourselves to make war with the king, or to inarch against him. Cyrus concealing his true motives under different pretexts, brought us almost hither without explaining himself, the better to surprise you. And when we saw him surrounded with dangers, we thought it infamous to abandon him, after the favours we had received from him. But as he is dead, we are released from our engagement, and neither desire to contest the crown with Artaxerxes, nor to ravage his country, provided he does not oppose our return. However, if we are attacked, we shall endeavour, with the assistance of the gods, to make a good defence; and shall not be ungrateful in regard to those who render us any service." Tissaphernes replied, that he would let the king know what they said, and return with his answer. But his not coming the next day gave the Greeks some anxiety: he however arrived on the third, and told them, that after much controversy, he had at length obtained the king's grace for them: for that it had been represented to the king, that he ought not to suffer people to return with impunity into their own country, who had been so insolent as to come thither to make war upon him. "In fine," said he, 66 you may now assure yourselves of not finding any obstacles to your return, and of being sup plied with provisions, or suffered to buy them: and you may judge that you VOL. II.

These

are to pass without committing any disorders in your march, and that you are to take only what is necessary, provided you are not furnished with it." conditions were sworn to on both sides. Tissaphernes and the queen's brother gave their hands to the colonels and captains, in token of amity. After which Tissaphernes withdrew, to dispose his affairs; promising to return as soon as they would admit, in order to go back with them into his government.

The Greeks waited for him above twenty days, continuing encamped near Ariæus, who received frequent visits from his brothers and other relations, as did the officers of his army, from the Persians of the different party; who assured them from the king of an entire oblivion of the past; so that the friendship of Ariæus for the Greeks appeared to cool every day more and more. This change gave them cause of uneasiness. Several of the officers went to Clearchus and the other generals, and said to them, "What do we here any longer? Are we not sensible that the king desires to see us all perish, that others may be terrified by our example? Perhaps he keeps us waiting here, till he re-assembles his dispersed troops, or sends to seize the passes in our way; for he will never suffer us to return into Greece, to divulge our own glory and his shame." Clearchus made answer to this discourse, that to depart without consulting the king, was to break with him, and declare war by violating the treaty; that they should remain without a conductor, in a country where nobody would supply them with provisions; that Ariæus would abandon them; and that even their friends would become their enemies; that he did not know but there might be other rivers to pass; and that, though the Euphrates were the only one, they would not get over it, were the passage ever so little disputed: that if it were necessary to come to a battle, they should find themselves without cavalry against an enemy that had a very numerous and excellent body of horse; so that if they gained the vic tory, they could make no great advantage of it, and if they were overcome, they were utterly and irretrievably lost. Besides, why should the king, who has so many other means to destroy us, engage his word only to violate it, and thereby render himself execrable in the sight of gods and men!"

Tissaphernes however arrived with his troops, in order to return into his government; and they set forward all together under the conduct of that satrap, who supplied them with provisions. Ariæus, with his troops, encamped with the barbarians, and the Greeks separately at some distance, which kept up a continual distrust among them. Besides which, there happened frequent quar rels for wood or forage, that augmented their aversion for each other. After three days march, they arrived at the wall of Media, which is one hundred feet high, twenty broad, and twenty leagues in extent, all built of bricks, cemented with bitumen, like the walls of Babylon, from which it was not very distant at one of its extremities. When they had passed it, they marched eight leagues in two days, and came to the river Tigris, after having crossed two of its canals, cut expressly for watering the country. They then passed the Ti gris upon a bridge of twenty-seven boats near Sitacum, a very great and popu lous city. After four days march they arrived at another city, very powerful also, called Opis. They found there a bastard brother of Artaxerxes with a very considerable body of troops, which he was bringing from Susa and Ecbatana to his aid. He admired the fine order of the Greeks. From thence, having påssed the deserts of Media, they came, after a march of six days, to a place called the lands of Parysatis; the revenues of which appertained to that princess. Tissaphernes, to insult the memory of her son Cyrus, so dearly be loved by her, gave the villages to be plundered by the Greeks. Continuing their march through the desert on the side of the Tigris, which they had on theit

*Twenty parasangas.

The march of the Greeks, and the rest of the army, from the day after the battle till he passing of the Tigris, abounds in the text of Xenophon with very great obscurities, to explain which fully, requires long dissertation. My plan does not permit me to enter into such discussions, which I must therefore refet to those who are more able than I am