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targeteers, over and above the thousand Peers. The whole force was to
be put under the command of Cyrus. [6] As soon as he was appointed,
his first act had been to offer sacrifice, and when the omens were
favourable he had chosen his two hundred Peers, and each of them had
chosen their four comrades. Then he called the whole body together, and
for the first time spoke to them as follows:--

[7] "My friends, I have chosen you for this work, but this is not the
first time that I have formed my opinion of your worth: from my boyhood
I have watched your zeal for all that our country holds to be honourable
and your abhorrence for all that she counts base. And I wish to tell you
plainly why I accepted this office myself and why I ask your help. [8] I
have long felt sure that our forefathers were in their time as good men
as we. For their lives were one long effort towards the self-same deeds
of valour as are held in honour now; and still, for all their worth,
I fail to see what good they gained either for the state or for
themselves. [9] Yet I cannot bring myself to believe that there is a
single virtue practised among mankind merely in order that the brave and
good should fare no better than the base ones of the earth. Men do
not forego the pleasures of the moment to say good-bye to all joy for
evermore--no, this self-control is a training, so that we may reap the
fruits of a larger joy in the time to come. A man will toil day and
night to make himself an orator, yet oratory is not the one aim of
his existence: his hope is to influence men by his eloquence and thus
achieve some noble end. So too with us, and those like us, who are
drilled in the arts of war: we do not give our labours in order to fight
for ever, endlessly and hopelessly, we hope that we too one day, when we
have proved our mettle, may win and wear for ourselves and for our city
the threefold ornament of wealth, of happiness, of honour. [10] And if
there should be some who have worked hard all their lives and suddenly
old-age, they find, has stolen on them unawares, and taken away their
powers before they have gathered in the fruit of all their toil, such
men seem to me like those who desire to be thrifty husbandmen, and who
sow well and plant wisely, but when the time of harvest comes let the
fruit drop back ungarnered into the soil whence it sprang. Or as if an
athlete should train himself and reach the heights where victory may be
won and at the last for