Our plan in this volume will be to condense the story which Xenophon tells in detail, introducing, however, here and there, extracts in full of the translated text of the Greek, such as may serve at once to quicken the zest of the reader, and exhibit to his apprehension the matter and manner of the original work. In the course of doing this, we shall, upon occasion seeming to make it necessary or desirable, add to the information conveyed by Xenophon himself explanatory statements of facts derived from other sources, and even reflections of our own, that may perhaps promise to be suggestive to our readers. The portions of our text that are taken bodily and without change directly from the pages of Xenophon, will always be distinctly credited to the author. The translation which we use in making our literal extracts is that of Rev. J. S. Watson, published in Bohn's "Library,” and reprinted in this country by Harper & Brothers.

FIRST BOOK.

Cyrus the Younger, so called to distinguish him from Cyrus the Great, which latter is the subject of the "Cyropadia," was accused to his brother Ar'tax-erx'es, the reigning monarch of Persia, of plotting against his throne. Cyrus was put under arrest, but at the intercession of his mother, with whom he seems to have been a favorite son, he was released and allowed to return to the province of which he had been made by his father subordinate governor, (or satrap, to transfer, as the Greek too does, the Persian term.) Hereupon Cyrus showed his gratitude by secretly levying an army, composed in part of Greek mercenaries, to wage open war against his brother. He made Sardis, near the coast of the Grecian Archipelago, the starting-point of his long and adventurous expedition. Sardis is the city of that name mentioned in the book of Revelation. It was the capital of Lydia, and Cyrus had it as the seat of government for his Satrapy. Sardis was even at this time, 401 B.C., an ancient

city. When the great Cyrus attached Lydia to his empire, Cræsus, the Lydian king (that proverb of wealth, "Rich as Croesus") met his final overthrow. Croesus had once asked Solon if he did not think him the happiest of men. The rich king was vexed at the answer he received, that no man could be called happy until he died. Subsequently, about to be burned to death, Croesus is said to have cried out, "O Solon, Solon!" This outcry, exciting the curiosity, and on explanation, the compassion, of the magnanimous conqueror, was, if we may believe Herodotus, the means of saving the unhappy monarch's life. So much for the historic associations of Sardis.

Setting out in the spring of the year 401 B. C., Cyrus advanced through Lydia, into Phrygia. He made a halt of seven days at Colos'sæ, an important city. The reader of Scripture will identify this place as that in which, some four hundred years afterward, a Christian Church was founded, addressed by the apostle Paul in one of his epistles. points along his route, Cyrus received force.

Here, as at other additions to his

The reader will, perhaps, be ready to raise with himself the questions, first, How should there have been this number of Greek soldiers of fortune prepared to enter into a distant foreign service? and, second, How should a subordinate governor in the Persian state have been able to muster them for the purpose of a rebellion and usurpation like that which Cyrus proposed? To these questions it may be briefly answered: On the one hand the states of Greece, especially perhaps the Athenian state, were always fond of colonizing. There was an almost continuous line of Greek colonies stretched along the neighboring shores of Asia Minor. To these colonies resorted, in considerable numbers, such strenuous and enterprising citizens of the parent states as, having exposed themselves to the displeasure of the people, had been brought under sentence of exile. At this particular

time, a war having just closed that had made Athens subject to Sparta, the internal condition of Greece was such as to render the number of unemployed soldiers unusually great. The restless, overflowing energy of Greek life thus furnished. both leaders and troops in abundant supply for engaging in whatever service might seem to them to promise fame or fortune to their efforts. Any Greek, with qualifications for leadership, might easily muster a following of soldiers, with which he could sell himself, almost at his own price, to king or conqueror, the exigencies of whose condition might require such mercenary aid. This, on the one hand, and on the other, the Persian Empire, though widely extended in territory, was in reality weak-so weak, indeed, that the central cohesive force of eminent administrative genius in the sovereign being at any moment withdrawn, the component parts of the immense aggregation seemed always ready at the first strong and bold hostile stroke to fall asunder. It was easy enough for Cyrus to pretend, as he did pretend, occasions for using fresh levies of troops in expeditions offensive or defensive in the neighborhood of his own proper province.

