Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/31

 EFFORTS OF CYRUS TO GAIN POPULARITY. 9 they were required by Cyrus. Again, Aristippus and Menon, Thessalians of the great family of the Aleuadae at Larissa, who had maintained their tie of personal hospitality with the Persian royal family ever since the time of Xerxes, and were now in con- nection with Cyrus, 1 received from him funds to maintain a force of two thousand mercenaries for their political purposes in Thessaly, subject to his call whenever he should require them. Other Greeks, too, who had probably contracted similar ties of hospitality with Cyrus by service during the late war, Proxenus, a Boeo- tian ; Agias and Sophametus, Arcadians ; Sokrates, an Achaean, etc., were also empowered by him to collect mercenary soldiers. Hi-s pretended objects were, partly the siege of Miletus ; partly an ostensible expedition against the Pisidians, warlike and pre- datory mountaineers who did much mischief from their fastnesses in the south-east of Asia Minor. Besides these unavowed Grecian levies, Cyrus sent envoys to the Lacedemonians to invoke their aid, in requital for the stren- uous manner in which he had seconded their operations against Athens, and received a favorable answer. He farther got together a considerable native force, taking great pains to concil- iate friends as well as to inspire confidence. " He was straight- forward and just, like a candidate for command," to use the expression of Herodotus respecting the Median Deiokes ; 2 main- taining order and security throughout his satrapy, and punishing evil doers in great numbers, with the utmost extremity of rigor ; of which the public roads exhibited abundant h'ving testimony, in the persons of mutilated men, deprived of their hands, feet, or eyesight. 3 But he was also exact in rewarding faithful service, 1 Xcn. Anab. i, 1, 10 ; Herodot. vii, 6 ; ix, 1 ; Plato, Menon, c. 1, p. 70 ; c. 11, p. 78 C. 8 Herodot. i. 96. 'O 6e (Deiokes) ola fj.vsuft.svof upxjjv, l-&vf rs nal 6iKaio<; Xenoph. Hellen. iii, 1,1; Diodor. xiv, 19. 3 Xen. Anab. 1, 9, 8. TLoftMucif <5' ISelv f/v uvu ruf areipo/j.Evaf 66ovf, /caJ TTodtiv K.a.1 ^eipwv Kal 6(j>-&a2,[iuv GTspovfievovf uv&puirovg. For other samples of mutilation inflicted by Persians, not merely on mal- efactors, but on prisoners by wholesale, see Quintus Curtius, v. 5, 6. Alex- ander the Great -v as approaching near to Persepolis, " quum miserabile agmen, inter pauca fortunae exempla memorandum, regi occurrit. Captivi erant Grseci ad quatuor millia fere, quos Persse vario suppliciorum mode 1*