ven halt at night: the night-messenger relieves the
day-messenger and rides on. Some say that, when this is done, the post
travels more quickly than the crane can fly, and, whether that is true
or not, there is no doubt it is the quickest way in which a human being
can travel on land. To learn of events so rapidly and be able to deal
with them at once is of course a great advantage.

[19] After a year had passed, Cyrus collected all his troops at Babylon,
amounting, it is said, to one hundred and twenty thousand horse, two
thousand scythe-bearing chariots, and six hundred thousand foot. [20]
Then, seeing that all was got together, he set out for that campaign of
his, on which, the story says, he subdued the nations from the borders
of Syria as far as the Red Sea. After that there followed, we are told,
the expedition against Egypt and its conquest. [21] From that time
forward his empire was bounded on the east by the Red Sea, on the north
by the Euxine, on the west by Cyprus and Egypt, and towards the south
by Ethiopia. Of these outlying districts, some were scarcely habitable,
owing to heat or cold, drought or excessive rain. [22] But Cyrus himself
always lived at the centre of his dominions, seven months in Babylon
during the winter season, where the land is warm and sunny, three months
at Susa in the spring, and during the height of summer in Ecbatana,
so that for him it was springtime all the year. [23] Towards him the
disposition of all men was such that every nation felt they had failed
unless they could send Cyrus the treasures of their land, plants,
or animals, or works of art. And every city felt the same, and every
private person counted himself on the road to riches if he could do
Cyrus some special service, for Cyrus took only such things as they had
in abundance, and gave them in return what he saw they lacked.

[C.7] Thus the years passed on, and Cyrus was now in a ripe old age, and
he journeyed to Persia for the seventh time in his reign. His father and
mother were long since dead in the course of nature, and Cyrus offered
sacrifice according to the law, and led the sacred dance of his Persians
after the manner of his forefathers, and gave gifts to every man
according to his wont.

[2] But one night, as he lay asleep in the royal palace, he dreamt a
dream. It seemed to him that some one met him, greater than a man, and
said to him, "Set your house in order, Cyrus: the time has come, and you
are going to