Nothing could more strikingly illustrate the disorganized and moribund condition of the Persian power, together with the weakness of the then reigning king, than a singular statement made by Xenophon. Xenophon says that Artaxerxes was prevented from suspecting Cyrus of plotting against himself by the supposition which he indulged, that Cyrus was raising troops for war with Tis'sa-pher'nes. This Tissaphernes was the Persian governor of certain parts near the satrapy of Cyrus. He it was who preferred the original accusation against Cyrus of pretending to the throne of his brother. The king, Xenophon says—an astonishing statement-was not at all concerned at this strife between two of his subordinate governors! These circumstances rendered it possible for Cyrus to proceed considerable lengths in the course of his undertaking without encountering opposition from his

brother, too easily contenting himself, a thousand miles or more away, in his palace at Babylon.

The next considerable halt was at Ce-læ'næ, another important Phrygian city. Here Cyrus stayed a month, receiving further accessions to his force. In a park, (the Greek word is "paradise," derived from an ancient Semitic root, the same word as that used by our Lord on the cross, in his promise to the repentant robber, and subsequently in the book of Revelation, to represent in figure the happy state of heaven,) in a park at Celænæ, kept by Cyrus in connection with a palace of his there, the collected Greek forces were reviewed and numbered. They amounted to 13,000 in all.

At a place called the Plain of Ca-ys'trus, (Ka-is'trus,) some seven days' march in advance, two noteworthy circumstances occurred. Cyrus was beset in his tent by applications from his soldiers for arrearages of pay. He owed them three months' wages. The prince was seriously embarrassed in his feeling, for he was free enough with money when he had money in possession. The manner in which Cyrus was relieved, and through Cyrus the soldiers, was singular and even mysterious. It was, perhaps, not without scandal. The Queen of Cilic'ia, a country lying beyond him in his purposed way toward Babylon, paid Cyrus a visit at this place, and, according to report, made him a large present of money. Cyrus in consequence paid his soldiers out of hand for four months. The Cilician queen remained with Cyrus nearly three weeks, through halt and march.

At one place Cyrus amused his royal companion with a review of his troops, both Greek and Barbarian. Possibly the prince had also a purpose, not disclosed, of inspiring her and the troops in her escort with a wholesome awe of the martial character of his Greek mercenaries. The Greeks seem at any rate to have entered into the parade in a spirit of some national contempt for the Barbarians, relieved and commended by their characteristic vivacity and humor. At one point

the rank and file of the Greeks struck of their own accord into a run, with arms presented, as if to attack the tents of the Persians. The Barbarians (to the Greek, by the way, all foreigners were barbarians) fled in a panic, the Cilician queen among them, while the Greeks marched laughing up to the tents. Cyrus was well pleased with the omen of this incident. The advance proceeded through Lyca-o'ni-a, which country he permitted his soldiers to ravage. Such license was, per

haps, a necessity to keep his mercenaries contented to follow him. It is now a good while ago, but this permission to pillage, of course, meant untold misery, of which the Watcher in the Heavens took account, to the suffering inhabitants.

A capital point in the strategy of the upward march was now at hand. The range of mountains which intersected Cyrus's line of advance through Cilicia had one, and had but one, practicable pass for a force of such numbers. This was the famous pass of the Cilician Gates, so-called, a way so long and so narrow that a handful of men could successfully dispute it against an army, however large. Cyrus seems, however, to have had his plan for securing the right of way. He detached, under the leadership of Me'non, a capable Greek commander, a considerable force of troops, ostensibly to escort the Cilician queen on her return to her husband. This convoy took a direct short course across the mountains to Tarsus, the Cilician capital, thus turning, as it were, the Cilician Gates, through which Cyrus desired to conduct his main body. The Cilician king, Sy-en'ne-sis, made a show of resistance to Cyrus from the heights commanding the pass, but hearing that Tarsus was threatened by the incursion of Menon he abandoned his position, and permitted the advance to be made. Under some pretext, Tarsus was plundered by the soldiers, and Syennesis got rid of his guest only by an exchange of presents with him, in which Cyrus received money enough to support his army for a time, and Syennesis some keepsakes as a souvenir of the visit!