Book 2
4.15
I also have hopes, Cyaxares replied, that they would come to you sooner than to me; for I understand that some of his sons were among your companions in the chase; and so, perhaps, they would join you again. And if they should fall into your hands, everything would be accomplished as we wish. Well then, said Cyrus, do you think it good policy to have this plan of ours kept a secret?Yes, indeed, said Cyaxares; for then some of them would be more likely to fall into our hands, and besides, if one were to attack them, they would be taken unprepared.
4.16
Listen then, said Cyrus, and see if youCyrus’s scheme to entrap the Armenian think there is anything in what I say. Now I have often hunted with all my forces near the boundary between your country and the Armenians, and have even gone there with some horsemen from among my companions here. And so, said Cyaxares, if you were to do the same again, you would excite no suspicion; but if they should notice that your force was much larger than that with which you used to hunt, this would at once look suspicious.
4.17
But said Cyrus, it is possible to devise a pretext that will be credited both here and also there, if some one bring them word that I wish to institute a great hunt; and horsemen I should ask of you openly. A very clever scheme! said Cyaxares; and I shall refuse to give you more than a reasonable number, on the ground that I wish to visit the outposts on the Assyrian border. And that will be no lie, for in reality, said he, I do wish to go there and to make them as strong as possible. And when you have gone ahead with the forces you have and have already been hunting for two days, I will send you a sufficient number of the cavalry and infantry that are mustered with me, and you may take them and make an inroad at once. And I myself, with the rest of my forces, will try to be not far away from you, to make my appearance upon the scene, should occasion require it.
