the first time they had a sample
of that unparalleled abundance of the Babylonian territory, which
Herodotus is afraid to describe with numerical precision. Large
quantities of corn,[12]--dates not only in great numbers, but of such
beauty, freshness, size, and flavor, as no Greek had ever seen or
tasted, insomuch that fruit like what was imported into Greece, was
disregarded and left for the slaves--wine and vinegar, both also made
from the date-palm; these are the luxuries which Xenophon is eloquent in
describing, after his recent period of scanty fare and anxious
apprehension; not without also noticing the headaches which such new and
luscious food, in unlimited quantity, brought upon himself and others.

Sec. 3. Negotiations with Tissaphernes.

After three days passed in these restorative quarters, they were visited
by Tissaphernes, accompanied by four Persian grandees and a suite of
slaves. The satrap[13] began to open a negotiation with Klearchus and
the other generals. Speaking through an interpreter, he stated to them
that the vicinity of his province to Greece impressed him with a strong
interest in favor of the Cyreian Greeks,[14] and made him anxious to
rescue them out of their present desperate situation; that he had
solicited the King's permission to save them, as a personal recompense
to himself for having been the first to forewarn him of the schemes of
Cyrus, and for having been the only Persian who had not fled before the
Greeks at Kunaxa; that the King had promised to consider this point, and
had sent him in the mean time to ask the Greeks what their purpose was
in coming up to attack him; and that he trusted the Greeks would give
him a conciliatory answer to carry back, in order that he might have
less difficulty in realizing what he desired for their benefit. To this
Klearchus, after first deliberating apart with the other officers,
replied, that the army had come together, and had even commenced their
march, without any purpose of hostility to the King; that Cyrus had
brought them up the country under false pretences, but that they had
been ashamed to desert him in the midst of danger, since he had always
treated them generously; that since Cyrus was now dead, they had no
purpose of hostility against the King, but were only anxious to return
home; that they were prepared to repel hostility from all quarters, but
would be not less prompt in requiting favor or assistance. With this
answer Tissaphe