Kitap 5
2.27
But, Gobryas, said Cyrus, when he heard this, do you not accuse this young fellow who has just come to the throne of cruel insolence of character? That judgment, I think, said Gobryas, is warranted by my experience with him. Pray, are you the only man towards whom he has acted in this way, Cyrus asked, or are there others also?
2.28
Aye, by Zeus, said Gobryas; there areThe king and Gadatas others also. But why should I recount his acts of insolence toward the weak? For once when he and the son of a man much more powerful than I were drinking together, a young man who, like my son, was his comrade, he had him seized and castrated; and the occasion, so some people said, was simply because his concubine had praised his friend, remarking how handsome he was and felicitating the woman who should be his wife; but the king himself now maintains that it was because the man had made advances toward his concubine. And so now he is a eunuch, but he has come into the kingdom, for his father is dead.
2.29
Well then, said Cyrus, do you think that he also would be glad to see us, if he thought we could help him? Think said Gobryas, I am sure of it. But, Cyrus, it would be difficult to see him. Why? asked Cyrus. Because, to effect a union of forces with him, one has to march along under the very walls of Babylon.
2.30
Why, pray, said the other, is that so difficult?Because, by Zeus, said Gobryas, I know thatThe Assyrians’ terror of Cyrus is disappearing the forces that would come out of that city alone are many times as large as your own at present; and let me tell you that the Assyrians are now less inclined than heretofore to deliver up their arms and to bring in their horses to you for the very reason that to those of them who have seen your army it seemed a small one; and a rumour to this effect has now been widely spread abroad. And, he added, I think we should do better to proceed cautiously.
