Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
more, in refusing to lead the Greeks against the main body of
the enemy, where the king stood, and in keeping his right wing
close to the river, for fear of being surrounded. For if he
wanted, above all other things, to be safe, and considered it
his first object to sleep in whole skin, it had been his best
way not to have stirred from home. But, after marching in arms
ten thousand furlongs from the sea-coast, simply on his own
choosing, for the purpose of placing Cyrus on the throne, to
look about and select a position which would enable him, not to
preserve him under whose pay and conduct he was, but himself to
engage with more ease and security seemed much like one that
through fear of present dangers had abandoned the purpose of his
actions, and been false to the design of his expedition. For it
is evident from the very event of the battle that none of those
who were in array around the king's person could have stood the
shock of the Grecian charge; and had they been beaten out of the
field, and Artaxerxes either fled or fallen, Cyrus would have
gained by the victory, not only safety, but a crown. And,
therefore, Clearchus, by his caution, must be considered more
to blame for the result in the destruction of the life and
fortune of Cyrus, than he by his heat and rashness. For had the
king made it his business to discover a place, where having
posted the Grecians, he might encounter them with the least
hazard, he would never have found out any other but that which
was most remote from himself and those near him; of his defeat
in which he was insensible, and, though Clearchus had the
victory, yet Cyrus could not know of it, and could take no
advantage of it before his fall. Cyrus knew well enough what
was expedient to be done, and commanded Clearchus with his men
to take their place in the center. Clearchus replied that he
would take care to have all arranged as was best, and then
spoiled all.
For the Grecians, where they were, defeated the barbarians till
they were weary, and chased them successfully a very great way.
But Cyrus being mounted upon a noble but a headstrong and
hard-mouthed horse, bearing the name, as Ctesias tells us, of
Pasacas, Artagerses, the leader of the Cadusians, galloped up to
him, crying aloud, "O most unjust and senseless of men, who are
the disgrace of the honored name of Cyrus, are you come here
leading the wicked Greeks on a wicked journey, to plunder the
good things of the Persians, and this with the intent of slaying
your lord and brother, the master of ten thousand times ten
thousand servants that are better men than you? as you shall
see this instant; for you shall lose your head here, before you
look upon the face of the king." Which when he had said, he
cast his javelin at him. But the coat of mail stoutly repelled
it, and Cyrus was not wounded; yet the stroke falling heavy upon
him, he reeled under it. Then Artagerses turning his horse,
Cyrus threw his weapon, and sent the head of it through his neck
near the shoulder bone. So that it is almost universally agreed
to by all the author that Artagerses was slain by him. But as
to the death of Cyrus, since Xenophon, as being himself no
eye-witness of it, has stated it simply and in few words, it may
not be amiss perhaps to run over on the one hand what Dinon, and
on the other, what Ctesias has said of it.
Dinon then affirms, that, after the death of Artagerses, Cyrus,
furiously attacking the guard of Artaxerxes, wounded the king's
horse, and so dismounted him, and when Teribazus had quickly
lifted him up upon another, and said to him, "O king, remember
this day, which is not one to be forgotten," Cyrus, again
spurring up his horse, struck down Artaxerxes. But at the third
assault the king being enraged, and saying to those near him
that death was more eligible, made up to Cyrus, who furiously
and blindly rushed in the face of the weapons opposed to him.
So the king struck him with a javelin, as likewise did those
that were about him. And thus Cyrus falls, as some say, by the
hand of the king; as others, by the dart of a Carian, to whom
Artaxerxes, for a reward of his achievement, gave the privilege
of carrying ever after a golden cock upon his spear before the
first ranks of the army in all expeditions. For the Persians
call the men of Caria cocks, because of the crests with which
they adorn their helmets.
But the account of Ctesias, to put it shortly, omitting many
details, is as follows: Cyrus, after the death of Artagerses,
rode up against the king, as he did against him, neither
exchanging a word with the other. But Ariaeus, Cyrus's friend,
was beforehand with him, and darted first at the king, yet
wounded him not. Then the king cast his lance at his brother,
but missed him, though he both hit and slew Satiphernes, a noble
man and a faithful friend to Cyrus. Then Cyrus directed his
lance against the king, and pierced his breast with it quite
through his armor, two inches deep, so that he fell from his
horse with the stroke. At which those that attended him being
put to flight and disorder, he, rising with a few, among whom
was Ctesias, and making his way to a little hill not far off,
rested himself. But Cyrus, who was in the thick of the enemy,
was carried off a great way by the wildness of his horse, the
darkness which was now coming on making it hard for them to know
him, and for his followers to find him. However, being made
elate with victory, and full of confidence and force, he passed
through them, crying out, and that more than once, in the
Persian language, "Clear the way, villains, clear the way;"
which they indeed did, throwing themselves down at his feet.
