Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/53

 THEY FORD THE EUPHRATES. 31 that they do so because you have set the example. If, on the contrary, the others should refuse, we shall all be obliged to retreat - but he will never forget that you, separately taken, have done all that you could for him." Such breach of communion, and avidity for separate gain, at a time when it vitally concerned all the Greek soldiers to act in harmony with each other, was a step suitable to tne selfish and treacherous character of Menon. He gained his point, however, completely ; for Cyrus, on learning that the Greek troops had actually crossed, despatched Glus the interpreter to express to them his warmest thanks, and to assure them that he would never forget the obligation ; while at the same time, he sent underhand large presents to Menon separately. 1 He passed with his whole army immediately afterwards ; no man being wet above the breast. What had become of Abrokomas and his army, and why did he not defend this passage, where Cyrus might so easily have been arrested ? We are told that he had been there a little before, and that he had thought it sufficient to burn all the vessels at Thapsa- kus, in the belief that the invaders could not cross the river on foot. And Xenophon informs us that the Thapsakenes affirmed the Eu- phrates to have been never before fordable, always passed by means of boats ; insomuch that they treated the actual low state of the water as a providential interposition of the gods in favor of Cyrus ; " the river made way for him to come and take the scep- tre." When we find that Abrokomas came too late afterwards for the battle of Kunaxa, we shall be led to suspect that he too, like Syennesis in Kilikia, was playing a double game between the two royal brothers, and that he was content with destroying those vessels which formed the ordinary means of communication be- tween the banks, without taking any means to inquire whether the passage was practicable without them. The assertion of the Thap- sakenes, in so far as it was not a mere piece of flattery to Cyrus, could hardly have had any other foundation than the fact, that they had never seen the river crossed on foot (whether practicable cr not), so long as there were regular ferry-boats. 2 1 Xen. Anab. i, 4, 12-18. sions of flattery from the historians of Alexander, affirming that the seaneai Pamphylia providentially made way for him from the inhabitants on th
 * Xen. Anab. i, 4, 18. Compare (Plutarch, Alexand. 17) analogous expres-