And when the King heard from Tissaphernes about Cyrus’ 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 inhabitedMany of the cities of Asia were then, as now, deserted. city, prosperous and large. There he remained seven days; and MenonWho 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 KingA 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.