their general, it was incumbent upon him to discharge all the functions of that office, and to show himself worthy to be the leader and soul of such a number of valiant men, ready to shed their blood for his service.

It was now noon, and the enemy did not yet appear. But about three of the clock, a great dust, like a white cloud, arose, followed soon after with a blackness that overcast the whole plain; after which was seen the glittering of armour, lances, and standards. Tissaphernes commanded the left, which consisted of cavalry armed with white cuirasses, and of light armed infantry; in the centre was the heavy armed foot, a great part of which had bucklers made of wood, which covered the soldiery entirely; these were Egyptians. The rest of the light armed infantry and of the horse formed the right wing. The foot were drawn up by nations, with as much depth as front, and in that order composed square battalions. The king had posted himself in the main body with the flower of the whole army, and had 6000 horse for his guard, commanded by Artagerses. Though he was in the centre, he was beyond the left wing of Cyrus' army, so much did the front of his own exceed that of the enemy in extent. An hundred and fifty chariots armed with scythes were placed in the front of the army at some distance from one another. The scythes were fixed to the axle downwards and aslant, so as to cut down and overthrow all before them.

As Cyrus relied very much upon the valour and experience of the Greeks, he bade Clearchus, as soon as he had beat the enemy in his front, to take care to incline to his left, and fall upon the centre, where the king was posted; the success of the battle depending upon that attack. But Clearchus, finding it very difficult to make his way through so great a body of troops, replied, that he need be in no pain, and that he would take care to do what was necessary.

The enemy in the mean time advanced slowly in good order. Cyrus marched in the space between the two armies, the nearest to his own, and considered both of them with great attention. Xenophon, perceiving him, spurred directly up to him, to know whether he had any further orders to give. He called out to him that the sacrifices were favourable, and that he should tell the troops so. He then hastened through the ranks to give his orders, and showed himself to the soldiers with such a joy and serenity in his countenance, as inspired them with new courage, and at the same time with an air of kindness and familiarity, that excited their zeal and affection. It is not easy to comprehend what great effects a word, a kind air, or a look of a general, will have upon a day of action; and with what ardour a common man will rush into danger, when he believes himself not unknown to his general, and thinks his valour will oblige him.

Artaxerxes moved on continually, though with a slow pace, and without noise and confusion. That good order and exact discipline extremely surprised the Greeks, who expected to see much hurry and tumult in so great a multitude, and to hear confused cries, as Cyrus had foretold them. The armies were not distant above 400 or 500 paces, when the Greeks began to sing the hymn of battle, and to march on, softly at first, and with silence. When they came near the enemy, they set up great cries, striking their darts upon their shields to frighten the horse, and then moving all together, they sprung forwards upon the barbarians with all their force, who did not wait their charge, but took to their heels, and fled universally, except Tissaphernes, who stood his ground with a small part of his troops. Cyrus saw with pleasure the enemy routed by the Greeks, and was proclaimed king by those around him. But he did not give himself up to a vain joy, nor as yet reckon himself victor. He perceived that Ataxer

xes was wheeling his right to attack him in flank, and marched directly against him with his 600 horse. He killed Artagerses, who commanded the king's guards of 6000 horse, with his own hand, and put the whole body to flight. Discovering his brother, he cried out, with his eyes sparkling with rage, “I see him," and spurred against him, followed only by his principal officers; for his troops had quitted their ranks to follow the runaways, which was an essential fault.

*The battle then became a single combat, in some measure between Artaxerxes and Cyrus; and the two brothers were seen transported with rage and fury, endeavouring, like Eteocles and Polynices, to plunge their swords into each other's hearts, and to assure themselves of the throne by the death of their rival.

Cyrus having opened his way through those who were drawn up in battle before Artaxerxes, joined him, and killed his horse, that fell with him to the ground. He rose, and was remounted upon another, when Cyrus attacked him again, gave him a second wound, and was preparing to give him a third, in hopes that it would prove his last. The king, like a lion wounded by the hunters, was only the more furious, from the smart, and sprung forwards, impetuously pushing his horse against Cyrus, who, running headlong, and without regard to his person, threw himself into the midst of a flight of darts aimed at him from all sides, and received a wound from the king's javelin, at the instant all the rest discharged upon him. Cyrus fell dead; some say by the wound given him by the king; others affirm, that he was killed by a Carian soldier. Mithridates, a young Persian nobleman, asserted that he had given him the mortal stroke with a javelin, which entered his temple, and pierced his head quite through. The greatest persons of his court, resolving not to survive so good a master, were all killed around his body; a certain proof, says Xenophon, that he well knew how to choose his friends, and that he was truly beloved by them. Ariæus, who ought to have been the firmest of all his adherents, fled with the left wing, as soon as he heard of his death.

