Artaxerxes

Unawares, therefore, he became involved in great distress and peril. For no food was to be got in the country or imported from outside, and they could only butcher their beasts of burden, so that an ass’s head was scarcely to be bought for sixty drachmas. Moreover, the royal banquets were abandoned; and of their horses only a few were left, the rest having been consumed for food. Here it was that Teribazus, a man whose bravery often set him in a leading place, but whose levity as often cast him down, so that at this time he was in disgrace and overlooked, saved the king and his army.

For the Cadusians had two kings, and each of them encamped separately. So Teribazus, after an interview with Artaxerxes in which he told him what he purposed to do, went himself to one of the Cadusian kings, and sent his son secretly to the other. Each envoy, then, deceived his man, telling him that the other king was sending an embassy to Artaxerxes to secure friendship and alliance for himself alone: he should, therefore, if he were wise, have an interview with Artaxerxes before the other did, and he himself would help him all he could.

Both kings were persuaded by this argument, and each thinking that he was anticipating the other, one sent his envoys along with Teribazus, and the other with the son of Teribazus. But matters were delayed, and suspicions and calumnies against Teribazus came to the ears of Artaxerxes; he himself also was ill at ease, and repented him of having put confidence in Teribazus, and gave occasion to his rivals to malign him.

But at last Teribazus came, and his son came too, both bringing their Cadusian envoys, and a peace was ratified with both kings; whereupon Teribazus, now a great and splendid personage, set out for home with the king. And the king now made it plain that cowardice and effeminacy are not always due to luxury and extravagance, as most people suppose, but to a base and ignoble nature under the sway of evil doctrines.

For neither gold nor robe of state nor the twelve thousand talents’ worth of adornment which always enveloped the person of the king prevented him from undergoing toils and hardships like an ordinary soldier; nay, with his quiver girt upon him and his shield on his arm he marched in person at the head of his troops, over precipitous mountain roads, abandoning his horse, so that the rest of the army had wings given them and felt their burdens lightened when they saw his ardour and vigour; for he made daily marches of two hundred furlongs and more.

At length he came down to a royal halting-place which had admirable parks in elaborate cultivation, although the region round about was bare and treeless; and since it was cold, he gave permission to his soldiers to cut the trees of the park for wood, sparing neither pine nor cypress.

And when they hesitated and were inclined to spare the trees on account of their great size and beauty, he took an axe himself and cut down the largest and most beautiful tree. After this the men provided themselves with wood, and making many fires, passed the night in comfort. Nevertheless, he lost many and brave men, and almost all his horses before he reached home.