Now after he had been conducted into the tent of Artapates, the most faithful of Cyrus’ chamberlains, from that moment no man ever saw Orontas living or dead, nor could anyone say from actual knowledge how he was put to death,—it was all conjectures, of one sort and another; and no grave of his was ever seen.

From there Cyrus marched through Babylonia three stages, twelve parasangs. On the third stage he held a review of the Greeks and the barbarians on the plain at about midnight; for he thought that at the next dawn the King would come with his army to do battle; and he ordered Clearchus to act as commander of the right wing and Menon of the left, while he himself marshalled his own troops.

On the morning following the review, at daybreak, there came deserters from the great King and brought reports to Cyrus about his army.At this time Cyrus called together the generals and captains of the Greeks, and not only took counsel with them as to how he should fight the battle, but, for his own part, exhorted and encouraged them as follows:

Men of Greece, it is not because I have not barbarians enough that I have brought you hither to fight for me; but because I believe that you are braver and stronger than many barbarians, for this reason I took you also. Be sure, therefore, to be men worthy of the freedom you possess, upon the possession of which I congratulate you. For you may be certain that freedom is the thing I should choose in preference to all that I have and many times more.

And now, in order that you may know what sort of a contest it is into which you are going, I who do know will tell you. Our enemies have great numbers and they will come on with a great outcry; for the rest, however, if you can hold out against these things, I am ashamed, I assure you, to think what sorry fellows you will find the people of our country to be. But if you be men and if my undertaking turn out well, I shall make anyone among you who wishes to return home an object of envy to his friends at home upon his return, while I shall cause many of you, I imagine, to choose life with me in preference to life at home.