Kitap 4
5.11
Such was his message. But he to whom he gave the marching order said: And how shall I find them, your majesty?How, he answered, did Cyrus and those with him find those against whom they went? Why said the man, by Zeus, I am told that some Hyrcanians who had deserted from the enemy came hither and went away as his guides.
5.12
Upon hearing this, Cyaxares was much more angry than ever with Cyrus for not even having told him that, and he sent off in greater haste to recall the Medes, for he hoped to strip him of his forces; and with even more violent threats than before, he ordered the Medes to return. And he threatened the messenger also if he did not deliver his message in all its emphasis.
5.13
Accordingly, the officer assigned to this duty set out with his cavalry, about a hundred in number, vexed with himself for not having gone along with Cyrus when he went. And as they proceeded on their journey, they were misled by a certain by-path and so lost their way and did not reach the army of their friends, until they fell in with some deserters from the Assyrians and compelled them to act as their guides. And so they came in sight of the camp-fires sometime about midnight.
5.14
And when they came up to the camp, the sentinels, following the instructions of Cyrus, refused to admit them before daylight. Now at peep of day the first thing that Cyrus did was to call the magi and bid them select the gifts ordained for the gods in acknowledgment of such success;
5.15
and they proceeded to attend to this, while he called the peers together and said: Friends, God holds out before us many blessings. But we Persians are, under the present circumstances, too few to avail ourselves of them. For if we fail to guard what we win, it will again become the property of others; and if we leave some of our own men to guard what falls into our possession, it will very soon be found out that we have no strength.
