that the executioner must have
beheaded her with the same stroke with which he decapitated Cyrus.

The prayers and entreaties of Parysatis saved the young man's life, and
he was even permitted to return to Sardis and resume his power. He went;
but with no intention of remaining in that subordinate position. Not
only was he resolved to be revenged on Tissaphernes, but he was equally
determined to overthrow the mild Artaxerxes and convince him of the
mistake of yielding to a woman's tears.

Cyrus had learned from his residence on the Mediterranean coast, how far
superior Greek soldiers were to the troops of Persia. The former would
not only fight from patriotic motives, but what was more, they would
readily fight outside of Greece, if they were paid well for it; the
latter would only fight when they were flogged to it, and officers had
to carry whips to drive them into battle by the sting of the lash.

Under the pretext that he was about to engage in a local and private
war with his enemy Tissaphernes, Cyrus managed to gradually collect an
army of about ten thousand Greeks whom Klearchus, an ex-governor of
Byzantium, hired for him. These ten thousand were the real core of the
expedition, though in addition a hundred thousand Asiatics were to form
the bulk of it. With this force the young satrap believed that he could
take Babylon and with it that title of Great King which he coveted. It
was true that Artaxerxes would meet him with an army of ten men to his
one; but, as Cyrus said, mere "numbers and noise" did not tell on the
battle-field, and "numbers and noise" were all that the Persian
sovereign had to rely on.

When all was ready, Cyrus set out from Sardis on his memorable march in
the spring of 401. Among the Greeks was a volunteer named Xenophon, who
had been persuaded to go by his friend Proxenus, a general in the army
of Cyrus. Xenophon, as we shall see, eventually saved his countrymen
from destruction, and became not only the leader, but the historian of
the expedition.

With the exception of Klearchus, none of the army seem to have known the
real object of the campaign, but supposed that Cyrus was going to attack
the Pisidians, robber tribes that inhabited the mountainous country
southeast of Sardis. Artaxerxes appears to have been equally in the
dark, and though he knew Cyrus was advancing in the direction of
Babylon, he thought that his ultimate purpose was to make war on
Tissaphernes, and so gave himself