sures, and I am well aware
we have it in our power to pick and choose as much as we like for
ourselves out of what belongs by right to all who helped in its capture.
But it does not seem to me that grasping will be so lucrative as proving
ourselves just toward our allies, and so binding them closer. [43] I go
further: I say that we should leave the distribution of the spoil to the
Medes, the Hyrcanians, and Tigranes, and count it gain if they allot us
the smaller share, for then they will be all the more willing to stay
with us. [44] Selfishness now could only secure us riches for the
moment, while to let these vanities go in order to obtain the very fount
of wealth, that, I take it, will ensure for us and all whom we call ours
a far more enduring gain. [45] Was it not," he continued, "for this very
reason that we trained ourselves at home to master the belly and its
appetites, so that, if ever the need arose, we might turn our education
to account? And where, I ask, shall we find a nobler opportunity than
this, to show what we have learnt?"

[46] Such were his words and Hystaspas the Persian rose to support him,
saying:

"Truly, Cyrus, it would be a monstrous thing if we could go fasting when
we hunt, and keep from food so often and so long merely to lay some poor
beast low, worth next to nothing, maybe, and yet, when a world of wealth
is our quarry, let ourselves be baulked by one of those temptations
which flee before the noble and rule the bad. Such conduct, methinks,
would be little worthy of our race."

[47] So Hystaspas spoke, and the rest approved him, one and all. Then
Cyrus said:

"Come now, since we are all of one mind, each of you give me five of the
trustiest fellows in his company, and let them go the rounds, and see
how the supplies are furnished; let them praise the active servants,
and where they see neglect, chastise them more severely than their own
masters could."

Thus they dealt with these matters.

[C.3] But it was not long before some of the Medes returned: one set had
overtaken the waggons that had gone ahead, seized them and turned them
back, and were now driving them to the camp, laden with all that an army
could require, and others had captured the covered carriages in which
the women rode, the wives of the Assyrian grandees or their concubines,
whom they had taken with them because of their beauty. [2] Indeed, to
this day the tribes of Asia never go on a campaign without their most
p