Artaxerxes, after having caused the head and right hand of his brother to be cut off by his eunuch Mesabates, pursued the enemy into their camp. Ariæus had not stopped there, but having passed through it, continued his retreat to the place where the army had encamped the day before, which was about four leagues distant.

Tissaphernes, after the defeat of the greatest part of his left wing by the Greeks, led on the rest against them, and by the side of the river passed through the light armed infantry of the Greeks, who opened to give him passage, and made their discharge upon him as he passed without losing a man. They were commanded by Episthenes of Amphipolis, who was esteemed an able captain. Tissaphernes kept on without returning to the charge, because he perceived he was too weak, and went forward to Cyrus' camp, where he found the wing who was plundering it, but had not been able to force the quarter defended by the Greeks left to guard it, who saved their baggage.

The Greeks on their side, and Artaxerxes on his, who did not know what had passed elsewhere, believed each of them, that they had gained the victory; the first, because they had put the enemy to flight, and pursued them; and the king, because he had killed his brother, beat the troops he had fought, and plundered their camp. The event was soon cleared up on both sides. Tissaphernes, upon his arrival at the camp, informed the * Diod, 1. xiv. p. 251.

king that the Greeks had defeated his left wing, and pursued it with great vigour, and the Greeks on their side learned that the king, in pursuing Cyrus' left, had penetrated into the camp. Upon this advice the king rallied his troops, and marched in quest of the enemy; and Clearchus, being returned from pursuing the Persians, advanced to support the camp.

The two armies were soon very near each other, when, by a movement made by the king, he seemed to intend to charge the Greeks by their left, who, fearing to be surrounded on all sides, wheeled about and halted, with the river on their backs, to prevent their being taken in the rear. Upon seeing that, the king changed his form of battle also, drew up his army in front of them, and marched on to the attack. As soon as the Greeks saw him approach, they began to sing the hymn of battle, and advanced against the enemy even with more ardour than in the first action.

The barbarians again took to their heels, ran farther than before, and were pursued to a village at the foot of a hill, upon which their horse halted. The king's standard was observed to be there, which was a golden eagle upon the top of a pike, having its wings displayed. The Greeks preparing to pursue them, they abandoned also the hill, fled precipitately with all their troops, broke, and in the utmost disorder and confusion. Clearchus, having drawn up the Greeks at the bottom of the hill, ordered Lycias the Syracusan and another to go up to it, and observe what passed in the plain. They returned with an account that the enemy fled on all sides, and that their whole army was routed.

As it was almost night, the Greeks laid down their arms to rest themselves, much surprised that neither Cyrus, nor any one from him appeared, and imagining that he was either engaged in the pursuit of the enemy, or was making haste to possess himself of some important place, for they were still ignorant of his death and the defeat of the rest of his army. They determined therefore to return to their camp, and found the greatest part of the baggage taken, with all the provisions, and 400 waggons laden with corn and wine, which Cyrus had expressly caused to be carried along with the army for the Greeks, in case of any pressing necessity. They passed the night in the camp, the greatest part of them without any refreshment, concluding that Cyrus was alive and victorious.

The success of this battle shows the superiority of valour and military knowledge to multitude without them. The small army of the Greeks did not amount to more than 12 or 13,000 men; but they were seasoned and disciplined troops, inured to fatigues, accustomed to confront dangers, sensible to glory, and who, during the long Peloponnesian war, had not wanted either time or means to acquire and complete themselves in the art of war and the methods of battle. Artaxerxes' side was computed at 1,000,000 of men; but they were soldiers only in name, without force, courage, discipline, experience, or any sense of honour. Hence it was, that as soon as the Greeks appeared, terror and disorder ensued among the enemy; and in the second action, Artaxerxes himself did not dare to wait their attack, but shamefully betook himself to flight.

Plutarch here blames Clearchus, the general of the Greeks very much, and imputes to him, as an unpardonable neglect, his not having followed Cyrus' order, who recommended to him above all things, to incline and eharge Artaxerxes' person. This reproach seems groundless. It is not easy to conceive how it was possible for that captain, who was posted on the right wing, to attack Artaxerxes immediately, who in the centre of his own army, lay beyond the utmost extent of the enemy's left, as has been * said before, It seeins that Cyrus, depending as he did with great reason

upon the valour of the Greeks, and desiring they should charge Artaxerxes in his post, ought to have placed them in the left wing, which answered directly to the part where the king was, that is, to the main body, and not in the right, which was very remote from it.

