Kitap 1
5.13
Now if I say this concerning you while I believe the contrary to be true, I deceive myself utterly. For if any of these qualities shall fail to be forthcoming in you, the loss will fall on me. But I feel confident, you see, both from my own experience and from your good-will toward me and from the ignorance of the enemy that these sanguine hopes will not deceive me. So let us set out with good heart, since we are free from the suspicion of even seeming to aim unjustly at other men’s possessions. For, as it is, the enemy are coming, aggressors in wrong, and our friends are calling us to their assistance. What, then, is more justifiable than to defend oneself, or what more noble than to assist one’s friends?
5.14
This, moreover, will, I think, strengthen your confidence: I have not neglected the gods as we embark upon this expedition. For you have been with me enough to know that not only in great things but also in small I always try to begin with the approval of the gods.What more need I add? he said in closing. Choose you your men and get them together, and when you have made the necessary preparations come on to Media. As for myself, I will first return to my father and then go on ahead of you, to learn as soon as possible what the plans of the enemy are and to make what preparations I may require, in order that with God’s help we may make as good a fight as possible. They, for their part, proceeded to do as he had said.
6.1
Now, when Cyrus had gone home and prayed toThe importance of divine omens ancestral Hestia, ancestral Zeus, and the rest of the gods, he set out upon his expedition; and his father also joined in escorting him on his way. And when they were out of the house, it is said to have thundered and lightened with happy auspices for him; and when this manifestation had been made, they proceeded, without taking any further auspices, in the conviction that no one would make void the signs of the supreme god.
