Anabasis (1.2.20-1.2.24)

From there Cyrus sent the Cilician queen back to Cilicia by the shortest route, and he sent some of Menon’s troops to escort her, Menon himself commanding them. With the rest of the army Cyrus marched through Cappadocia four stages, twenty-five parasangs, to Dana, an inhabited city, large and prosperous. There they remained three days; and during that time Cyrus put to death a Persian named Megaphernes, who was a wearer of the royal purple,[*] and another dignitary among his subordinates, on the charge that they were plotting against him.

At any rate[*] Cyrus climbed the mountains without meeting any opposition, and saw the camp where the Cilicians had been keeping guard. Thence he descended to a large and beautiful plain, well-watered and full of trees of all sorts and vines; it produces an abundance of sesame, millet, panic, wheat, and barley, and it is surrounded on every side, from sea to sea, by a lofty and formidable range of mountains.

After descending he marched through this plain four stages, twenty-five parasangs, to Tarsus,[*] a large and prosperous city of Cilicia, where the palace of Syennesis, the king of the Cilicians, was situated; and through the middle of the city flows a river named the Cydnus, two plethra in width.

The inhabitants of this city had abandoned it and fled, with Syennesis, to a stronghold upon the mountains—all of them, at least, except the tavern-keepers; and there remained also those who dwelt on the sea-coast, in Soli and Issus.[*]