rnes and others were justified; and as the expedition neared
Babylonia, signs of the enemy became apparent in the deliberate
devastation of the country. Here Orontes, one of the principal Persian
officers of Cyrus, was convicted of treason and put to death.

The army was again reviewed, the whole force amounting to some 100,000
barbarians and nearly 14,000 Greeks; the enemy were reputed to number
over 1,000,000, though not so many took part in the engagement. Cyrus
now advanced, expecting battle immediately at an entrenched pass; but,
finding this unoccupied, he did not maintain battle order; which was
hurriedly taken up on news of the approach of the royal forces. The
Greeks, under Clearchus, occupied the right wing, Cyrus being in the
centre, and Ariaeus on the left. The king's army was so large that its
centre extended beyond the left of Cyrus.

The Greeks advanced on the royalist left, which broke and fled almost
without a blow. Thinking that the Greeks might be intercepted and cut
off, Cyrus charged the centre in person with his bodyguard, and routed
the opposing troops; but dashing forward in the hope of capturing
Artaxerxes, was himself pierced by a javelin, and fell dead on the
field. So ended the career of the most brilliant Persian since Cyrus the
Great had established the Persian Empire; brave, accomplished, the
mirror of honour, just himself and the rewarder of justice in others,
generous and most loyal to his friends.

_II.--The Homeward March_

When Cyrus fell, the left wing, under Ariaeus, broke and fled. The Greeks
had meantime poured on in pursuit of the royalist left, while the main
body of the royalists were in possession of the rebel camp, though a
Greek guard, which had been left there, held the Greek quarter.
Artaxerxes, however, had no mind to give battle to the returning Greek
column.

It was not till next day that Clearchus and his colleagues learned by
messengers from Ariaeus that Cyrus was slain, and that Ariaeus had fallen
back to the last halting-place, where he proposed to wait twenty-four
hours, and no more, before starting in his retreat westward. Clearchus
replied, that the Greeks, for their part, had been victorious, and that
if Ariaeus would rejoin them they would win the Persian crown for him,
since Cyrus was dead. The next message was from Artaxerxes inviting the
Greeks to give up their arms; to which they replied that he might come
and take them if he could, but if he meant