Clearchus may indeed be reproached with having followed the pursuit too warmly and too long. If, after having put the left, which opposed him into disorder, he had charged the rest of the enemy in flank, and had opened his way to the centre, where Artaxerxes was, it is highly probable that he had gained a complete victory, and placed Cyrus upon the throne. The 600 horse of that princes' guard, committed the same fault, and by pursuing the body of troops they had put to flight too eagerly, left their master almost alone, and abandoned to the mercy of the enemy, without considering that they were chosen from the whole army for the immediate guard of his person, and for no other purpose whatsoever. Too much ardour is often prejudicial in a battle, and it is the duty of an able general to know how to restrain and direct it.

Cyrus himself erred highly in this respect, and abandoned himself too much to his blind passion for glory and revenge. In running headlong to attack his brother, he forgot that there is a wide difference between a general and a private soldier. He ought not to have exposed himself, but as it was consistent with a prince; as the head, and not the hand; as the person who was to give orders, and not as those who were to execute them.

I speak in this manner after the judges in the art of war, and would not. choose to advance my own opinion upon things out of my sphere.

SECTION III.

EULOGY OF CYRUS.

XENOPHON gives us a magnificent character of Cyrus,* and that not upon the credit of others, but from what he saw and knew of him in his own person. He was, says he, in the opinion of all that were acquainted with him, after Cyrus the Great, a prince the most worthy of the supreme authority, and had the most noble and most truly royal soul. From his infancy he surpassed all of his own age in every exercise, whether it were in managing the horse, drawing the bow, throwing the dart, or in the chase, in which he distinguished himself once by fighting and killing a bear that attacked him. Those advantages were exalted in him by the nobleness of his air, and engaging aspect, and by all the graces of nature that conduce to recommend merit.

When his father had made him satrap of Lydia and the neighbouring f provinces, his chief care was to make the people sensible that he had no thing so much at heart as to keep his word inviolable, not only with regard to public treasures, but the most minute of his promises; a quality very rare among princes, and which however is the basis of all good government, and the source of their own as well as their people's happiness. Not only the places under his authority, but the enemy themselves, reposed an entire confidence in him.

Whether good or ill were done him, he always desired to return it double, and that he might live no longer, as he said himself than whilst he

* De Exped. Cyr. 1. i. p. 266, 267. + Great Phrygia and Cappadocit

(It had

surmounted his friends in benefits, and his enemies in vengeance. been more glorious for him to have overcome the latter by the force of favour and benevolence.) Nor was there ever prince that people were more afraid to offend, nor for whose sake they were more ready to hazard their possessions, lives and fortunes.

Less intent upon being feared than beloved, his study was to make his greatness appear only where it was useful and beneficial, and to extinguish all other sentiments but those which flow from gratitude and affection. He was industrious to do good upon all occasions, to confer his favours with judgment and in season, and to show that he thought himself rich, powerful and happy, only as he made others sensible of his being so by his benevolence and liberality. But he took care not to exhaust the means by an imprudent profusion. He did not lavish but distribute his favours. He chose rather to make his liberalities the rewards of merit, than mere donations, and that they should be subservient in promoting virtue, and not in supporting the soft and abject sloth of vice.

He was particularly pleased with conferring his favours upon valiant men; and governments and rewards were only bestowed on those who had distinguished themselves by their actions. He never granted any honour or dignity to favour, intrigue, or faction, but to merit only; upon which depends not only the glory but the prosperity of governments. By these means he soon made virtue estimable, and the pursuit of men, and rendered vice contemptible and horrid. The provinces, animated with a noble emulation to deserve, furnished him in a very short time with a considerable number of excellent subjects of every kind; who under a different government would have remained unknown, obscure and useless.

Never did any one know how to oblige with a better grace, or to win the hearts of those who could serve him with more engaging behaviour. As he was fully sensible that he stood in need of the assistance of others for the execution of his designs, he thought justice and gratitude required that he should render his adherents all the services in his power. All the presents made him, whether of splendid arms, or rich apparel, he distributed among his friends, according to their several tastes or occasions ; and used to say, that the brightest ornament, and most exalted riches of a prince, consisted in adorning and enriching those who served him well. In effect, says Xenophon, to do good to one's friends, and to excel them in liberality, does not seem so admirable in so high a fortune; but to transcend them in goodness of heart and sentiments of friendship and affection, and to take more pleasure in conferring than receiving obligations; in this I find Cyrus truly worthy of esteem and admiration. The first of these advantages he derives from his rank; the other from himself and his intrinsic merit.

By these extraordinary qualities he acquired the universal esteem and affection as well of the Greeks as the barbarians. A great proof of what Xenophon here says, is, that none ever quitted the service of Cyrus for the king's; whereas great numbers went over every day to him from the king's party after the war was declared, and even of such as had most credit at the court; because they were all convinced that Cyrus knew best how to distinguish and reward their services.

It is most certain that young Cyrus did not want great virtues, and a su

*Habebit sinum facilem, non perforatum: ex quo multa exeant, nihil excidat. Senec. de vit. beat. c. 23.