Kitap 1
7.17
Now on that day the King did not offer battle, but tracks of both horses and men in retreat were to be seen in great numbers.
7.18
Then Cyrus summoned Silanus, his Ambraciot soothsayer, and gave him three thousand darics; for on the eleventh day before this, while sacrificing, he had told Cyrus that the King would not fight within ten days, and Cyrus had said: Then he will not fight at all, if he will not fight within ten days; however, if your prediction proves true, I promise you ten talents.Hence 10 (Attic) talents = 3,000 (Persian) darics. A talent was 60 minas, and therefore a mina was counted equivalent to 5 darics. The discrepancy between this result and the values stated previously (see notes on i. 9 and iv. 13) is explained by the fact that silver was worth much more at this time, relatively to gold, than at present. So it was this money that he then paid over, the ten days having passed.
7.19
But since the King did not appear at the trench and try to prevent the passage of Cyrus’ army, both Cyrus and the rest concluded that he had given up the idea of fighting. Hence on the following day Cyrus proceeded more carelessly;
7.20
and on the third day he was making the march seated in his chariot and with only a small body of troops drawn up in line in front of him, while the greater part of the army was proceeding in disorder and many of the soldiers’ arms and accoutrements were being carried in wagons and on pack-animals.
8.1
It was now about full-market timei.e. the middle of the forenoon. and the stopping-place where Cyrus was intending to halt had been almost reached, when Pategyas, a trusty Persian of Cyrus’ staff, came into sight, riding at full speed, with his horse in a sweat, and at once shouted out to everyone he met, in the barbarian tongue and in Greek, that the King was approaching with a large army, all ready for battle.
