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And if I am not mistaken, we used to train ourselves at home, too, to control our appetites and to abstain from unseasonable gain with this in view, that, if occasion should ever demand it, we might be able to employ our powers of self-control to our advantage. And I fail to see where we could give proof of our[*](The Persians ready to put their training to the proof) training on a more important occasion than the present.

Thus he spoke; and Hystaspas, one of the Persian peers, supported him in the following speech: Why, yes, Cyrus; on the chase we often hold out without a thing to eat, in order to get our hands on some beast, perhaps one worth very little; and it would be strange indeed now, when the quarry we are trying to secure is a world of wealth, if we should for a moment allow those passions to stand in our way which are bad men’s masters but good men’s servants. I think, if we did so, we should be doing what does not befit us.

Such was Hystaspas’s speech, and all the rest agreed with it. Then Cyrus said: Come then, since we are of one mind on this point, send each of you five of the most reliable men from his platoon. Let them go about and praise all those whom they see preparing provisions; and let them punish more unsparingly than if they were their masters those whom they see neglectful.Accordingly, they set about doing so.

Now a part of the Medes were already bringing[*](The cavalry bring in spoils) in the wagons which had been hurried forward and which they had overtaken and turned back packed full of what an army needs; others were bringing in the carriages that conveyed the most high-born women, not only wedded wives but also concubines, who on account of their beauty had been brought along; these also they captured and brought in.

For even unto this day all who go to war in Asia take with them to the field what they prize most highly; for they say that they would do battle the more valiantly, if all that they hold dearest were there; for these, they say, they must do their best to protect. This may, perhaps, be true; but perhaps also they follow this custom for their own sensual gratification.

When Cyrus saw what the Medes and Hyrcanians were doing, he poured reproach, as it were, upon himself and his men, because during this time the others seemed to be surpassing them in strenuous activity and gaining something by it, too, while he and his men remained in a position where there was little or nothing to do. And it did seem so; for when the horsemen brought in and showed to Cyrus what they brought, they rode away again in pursuit of the others; for, they said, they had been instructed by their officers so to do. Though Cyrus was naturally nettled at this, still he assigned a place to the spoil. And again he called his captains together and standing where they would all be sure to hear his words of counsel, he spoke as follows:

Friends, we all appreciate, I am sure, that if we could but make our own the good fortune that is now dawning upon us, great blessings would come to all the Persians and above all, as is reasonable, to us by whom they are secured. But I fail to see how we are to establish a valid claim to the spoil if we cannot gain it by[*](The Persians handicapped without cavalry of their own) our own strength; and this we cannot do, unless the Persians have cavalry of their own.

Just think of it, he went on; we Persians have arms with which, it seems, we go into close quarters and put the enemy to flight; and then when we have routed them, how could we without horses capture or kill horsemen or bowmen or targeteers in their flight? And what bowmen or spearmen or horsemen would be afraid to come up and inflict loss upon us, when they are perfectly sure that they are in no more danger of being harmed by us than by the trees growing yonder?

And if this is so, is it not evident that the horsemen who are now with us consider that everything that has fallen into our hands is theirs no less than ours, and perhaps, by Zeus, even more so?

As things are now, therefore, this is necessarily the case. But suppose we acquired a body of cavalry not inferior to theirs, is it not patent to us all that we should be able even without them to do to the enemy what we are now doing with their aid, and that we should find them then less presumptuous toward us? For whenever they chose to remain or to go away, we should care less, if we were sufficient unto ourselves without them. Well and good.

No one, I think, would gain-say[*](Cyrus proposes to have Persian cavalry) me in this statement, that it makes all the difference in the world whether the Persians have their own cavalry or not. But perhaps you are wondering how this may be accomplished. Well then, supposing that we wished to organize a division of cavalry, had we not better consider our resources and our deficiencies?

Here, then, in camp are numbers of horses which we have taken and reins which they obey, and everything else that horses must have before you can use them. Yes, and more, all that a horseman must use we have—breastplates as defensive armour for the body and spears which we may use either to hurl or to thrust.

What then remains? Obviously we must have men. Now these above all other things we have; for nothing is so fully ours as we ourselves are our own. But perhaps some one will say that we do not know how to ride. No, by Zeus; and no one of these who now know how to ride did know before he learned. But, some one may say, they learned when they were boys.