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 112 HISTORY OF GREECE. who then went through it, pronounces it absolutely impracticable for an army, if opposed by any occupying force. So thoroughly persuaded was Cyrus himself of this fact, that he had prepared a fleet, in case he found the pass occupied, to land troops by sea in Kilikia in the rear of the defenders ; and great indeed was his astonishment, to discover that the habitual recklessness of Per- sian management had left the defile unguarded. The narrowest part, while hardly sufficient to contain four armed men abreast, was shut in by precipitious rock on each side.^ Here, if any- where, was the spot in which the defensive policy of Memnon might have been made sure. To Alexander, inferior as he was by sea, the resource employed by the younger Cyrus was not open. Yet Arsames, the Persian satrap commanding at Tarsus in Kilikia, having received seemingly from his master no instruc- tions, or worse than none, acted as if ignorant of the existence of liis enterprising enemy north of Mount Taurus. On the first approach of Alexander, the few Persian soldiers occupying the pass fled without striking a blow, being seemingly unprepared for any enemy more formidable than mountain-robbers. Alex- ander thus became master of this almost insuperable barrier, without the loss of a man.^ On the ensuuig day, he marched his whole army over it into Kilikia, and arriving in a few hours at Tarsus, found the town already evacuated by Ai'sames.^ At Tarsus Alexander made a long halt ; much longer than he intended. Either from excessive fatigue — -or from bathing while hot in the chilly water of the river Kydnus — he was seized with a violent fever, which presently increased to so dan- gerous a pitch that his life was despaired of. Amidst the grief and alarm vfith which this misfortune filled the army, none of the physicians would venture to administer remedies, for fear of being 1 Curtius, iii. 1, 11. 2 Curtius, iii. 4,11. " Contemplatus locorum situm ( Alexaiulcr), now alias dicitur magis admiratus esse felicitatem suam," etc. See Phuarcli, Demetrius, 47, where Agathokles (son of Lysimaclius) holds the line of Taurus against Demetrius PoliorkStcs. » Arrian, ii. 4, 3-8; Curtius. iii. 4. Curtius ascrrbes to Arsames tlie in- tention of executing what had been recommended by Memnon before tho battle of the Graniicus — to desolate the country in order to check Alexan-