THE MEDIAN AND THE CYROPAEDIA OF XENOPHON. 19 



who formerly served with you as mercenaries, and the oimotlixol.''^ 

 " And what number are they ? " asked his uncle. " You would 

 not be much pleased," said Cyrus, " if you heard ; but be well- 

 assured that these, though few, easily rule the rest of the Persians 

 though they be many. But," he continued, " is there any need 

 of these soldiers of mine, or were you needlessly alarmed, and 

 are the enemies not coming ? " " They are, indeed, by Zeus," he 

 said, " and very many, too." It appeared then that Croesus, 

 King of Lydia, and quite a number of powerful allies, had come 

 to the help of the Babylonian king who held Babylon and the 

 rest of Assyria. When Cyaxares had, in response to the inquiry of 

 Oyrus, mentioned the numbers which each of the alHes were 

 said to have brought with them, Cyrus said, " Then the cavalry 

 on our side are less than a third part of the enemy's Horse, and 

 our foot-soldiers about a haK." After a time a battle took place 

 in which the enemy were defeated with great loss and driven 

 into the entrenched enclosure of their camp, and Cyrus drew off 

 his forces, elated with the victory, to some short distance for 

 the night. 



But on the side of the enemy, the Assyrians, who, Xenophon 

 (evidently in error) states, had lost their king in the battle, were 

 greatly disheartened ; and Croesus and the other kings even 

 more so, when they saw the troops of the leading nation in the 

 confederacy so unsound in spirit ; and, in fact, as a result the whole 

 confederate host abandoned the camp during the night. And it 

 may be noticed here that this account, given by Xenophon, 

 of the cowardice and inefficiency of the Babylonian troops in the 

 days of Cyrus, is in full accord with the Inscriptions ; for the 

 Annahstic Tablet of the time of the Fall of Babylon records, that 

 after one faint attempt, apparently, at resistance in the field, the 

 Babylonian army was no longer seen. The army which had won 

 such victories under Nebuchadnezzar had become " unsound." 



Next morning, Cjrrus, finding that the enemy had abandoned 

 their camp, leaving much booty behind them, called his captains 

 together and represented to them that in not promptly following 

 up the enemy they were throwing away a great opportunity. 

 Impressed with what they heard, the captains proposed to put 

 the matter before Cyaxares, and they went to him in a body that 

 he might see they were all in favour of following up the enemy. 

 But Cyaxares, when they began their discourse, seemed rather 

 annoyed, and appeared to consider that enough had been done and 

 that now they might take their ease and encounter no more danger. 



B 2 



