Book 6
2.23
And indeed, my friends, said Cyrus, I proposeCyrus proposes an immediate advance that we move against them as soon as possible, in the first place that we may reach the place where their supplies are being collected, before they do, if we can; and in the second place, because the faster we march the less perfected we shall find their arrangements and the greater we shall find their deficiencies.
2.24
This, then, is my proposal; but if any one thinks that any other course would be safer or easier for us, let him inform us. Many supported him, saying that it was expedient to proceed as soon as possible against the enemy, and no one opposed his plan; so Cyrus began to speak as follows:
2.25
Friends and allies, our souls and bodies and the arms that we shall have to use have, with God’s help, long since been made ready. And now for the march we must get together for ourselves and for the animals that we use provisions for not less than twenty days; for in reckoning it up, I find that there will be more than fifteen days’ journey in which we shall find no provisions at all; for everything there has been made away with: the enemy took all that they could, and we have taken the rest.
2.26
Accordingly, we must put up and carry with us food enough; for without this we should be unable either to fight or to live. As for wine, each one ought to take along only enough to last till we accustom ourselves to drinking water; for theThe wine habit to be broken off gradually greater part of the march will be through a country where there is no wine, and for that all the wine we can carry will not suffice, even if we take along a very great quantity.
2.27
That we may not, therefore, fall a prey to sickness when we suddenly find ourselves deprived of wine, we must take this course: let us now begin at once to drink water at our meals, for by so doing we shall not greatly change our manner of living.
