Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/157

 CYRUS THE YOUNGER. 135 promise. It was plain that the satrap had grown weary of bear ing all the brunt of the war for the benefit of the Peloponne sians, and that he was well disposed to assist the Athenians in coming to terms with the Great King. The rnero withdrawal of his hearty support from Sparta, even if nothing else followed from it, was of immense moment to Athens ; and thus much was really achieved. The envoys, five Athenians and two Ar- geians, all, probably, sent for from Athens, which accounts for some delay, were directed, after the siege of Chalkedon, tc meet Pharnabazus at Kyzikus. Some Lacedaemonian envoys ; and even the Syracusan Hermokrates, who had been condemned and banished by sentence at home, took advantage of the same escort, and all proceeded on their journey upw r ard to Susa. Their progress was arrested, during the extreme severity of the winter, at Gordium in Phrygia ; and it was while pursuing their track into the interior at the opening of spring, that they met the young prince Cyrus, son of king Darius, coming down in person to govern an important part of Asia Minor. Some Lacedaemo- nian envoys, Boeotius and others, were travelling down along with him, after having fulfilled their mission at the Persian court. 1 CHAPTER LXIV. FROM THE ARRIVAL OF CYRUS THE YOUNGER IN ASIA MINOR, DOWN TO THE BATTLE OF ARGLNUS^E. THE advent of Cyrus, commonly known as Cyrus the younger, into Asia Minor, was an event of the greatest importance, opening what may be called the last phase in the Peloponnesian war. He was the younger of the two sons of the Persian king Da- rius Nothus by the cruel queen Parysatis, and was now sent down by his father as satrap of Lydia, Phrygia the greater, and Kap- padokia, as well as general of all that military division of which th? muster-place was Kastolus. His command did not at thi* 1 Xeaoph. Hellcn. i, 4,2-3.