Kitap 3
1.9
When everything was in order, he began his examination: King of Armenia, said he, I advise you in the first place in this trial to tell the truth, that you may be guiltless of that offence which is hated more cordially than any other. For let me assure you that being caught in a barefaced lie stands most seriously in the way of a man’s receiving any mercy. In the next place, said he, your children and your wives here and also the Armenians present are cognizant of everything that you have done; and if they hear you telling anything else than the facts, they will think that you are actually condemning your own self to suffer the extreme penalty, if ever I discover the truth. Well, Cyrus, said he, ask what you will, and be assured that I will tell the truth, let happen what will as a result of it.
1.10
Tell me then, said the other, did you ever have a war with Astyages, my mother’s father, and with the rest of the Medes?Yes, he answered, I did.And when you were conquered by him, did you agree to pay tribute and to join his army, wherever he should command you to go, and to own no forts? Those are the facts. Why, then, have you now failed to pay the tribute and to send the troops, and why have you been building forts? I longed for liberty; for it seemed to me to be a glorious thing both to be free myself and to bequeath liberty to my children.
1.11
You are right, said Cyrus; it is a noble thing to fight that one may never be in danger of becoming a slave. But if any one has been conquered in war or in any other way reduced to servitude and is then caught attempting to rob his masters of himself, are you the first man to reward him as an honest man and one who does right, or do you punish him as a malefactor if you catch him? I punish him, said he; for you will not let meThe king convicts himself tell a lie.
