Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/62

 40 HISTORY OF GEEECE. of the Macedonians, and exchanged for that intellectual quickness^ combined with moral degeneracy, which Cicero and his contem* poraries remark as the characteristic of these once high-toned communities. Having concerted the order of battle with the generals, Cyrus marched forward in cautious array during the next day, anticipat- ing the appearance of the king's forces. Nothing of the kind was seen, however, though abundant marks of their retiring footsteps were evident. The day's march, (called three parasangs) having been concluded without a battle, Cyrus called to him the Ambrak- iotic prophet Silanus, and presented him with three thousand darics or ten Attic talents. Silanus had assured him, on the eleventh day preceding, that there would be no action in ten days from that time; upon which Cyrus had told him, "If your prophecy comes true, I will give you three thousand darics. My brother will not fight at all, if he does not fight within ten days." 1 In spite of the strong opinion which he had expressed in re ply to Klearchus, Cyrus now really began to conceive that no battle would be hazarded by his enemies ; especially as in the course of this last day's march, he came to a broad and deep trench (thirty feet broad and eighteen feet deep), approaching so near to the Euphrates as to leave an interval of only twenty feet for passage. This trench had been dug by order of Arta- xerxes across the plain, for a length said to be of twelve para- sangs (about forty-two English miles, if the parasang be reckoned at thirty stadia), so as to touch at its other extremity what was called the walls of Media. 2 It had been dug as a special measure 1 Xen. Anab. i, 7, 14-17. days of march, and one part of a day ; for it occurred in the fourth day's march. Xenophon calls the three entire days, twelve parasangs in all. This argues short marches, not full marches. And it does not seem that the space of ground traversed during any one of them can have been consider- able. For they were all undertaken with visible evidences of an enemy immediately in front of them ; which circumstance was the occasion of the treason of Orontes, who asked Cyrus for a body of cavalry, under pretence of attacking the light troops of the enemy in front, and then wrote a letter to inform Artaxerxes that he was about to desert with his division. Th< letter was delivered to Cyrus, who thus discovered the treason.
 * From Pylae to the undefended trench, there intervened three entire