promises of effective co-operation. At
the same time he had recourse to the Greek oracles, and that of
Delphi was instrumental in obtaining for him a treaty of alliance and
friendship with Sparta. Negotiations had been carried on so rapidly,
that by the end of 548 all was in readiness for a simultaneous movement;
Sparta was equipping a fleet, and merely awaited the return of the
favourable season to embark her contingent; Egypt had already despatched
hers, and her Cypriot vassals were on the point of starting, while bands
of Thracian infantry were marching to reinforce the Lydian army. These
various elements represented so considerable a force of men, that, had
they been ranged on a field of battle, Cyrus would have experienced
considerable difficulty in overcoming them. An unforeseen act of
treachery obliged the Lydians to hasten their preparations and commence
hostilities before the moment agreed on. Eurybatos, an Ephesian, to whom
the king had entrusted large sums of money for the purpose of raising
mercenaries in the Peloponnesus, fled with his gold into Persia, and
betrayed the secret of the coalition. The Achaemenian sovereign did not
hesitate to forestall the attack, and promptly assumed the offensive.
The transport of an army from Ecbatana to the middle course of the
Halys would have been a long and laborious undertaking, even had it kept
within the territory of the empire; it would have necessitated crossing
the mountain groups of Armenia at their greatest width, and that at a
time when the snow was still lying deep upon the ground and the torrents
were swollen and unfordable. The most direct route, which passed through
Assyria and the part of Mesopotamia south of the Masios, lay for the
most part in the hands of the Chaldaeans, but their enfeebled condition
justified Cyrus's choice of it, and he resolved, in the event of their
resistance, to cut his way through sword in hand. He therefore bore
down upon Arbela by the gorges of Rowandiz in the month Nisan, making as
though he were bound for Karduniash; but before the Babylonians had time
to recover from their alarm at this movement, he crossed the river not
far from Nineveh and struck into Mesopotamia. He probably skirted the
slopes of the Masios, overcoming and killing in the month Iyyar
some petty king, probably the ruler of Armenia,* and debouched into
Cappadocia. This province was almost entirely in the power of the enemy;
Nabonidus had despatched couriers by