Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/26

16 £1, 4s. per month. On this understanding, the army again marched forward and reached Issus, the last town of Cilicia on the sea-coast. Here the ships of Cyrus brought up some reinforcements, and among them Cheirisophus, the Spartan general, with 700 men.

Beyond were "the gates of Cilicia and Syria," two fortresses about five hundred yards apart, with a stream flowing between them. And this aperture, being the only entrance into Syria, was one of the most defensible positions in the whole march. Cyrus had appointed his fleet to meet him here to assist in forcing it. But the one fortress had been abandoned by Syennesis, and the other by the outpost of Abrocomas; and the Grecian army passed through these gates also unchallenged. They advanced along the coast to Myriandrus, a Phœnician settlement. This was the last time, for many a long day, that any of them were destined to look upon the sea. Here two of the Greek captains deserted in a merchant vessel. But Cyrus had the adroitness to "make capital" out of the circumstance. He addressed the army, and showed that he might easily have the deserters captured by his war-galleys, but that he abstained from doing so. "Let them go, therefore," said he, "and remember that they have behaved worse to me than I have to them." The Greeks, even such as had before been disinclined to the expedition, on seeing the generosity of Cyrus, now accompanied him with greater pleasure and cheerfulness. Twelve days' march from this point brought them to the large town of Thapsacus, on the banks of the Euphrates. Here a halt