Book 6
1.49
And I accept your offer, said Cyrus. And now I will take leave of you and let you go to dinner with your wife. Some other time you will be expected to dine at my headquarters with your friends and mine.
1.50
After this, as Abradatas observed that Cyrus was busily engaged with the scythe-bearing chariots and the mailed horses and riders, he tried to contribute from his own cavalry as many as a hundred chariots like them; and he made ready to lead them in person upon his chariot.
1.51
He had the harnessing of his own chariot, moreover, arranged with four poles and eight horses abreast; and his wife, Panthea, with here own money had a golden corselet made for him and a helmet and armlet of gold; and he had the horses of his chariot equipped with armour of solid bronze.
1.52
Such was the work of Abradatas; and when Cyrus saw his chariot with four poles, he conceived the idea that it was possible to make one even with eight poles, so as to move with eight yoke of oxen the lowest story of his movable towers; including the wheels, this portion was about three fathoms high from the ground.
1.53
Moreover, when such towers were taken along with each division of the army, it seemed to him that they were a great help to his own phalanx and would occasion great loss to the ranks of the enemy. And on the different stories he constructed galleries also and battlements; and on each tower he stationed twenty men.
1.54
Now when all the appurtenances of his towers were put together, he made an experiment of their draught; and the eight yoke of oxen drew the tower with the men upon it more easily than each individual yoke could draw its usual load of baggage; for the load of baggage was about twenty-five talentsThat is, about 1400 pounds; the Attic talent is equivalent to 55 3/4 pounds avoirdupois. to the yoke; whereas the weight of the tower, on which the timbers were as thick as those of the tragic stage, together with the twenty men and their arms amounted to less than fifteen talents to each yoke of oxen.
