Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/32

 10 HISTORY OF GREECE. both civil and military. He not only made various expeditions against the hostile Mysians and Pisidians, but was forward in exposing his own person, and munificent, rewarding the zeal of all soldiers who distinguished themselves. He attached men to his person both by a winning demeanor and by seasonable gifts. As it was the uniform custom, (and is still the custom in the East), for every one who approached Cyrus to come with a present in his hand, 1 so he usually gave away again these presents as marks of distinction to others. Hence he not only acquired the attach- ment of all in his own service, but also of those Persians whom Artaxerxes sent down on various pretences for the purpose of observing his motions. Of these emissaries from Susa, some were even sent to obstruct and enfeeble him. It was under such orders that a Persian named Orontes, governor of Sardis, acted, in levy- ing open war against Cyrus ; who twice subdued him, and twice pardoned him, on solemn assurance of fidelity for the future. 2 In all agreements, even with avowed enemies, Cyrus kept faith ex- actly ; so that his word was trusted by every one. Of such virtues, (rare in an Oriental ruler, either ancient ox ftffeccrunt. Alios pedibus, quosdam manibus auribusque, amputatis, inus- tisque barbararum literarum notis, in longum sui ludibrium reservaverant," etc. Compare Piodorus, xvii, 69 ; and the prodigious tales of cruelty re- counted in Herodot. ix, 112 ; Ktesias, Persic, c. 54-59 ; Plutarch, Artaxerx. c. 14, 16, 17. It is not unworthy of remark, that while there was nothing in which the Persian rulers displayed greater invention than in exaggerating bodily suf- fering upon a malefactor or an enemy, at Athens, whenever any man was put to death by public sentence, the execution took place within the prison by administering a cup of hemlock, without even public exposure. It was the minimum of pain, as well as the minimum of indignity ; as any one may see who reads the account of the death of Sokrates, given by Plato at the end of the Phaedon. It is certain, that, on the whole, the public sentiment in England is more humane now than it was in that day at Athens. Yet an Athenian public could not have borne the sight of a citizen publicly hanged or beheaded in the market-place. Much less could they have bone the sight of the pro- longed tortures inflicted on Damiens at Paris in 1757 (a fair parallel to tb.8 Persian anufyevais described in Plutarch, Artaxerx. c. 16), in the presence of an immense crowd of spectators, when every window commanding a view of the Place de Greve was let at a high pr'.cc, and filled by the best c mipany in Paris. 1 Xen. Anab. i, 9, 13. * Xen. A nab. i. 6, 6.