in
Cyrus's Asiatic army; where a kapithe of wheat or barley cost four
shekels; the shekel being equal to seven and a half Attic obols,
whilst the kapithe is the equivalent of two Attic choeneces (1), dry
measure, so that the soldiers subsisted on meat alone for the whole
period. Some of the stages were very long, whenever they had to push
on to find water or fodder; and once they found themselves involved in
a narrow way, where the deep clay presented an obstacle to the
progress of the wagons. Cyrus, with the nobles about him, halted to
superintend the operation, and ordered Glus and Pigres to take a body
of barbarians and to help in extricating the wagons. As they seemed to
be slow about the business, he turned round angrily to the Persian
nobles and bade them lend a hand to force the wagons out. Then, if
ever, what goes to constitute one branch of good discipline, was to be
witnessed. Each of those addressed, just where he chanced to be 8
standing, threw off his purple cloak, and flung himself into the work
with as much eagerness as if it had been a charge for victory. Down a
steep hill side they flew, with their costly tunics and embroidered
trousers--some with the circlets round their necks, and bracelets on
their arms--in an instant, they had sprung into the miry clay, and in
less time than one could have conceived, they had landed the wagons
safe on terra firma.

(1) The choenix = about 1 quart (or, according to others, 1 1/2 pint).
It was the minimum allowance of corn for a man, say a slave, per
diem. The Spartan was allowed at the public table 2 choenices a
day.

Altogether it was plain that Cyrus was bent on pressing on the march,
and averse to stoppages, except where he halted for the sake of
provisioning or some other necessary object; being convinced that the
more rapidly he advanced, the less prepared for battle would he find
the king; while the slower his own progress, the larger would be the
hostile army which he would find collected. Indeed, the attentive
observer could see, at a glance, that if the king's empire was strong
in its extent of territory and the number of inhabitants, that
strength is compensated by an inherent weakness, dependent upon the
length of roads and the inevitable dispersion of defensive forces,
where an invader insists upon pressing home the war by forced marches.

On the opposite side of the Euphrates to the point reached on one of
these desert stages, w