And when the King heard from Tissaphernes about
 Cyru s’ array, he set about making
 counter-preparations. Cyrus was now setting forth from
 Sardis with the
 troops I have mentioned; and he marched through Lydia three stages, σταθμός = lit. a stopping-place, hence a day’s
 journey. a distance of twenty-two parasangs, A Persian measure of distance,
 equivalent to 30 Greek stadia, or about 3.3 English
 miles. to the Maeander river. The width of this river was two
 plethra, The plethrum = about
 97 English feet. and there was a bridge over it made of
 seven boats. After crossing the Maeander he marched through Phrygia one stage, a distance of
 eight parasangs, to Colossae , an inhabited Many of the cities of Asia were then, as now, deserted. city,
 prosperous and large. There he remained seven days; and Menon Who had been sent by Aristippus (see
 1 above). the Thessalian arrived, with a thousand
 hoplites and five hundred peltasts, consisting of Dolopians,
 Aenianians, and Olynthians. Thence he marched three stages, twenty parasangs, to Celaenae, an
 inhabited city of Phrygia ,
 large and prosperous. There Cyrus had a palace
 and a large park full of wild animals, which he used to hunt on
 horseback whenever he wished to give himself and his horses
 exercise. Through the middle of this park flows the Maeander river;
 its sources are beneath the palace, and it flows through the city of
 Celaenae also. There is likewise a palace of the Great King A title often given by the Greeks to the king of
 Persia . in
 Celaenae, strongly fortified and situated at the foot of the
 Acropolis over the sources of the Marsyas river; the Marsyas also
 flows through the city, and empties into the Maeander , and its width is
 twenty-five feet. It was here, according to the story, that Apollo
 flayed Marsyas, Marsyas, a Phrygian
 satyr, was so proud of his skill with the flute that he presumed
 to challenge Apollo, god of music and master of the lyre. The
 myth appears to be a record of the supersession of the flute by
 the lyre in Greek favour. after having defeated him in a
 contest of musical skill; he hung up his skin in the cave from which
 the sources issue, and it is for this reason that the river is
 called Marsyas. It was here also, report has it, that Xerxes, when he was on his
 retreat from Greece after
 losing the famous battle, viz. of
 Salamis , in 480 
 B.C. built the palace just mentioned and likewise the
 citadel of Celaenae. Here Cyrus remained thirty
 days; and Clearchus, the Lacedaemonian exile, arrived, with a
 thousand hoplites, eight hundred Thracian peltasts, and two hundred
 Cretan bowmen. At the same time came also Sosis the Syracusan with
 three hundred hoplites and Agias the Arcadian with a thousand
 hoplites. And here Cyrus held a review and made
 an enumeration of the Greeks in the park, and they amounted all told
 to eleven thousand hoplites and about two thousand peltasts. Here used in the general sense, i.e.
 to include all kinds of light-armed troops; cp. note on 3 above.
 Xenophon here uses round numbers. The exact totals, according to
 the figures previously given, are 10,600 hoplites and 2,300
 light-armed troops.