was a line of chariots, having scythes attached to the wheels, and which were to lead the charge. The Persian line was so vast that its centre extended beyond the left of Cyrus. Before the battle began Cyrus desired Clearchus to attack the Persian centre, where the king in person was posted. But Clearchus, whose right rested on the river, cared not to withdraw from that position, lest he should be surrounded by the superior numbers of the enemy, and therefore returned a general answer that he would manage everything for the best. His over-precaution occasioned the defeat and death of Cyrus. When the enemy were about half a mile distant, the Greeks charged them with the usual war-shout. The Persians did not await their onset, but turned and fled. Tissaphernes and his cavalry alone offered any resistance; the remainder of the Persian left was routed without a blow. As Cyrus was contemplating the easy victory of the Greeks, his followers surrounded him, and already saluted him with the title of king. But the centre and right of Artaxerxes still remained unbroken; and that monarch, unaware of the defeat of his left wing, ordered the right to wheel and encompass the army of Cyrus. No sooner did Cyrus perceive this movement than with his body-guard he impetuously charged the enemy's centre, where Artaxerxes himself stood, surrounded with 6000 horse. The latter were routed and dispersed, and were followed so eagerly by the guards of Cyrus, that he was left almost alone with the select few called his "Table Companions." In this situation he caught sight of his brother Artaxerxes, whose person was revealed by the flight of his troops, when, maddened at once by rage and ambition, he shouted out, "I see the man!" and rushed at him with his handful of companions. Hurling his javelin at his brother, he wounded him in the breast, but was himself speedily overborne by superior numbers and slain on the spot.

§ 7. Meanwhile, Clearchus had pursued the flying enemy upwards of three miles; but hearing that the King's troops were victorious on the left and centre, he retraced his steps, again routing the Persians who endeavoured to intercept him. When the Greeks regained their camp they found that it had been completely plundered, and were consequently obliged to go supperless to rest. It was not till the following day that they learned the death of Cyrus; tidings which converted their triumph into sorrow and dismay. A Greek in the service of Artaxerxes now appeared in their camp, with a message requiring them to lay down their arms. "If the King,” replied the Grecian generals, "thinks himself strong enough, let him come and take them." But they were in a difficult position.

They were desirous that Ariæus, who now commanded the army of Cyrus, should lay claim to the Persian crown, and offered to support his pretensions; but Ariæus answered that the Persian grandees would not tolerate such a claim; that he intended immediately to retreat; and that if the Greeks wished to accompany him, they must join him during the following night. This was accordingly done; when oaths of reciprocal fidelity were interchanged between the Grecian generals and Ariæus, and sanctified by a solemn sacrifice.

The difficult question now arose how their retreat was to be conducted. They were nearly 1500 miles from Sardis, and were to find their own way back, without guides, and by a new route, since the former one was impracticable on account of the desert and the want of provisions. Moreover, though they might easily defy the Persian infantry, however numerous, yet the Persian cavalry, ever hovering on their rear, would prove a formidable obstacle to their retreat. They commenced their march eastwards towards some Babylonian villages, where they hoped to find supplies; but on reaching them at the end of a long day's march, they found that they had been plundered, and that no provisions were to be obtained.

On the following day a message arrived from the Persian king, with a proposal to treat for peace on equal terms. Clearchus affected to treat the offer with great indifference, and made it an opportunity for procuring provisions. "Tell your king," said he to the envoys, "that we must first fight; for we have had no breakfast, nor will any man presume to talk to the Greeks about a truce, without first providing for them a breakfast." This was agreed to, and guides were sent to conduct the Greeks to some villages where they might obtain food. In these all the riches of Babylon were spread before them. Corn in vast abundance, dates of such size and flavour as they had never before seen, wine made from the date palm; in short, luxury and abundance in place of their late scanty fare and privations. Whilst they were enjoying these quarters, they received a visit from Tissaphernes, who came in great state. He pretended much friendship towards them, and said that he had come from the Great King to inquire the reason of their expedition. Clearchus replied-what was indeed true of the greater part of the army-that they had not come thither with any design to attack the king, but had been enticed forwards by Cyrus under false pretences; that their only desire at present was to return home; but that if any obstacle was offered, they were prepared to repel hostilities. In a day or two Tissaphernes returned, and with some parade stated that he had with great difficulty obtained

permission to save the Greek army; that he was ready to con→ duct them in person into Greece, and to supply them with provisions, for which, however, they were to pay; but if he failed to supply them, then they were to be at liberty to help themselves. An agreement was accordingly entered into to this effect.

Artaxerxes, indeed, seems to have been heartily desirous of getting rid of them. They were now within 90 miles of Babylon, in a rich country intersected by canals, and easily defensible against cavalry. But a painful interval of twenty days ensued during which Tissaphernes neglected to return; whilst at the same time the suspicions of the Greeks were excited by the friendly messages which Ariæus received from Artaxerxes, with promises of oblivion and forgiveness of his past conduct. At length, however, Tissaphernes returned, and undertook the direction of the homeward march.

