hese troops were to
take up a position round his tent. This the generals did; bringing up
about three thousand hoplites. Clearchus was also invited inside, to
assist at the court-martial; a compliment due to the position he held
among the other generals, in the opinion not only of Cyrus, but also
of the rest of the court. When he came out, he reported the
circumstances of the trial (as to which, indeed, there was no mystery)
to his friends. He said that Cyrus opened the inquiry with these
words: "I have invited you hither, my friends, that I may take advice
with you, and carry out whatever, in the sight of God and man, it is
right for me to do, as concerning the man before you, Orontas. The 6
prisoner was, in the first instance, given to me by my father, to be
my faithful subject. In the next place, acting, to use his own words,
under the orders of my brother, and having hold of the acropolis of
Sardis, he went to war with me. I met war with war, and forced him to
think it more prudent to desist from war with me: whereupon we shook
hands, exchanging solemn pledges. After that," and at this point Cyrus
turned to Orontas, and addressed him personally--"after that, did I do
you any wrong?" Answer, "Never." Again another question: "Then later
on, having received, as you admit, no injury from me, did you revolt
to the Mysians and injure my territory, as far as in you lay?"--"I
did," was the reply. "Then, once more having discovered the limits of
your power, did you flee to the altar of Artemis, crying out that you
repented? and did you thus work upon my feelings, that we a second
time shook hands and made interchange of solemn pledges? Are these
things so?" Orontas again assented. "Then what injury have you
received from me," Cyrus asked, "that now for the third time, you have
been detected in a treasonous plot against me?"--"I must needs do so,"
he answered. Then Cyrus put one more question: "But the day may come,
may it not, when you will once again be hostile to my brother, and a
faithful friend to myself?" The other answered: "Even if I were, you
could never be brought to believe it, Cyrus."

At this point Cyrus turned to those who were present and said: "Such
has been the conduct of the prisoner in the past: such is his language
now. I now call upon you, and you first, Clearchus, to declare your
opinion--what think you?" And Clearchus answered: "My advice to you is
to put this man out of the way as soon as may be,