Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/60

 gg HISTORY OF GREECE. ashamed to tell you what worthless stuff you will find in these native men. Behave well, like brave men, and trust me fof sending you back hi such condition as to make your friends at home envy you ; though I hope to prevail on many of you to prefer my service to your own homes." u Some of us are remarking, Cyrus, (said a Samian exile named Gaulites), that you are full of promises at this hour of danger, but will forget them, or perhaps will be unable to perform them, when danger is over As to ability, (replied Cyrus), my father's empire reaches northward to the region of intolerable cold, southward to that of intolerable heat All in the middle is now apportioned in satrapies among my brother's friends ; all, if we are victorious, will come to be distributed among mine. I have no fear of not having enough to give away, but rather of not having friends enough to receive it from me. To each of you Greeks, moreover, I shall present a wreath of gold." Declarations like these, repeated by Cyrus to many of the Greek soldiers, and circulated among the remainder, filled all of them with confidence and enthusiasm in his cause. Such was the sense of force and superiority inspired, that Klearchus asked him, " Do you really think, Cyrus, that your brother will fight you ? Yes, by Zeus, (was the reply) ; assuredly, if he be the son of Darius and Parysatis, and my brother, I shall not win this prize without a battle." All the Greeks were earnest with him at the same tune not to expose his own person, but to take post in the rear of their body. 1 We shall see presently how this advice was followed. The declarations here reported, as well as the expressions em- ployed before during the dispute between Klearchus and the sol- diers of Menon near Charmande being, as they are, genuine and authentic, and not dramatic composition such as those of ^schylus in the Persae, nor historic amplification like the speech- es ascribed, to Xerxes in Herodotus, are among the most valua- ble evidences respecting the Hellenic character generally. It is not merely the superior courage and military discipline of the Greeks which Cyrus attests, compared with the cowardice of Asiatics, but also their fidelity and sense of obligation which he contrasts with the time-serving treachery of the latter ; 2 connect 1 Xen Anab. i, 7, 2-9. * Xen. Anab. i, 5, 16.