§ 8. The troops of Ariæus were now mingled with those of Tissaphernes, whilst the Greeks followed the combined army at a distance of three miles. In three days' march they reached the wall of Media, and passed through it. This wall was 100 feet high and 20 feet broad, and was said to extend a distance of 70 miles. Two days more brought them to the Tigris, which they crossed on the following morning by a bridge of boats. They then marched northward, arriving in four days at the river Physcus and a large city called Opis. Six days' further march through a deserted part of Media brought them to some villages belonging to queen Parysatis, which, out of enmity to her as the patron of Cyrus, Tissaphernes abandoned to be plundered by the Greeks. From thence they proceeded in five days to the river Zabatus, or Greater Zab, having previously crossed the Lesser Zab, which Xenophon neglects to mention. In the first of these five days they saw on the opposite side of the Tigris a large city called Cænæ, the inhabitants of which brought over provisions to them. At the Greater Zab they halted three days. Mistrust, and even slight hostilities, had been already manifested between the Greeks and Persians, but they now became so serious that Clearchus demanded an interview with Tissaphernes. The latter protested the greatest fidelity and friendship towards the Greeks, and promised to deliver to the Greek generals, on the following day, the calumniators who had set the two armies at variance. But when Clearchus, with four other generals, accompanied by some lochages, or captains, and 200 soldiers, entered the Persian camp, according to appointment, the captains and soldiers were immediately cut down ; whilst the five generals were seized, put into irons, and sent to

the Persian court. After a short imprisonment, four of them were beheaded; the fifth, Menon, who pretended that he had betrayed his colleagues into the hands of Tissaphernes, was at first spared; but after a year's detention was put to death with tortures.

This scene naturally produced a commotion in the Persian camp; and the Greeks who observed it from afar, warned by one of the companions of the generals, who came running wounded towards them, rushed to arms in expectation of a general attack. None, however, followed; but Ariæus rode up at the head of 300 horse, and relating to the Greeks the fate of their generals, called upon them to surrender.

§ 9. It seems to have been the opinion of the Persians that under these circumstances the Greeks would feel themselves completely helpless; but some of the Greek officers stepped forward and dismissed Ariæus with indignant reproaches. Yet apprehension and dismay reigned among the Greeks. Their situation was, indeed, appalling. They were considerably more than a thousand miles from home, in a hostile and unknown country, hemmed in on all sides by impassable rivers and mountains, without generals, without guides, without provisions. Despair seemed to have seized on all. Leaving their watchfires unlighted and their suppers uncooked, they threw themselves on the ground, not to sleep, but to ruminate on their forlorn condition. Xenophon slumbered, indeed, but his fancy was filled with the images naturally conjured up by his desperate situation. He dreamed that a thunderbolt had struck his paternal house, and enveloped it in flames. This partly favourable and partly unfavourable omen indicated at all events a message from Jove; and the superstition which formed so marked a trait in his character, led him to consider it as a warning to rise and bestir himself. He immediately got up, and calling an assembly of the captains, impressed upon them the danger of their position, and the necessity for taking immediate precautions. Xenophon, though young, possessed as an Athenian citizen some claim to distinction; and his animated address showed him fitted for command. He was saluted general on the spot; and in a subsequent assembly was, with four others, formally elected to that office.

§ 10. The Greeks, having first destroyed their superfluous baggage, crossed the Greater Zab, and pursued their march on the other bank. Tissaphernes preceded them with his host, but without daring to dispute their passage or molest their route: though some cavalry, under Mithridates, annoyed the rear guard with their missiles. In order to meet this species of attack, a small body

of 50 horse and 200 Rhodian slingers was organized. It was found highly useful, as the leaden bullets of the Rhodians carried farther than the stones of the Persian slingers. Another day's march brought the Greeks to the Tigris, near the deserted city of Larissa, 7 miles in circumference, with walls 25 feet thick and 100 feet high. Pursuing the course of the Tigris, they arrived on the following day at Mespila, another deserted city. It was in this neighbourhood that Nineveh was situated, and, according to a modern theory, the two were both formerly comprised under the name of Nineveh, Larissa seems to be represented by the mound now called Nimroud, and Mespila by that of Kouyunjik, opposite the modern town of Mosul.

The march from Mespila to the mountainous country of the Carduchi occupied several days, in which the Greeks suffered much from the attacks of the enemy.

§ 11. Their future route was now a matter of serious perplexity. On their left lay the Tigris, so deep that they could not fathom it with their spears; while in their front rose the steep and lofty mountains of the Carduchi, which came so near the river as hardly to leave a passage for its waters. A Rhodian soldier proposed to transport the army across the Tigris by means of inflated skins; but the appearance of large masses of the enemy's cavalry on the opposite bank rendered this ingenious scheme impracticable. As all other roads seemed barred, they formed the resolution of striking into the mountains of the Carduchi,--a tribe of fierce and warlike highlanders, who, though surrounded on all sides by the dominions of the Persian king, had succeeded in maintaining their independence. On the farther side of these mountains lay Armenia, where both the Tigris and the Euphrates might be forded near their sources. The Greeks found the first mountain-pass undefended, and descended thence into some villages; but all their attempts to conciliate the inhabitants proved unavailing. Every pass was disputed. Sometimes huge rocks were hurled down on the defiling army; sometimes they were attacked by the Carduchian slingers and bowmen. The latter were of extraordinary skill, and their bows and arrows of such strength as to pierce the shields and corslets, and even the brazen helmets of the Greeks. After a difficult and dangerous march of seven days, during which their sufferings were far greater than any they had experienced from the Persians, the army at length emerged into the plain, and reached the river Centrites, the boundary of Armenia.

§ 12. Their first attempts to cross the Centrites failed. The cavalry of Tiribazus, satrap of Armenia, lined the opposite bank