But his tiara dropped off his head, and a young Persian, by name
Mithridates, running by, struck a dart into one of his temples
near his eye, not knowing who he was, out of which wound much
blood gushed, so that Cyrus, swooning and senseless, fell off
his horse. The horse escaped, and ran about the field; but the
companion of Mithridates took the trappings, which fell off,
soaked with blood. And as Cyrus slowly began to come to
himself, some eunuchs who were there tried to put him on another
horse, and so convey him safe away. And when he was not able to
ride, and desired to walk on his feet, they led and supported
him, being indeed dizzy in the head and reeling, but convinced
of his being victorious, hearing, as he went, the fugitives
saluting Cyrus as king, and praying for grace and mercy. In the
meantime, some wretched, poverty-stricken Caunians, who in some
pitiful employment as camp-followers had accompanied the king's
army, by chance joined these attendants of Cyrus, supposing them
to be of their own party. But when, after a while, they made
out that their coats over their breastplates were red, whereas
all the king's people wore white ones, they knew that they were
enemies. One of them, therefore, not dreaming that it was
Cyrus, ventured to strike him behind with a dart. The vein
under the knee was cut open, and Cyrus fell, and at the same
time struck his wounded temple against a stone, and so died.
Thus runs Ctesias's account, tardily, with the slowness of a
blunt weapon, effecting the victim's death.
When he was now dead, Artasyras, the king's eye, passed by on
horseback, and, having observed the eunuchs lamenting, he asked
the most trusty of them, "Who is this, Pariscas, whom you sit
here deploring?" He replied, "Do not you see, O Artasyras, that
it is my master, Cyrus?" Then Artasyras wondering, bade the
eunuch be of good cheer, and keep the dead body safe. And going
in all haste to Artaxerxes, who had now given up all hope of his
affairs, and was in great suffering also with his thirst and his
wound, he with much joy assured him that he had seen Cyrus dead.
Upon this, at first, he set out to go in person to the place,
and commanded Artasyras to conduct him where he lay. But when
there was a great noise made about the Greeks, who were said to
be in full pursuit, conquering and carrying all before them, he
thought it best to send a number of persons to see; and
accordingly thirty men went with torches in their hands.
Meantime, as he seemed to be almost at the point of dying from
thirst, his eunuch Satibarzanes ran about seeking drink for him;
for the place had no water in it, and he was at a good distance
from his camp. After a long search he at last luckily met with
one of those poor Caunian camp-followers, who had in a wretched
skin about four pints of foul and stinking water, which he took
and gave to the king; and when he had drunk all off, he asked
him if he did not dislike the water; but he declared by all the
gods, that he never so much relished either wine, or water out
of the lightest or purest stream. "And therefore," said he, "if
I fail myself to discover and reward him who gave it to you, I
beg of heaven to make him rich and prosperous."
Just after this, came back the thirty messengers, with joy and
triumph in their looks, bringing him the tidings of his
unexpected fortune. And now he was also encouraged by the
number of soldiers that again began to flock in and gather about
him; so that he presently descended into the plain with many
lights and flambeaus round about him. And when he had come near
the dead body, and, according to a certain law of the Persians,
the right hand and head had been lopped off from the trunk, he
gave orders that the latter should be brought to him, and,
grasping the hair of it, which was long and bushy, he showed it
to those who were still uncertain and disposed to fly. They
were amazed at it, and did him homage; so that there were
presently seventy thousand of them got about him, and entered
the camp again with him. He had led out to the fight, as
Ctesias affirms, four hundred thousand men. But Dinon and
Xenophon aver that there were many more than forty myriads
actually engaged. As to the number of the slain, as the
catalogue of them was given up to Artaxerxes, Ctesias says, they
were nine thousand, but that they appeared to him no fewer than
twenty thousand. Thus far there is something to be said on both
sides. But it is a flagrant untruth on the part of Ctesias to
say that he was sent along with Phalinus the Zacynthian and some
others to the Grecians. For Xenophon knew well enough that
Ctesias was resident at court; for he makes mention of him, and
had evidently met with his writings. And, therefore, had he
come, and been deputed the interpreter of such momentous words,
Xenophon surely would not have struck his name out of the
embassy to mention only Phalinus. But Ctesias, as is evident,
being excessively vain-glorious, and no less a favorer of the
Lacedaemonians and Clearchus, never fails to assume to himself
some province in his narrative, taking opportunity, in these
situations, to introduce abundant high praise of Clearchus and
Sparta.
When the battle was over, Artaxerxes sent goodly and magnificent
gifts to the son of Artagerses, whom Cyrus slew. He conferred
likewise high honors upon Ctesias and others, and, having found
out the Caunian who gave him the bottle of water, he made him,
of a poor, obscure man, a rich and an honorable person. As for
the punishments he indicted upon delinquents, there was a kind
of harmony betwixt them and the crimes. He gave order that one
Arbaces, a Mede, that had fled in the fight to Cyrus, and again
at his fall had come back, should, as a mark that he was
considered a dastardly and effeminate, not a dangerous or
treasonable man, have a common harlot set upon his back, and
carry her about for a whole day in the marketplace. Another,
besides that he had deserted to them, having falsely vaunted
that he had killed two of the rebels, he decreed that three