d and deaf and dazed; when stealth was needed, your stealth
was such that the fortresses he thought his own you turned into traps
for him; and your speed was such that you were upon him from miles away
with all your armament before he found time to muster the forces at his
command."

[20] "So you think," said Cyrus, "that merely to learn another is
stronger than himself is defeat enough to bring a man to his senses?"

"I do," answered Tigranes, "and far more truly than mere defeat in
battle. For he who is conquered by force may fancy that if he trains
he can renew the war, and captured cities dream that with the help of
allies they will fight again one day, but if we meet with men who are
better than ourselves and whom we recognise to be so, we are ready to
obey them of our own free will." [21] "You imagine then," said
Cyrus, "that the bully and the tyrant cannot recognise the man
of self-restraint, nor the thief the honest man, nor the liar the
truth-speaker, nor the unjust man the upright? Has not your own father
lied even now and broken his word with us, although he knew that we had
faithfully observed every jot and tittle of the compact Astyages made?"
[22] "Ah, but," replied the prince, "I do not pretend that the bare
knowledge alone will bring a man to his senses, it cannot cure him
unless he pays the penalty as my father pays it to-day." "But," answered
Cyrus, "your father has suffered nothing at all so far: although he
fears, I know, that the worst suffering may be his." [23] "Do you
suppose then," asked Tigranes, "that anything can enslave a man more
utterly than fear? Do you not know that even the men who are beaten with
the iron rod of war, the heaviest rod in all the world, may still be
ready to fight again, while the victims of terror cannot be brought to
look their conquerors in the face, even when they try to comfort them?"
"Then, you maintain," said Cyrus, "that fear will subdue a man more than
suffering?" [24] "Yes," he answered, "and you of all men know that what
I say is true: you know the despondency men feel in dread of banishment,
or on the eve of battle facing defeat, or sailing the sea in peril of
shipwreck--they cannot touch their food or take their rest because
of their alarm: while it may often be that the exiles themselves, the
conquered, or the enslaved, can eat and sleep better than men who have
not known adversity. [25] Think of those panic-stricken creatures who
through fear of capture a