There they remained three days; and the ships from PeloponnesusSee Xen. Anab. 1.2.21. arrived to meet Cyrus, thirty-five in number, with Pythagoras the Lacedaemonian as admiral in command of them. They had been guided from Ephesus to Issus by Tamos the Egyptian, who was at the head of another fleet of twenty-five ships belonging to Cyrus—these latter being the ships with which Tamos had besieged Miletus, at the time when it was friendly to Tissaphernes,See Xen. Anab. 1.1.7. and had supported Cyrus in his war upon Tissaphernes.

Cheirisophus the Lacedaemonian also arrived with this fleet, coming in response to Cyrus’ summons,See note on Xen. Anab. 1.2.21. These seven hundred hoplites under Cheirisophus had been sent by the Lacedaemonian authorities to aid Cyrus, and were the only troops in his army which stood in any official connection with any Greek state. together with seven hundred hoplites, over whom he continued to hold command in the army of Cyrus. And the ships lay at anchor alongside Cyrus’ tent. It was at Issus also that the Greek mercenaries who had been in the service of Abrocomas—four hundred hoplites—joined Cyrus, after deserting Abrocomas, and so bore a share in his expedition against the King.

Thence he marched one stage, five parasangs, to the Gates between Cilicia and Syria. These Gates consisted of two walls; the one on the hither, or Cilician, side was held by Syennesis and a garrison of Cilicians, while the one on the farther, the Syrian, side was reported to be guarded by a garrison of the King’s troops. And in the space between these walls flows a river named the Carsus, a plethrum in width. The entire distance from one wall to the other was three stadia; and it was not possible to effect a passage by force, for the pass was narrow, the walls reached down to the sea, and above the pass were precipitous rocks, while, besides, there were towers upon both the walls.

It was because of this pass that Cyrus had sent for the fleet, in order that he might disembark hoplites between and beyond the walls and thus overpower the enemy if they should be keeping guard at the Syrian Gates—and that was precisely what Cyrus supposed Abrocomas would do, for he had a large army. Abrocomas, however, did not do so, but as soon as he heard that Cyrus was in Cilicia, he turned about in his journey from PhoeniciaOf which Abrocomas was satrap. and marched off to join the King, with an army, so the report ran, of three hundred thousand men.

Thence Cyrus marched one stage, five parasangs, to Myriandus, a city on the sea coast, inhabited by Phoenicians; it was a trading place, and many merchant ships were lying at anchor there. There he remained seven days;