Kitap 5
3.30
Friends and allies, Gadatas has done whatCyrus proposes that the whole army go to the relief of Gadatas seems a very valuable service to us all, and that, too, before receiving any favour whatsoever at our hands. And now comes the report that the Assyrian is going to invade his country, partly, as it seems plain, from a wish to punish him because he thinks Gadatas has done him a great wrong; and perhaps also he understands that if those who desert him for us do not suffer any harm at his hands, while those who follow him are destroyed by us, the chances are that very soon no one will be willing to stay with him.
3.31
SoThe whole army goes to help Gadatas now, my men, it seems to me that we should be doing what is fair, if we gave Gadatas, our benefactor, our heartiest assistance; and at the same time we should be doing only what is right in paying a debt of gratitude. But apart from that, it seems to me that we should be gaining an advantage for ourselves.
3.32
For if we should show every one that we try to surpass in doing harm those who do us harm, and that we surpass in well-doing those who do well by us, the consequences of such conduct would be that many would wish to become our friends and not one would desire to be our enemy.
3.33
But should we decide to abandon Gadatas, with what arguments under heaven could we ever persuade any one else to do us a favour? How could we have the effrontery to approve our own conduct? And how could any one of us look Gadatas in the face, if, as numerous as we are, we should be surpassed in well-doing by one man and that one a man in such a plight as Gadatas is?
