Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/71

 CHARACTER OF CYRUS. 4 t xerxes again marshalled liis troops in front, as if to attack him , but the Greeks, anticipating his movement, were first in making the attack themselves, and forced the Persians to take flight even more terror-stricken than before. Klearchus, thus relieved from all enemies, waited awhile in hopes of hearing news of Cyrus. He then returned to the camp, which was found stripped of all its stores ; so that the Greeks were compelled to pass the night with- out supper, while most of them also had had no dinner, from the early hour at which the battle had commenced. 1 It was only on the next morning that they learnt, through Prokles (descendant of the Spartan king Demaratus, formerly companion of Xerxes in the invasion of Greece), that Cyrus had been slain ; news which con- verted their satisfaction at their own triumph into sorrow and dismay. 2 Thus terminated the battle of Kunaxa, and along with it the ambitious hopes as well as the life of this young prince. His char- acter and proceedings suggest instructive remarks. Both in the conduct of this expedition, and in the two or three years of admin- istration in Asia Minor which preceded it, he displayed qualities such as are not seen in Cyrus called the Great, nor in any other member of the Persian regal family, nor indeed in any other Per- sian general throughout the history of the monarchy. We observe a large and long-sighted combination, a power of foreseeing dif- ficulties, and providing means beforehand for overcoming them, a dexterity in meeting variable exigencies, and dealing with dif- ferent parties, Greeks or Asiatics, officers or soldiers, a conviction of the necessity, not merely of purchasing men's service by lavish presents, but of acquiring their confidence by straightforward deal- ing and systematic good faith, a power of repressing displeasure when policy commanded, as at the desertion of Xenias and Pasion. and the first conspiracies of Orontes ; although usually the punish- ments which he inflicted were full of Oriental barbarity. How rare were the merits and accomplishments of Cyrus, as a Persian, will be best felt when we contrast this portrait, by Xenophon, with the description of the Persian satraps by Isokrates. 3 That many 1 Xen. Anab. i, 10, 18, 19. 2 Xen. Anab. ii, 1, 3, 4. 3 Isokrates, Orat. iv, (Panegyric.) 3. 175-182 ; a striking passage, as de- scribing the way in which political nstitutions work themselves into the '^dividual character and habits. YOL. IX. 3 4oC