IX. The Greeks put the Persians to flight with the greatest ease, and pursued them for a long distance. Cyrus, as he rode forward, mounted upon a spirited, but hard-mouthed and unmanageable horse, which, we learn from Ktesias was named Pasakas, was met by Artagerses, the leader of the Kadousians, who shouted loudly, saying, “Most wicked and foolish of men, who hast disgraced the name of Cyrus, erst the noblest in Persia, and bringest thy base Greeks on a base errand, to plunder the good things of the Persians, and to slay thy brother and thy lord, who hath ten thousand times ten thousand slaves, each one better than thou art. Soon shalt thou find out the truth of this; for before thou seest the king’s face thou shalt lose thine own head.” Saying thus, he hurled his javelin against Cyrus, but his breastplate resisted the blow, and Cyrus was not wounded, although he reeled in his saddle from the violence of the stroke. As Artagerses wheeled round his horse, Cyrus struck him with a javelin, driving the point through his throat, beside the collar-bone. That Artagerses was slain by Cyrus nearly all historians agree, but as to the death of Cyrus himself, since Xenophon has described it very shortly, as he was not an eye-witness of it, we may as well give the accounts of it which Deinon and which Ktesias have written.
X. Deinon says that when Artagerses fell, Cyrus charged violently among the troops round the king, and wounded the king’s horse. Artaxerxes was thrown from his horse, but Teribazus quickly mounted him upon another horse, saying, “My king, remember this day, for you ought not to forget it.” Artaxerxes, he states, was again thrown from his horse by the vehement onset of Cyrus, and again mounted. At the third charge the king who was violently enraged, and cried out to those around him that it was better to die than be treated thus, rode straight against Cyrus, who rashly and heedlessly exposed himself to the missiles of his enemies. The king hurled a dart at Cyrus, and so did, all his followers. Cyrus fell, struck, some say by the king himself, but according to others he was slain by a Carian soldier, on whom the king afterwards, as a reward for this feat of arms, bestowed the honour of marching at the head of the army, carrying a golden cock upon a spear. Indeed the Persians call the Carians themselves cocks, because of the plumes with which they ornament their helmets.
XI. The story of Ktesias, reduced to a succinct form, is as follows:—Cyrus, after slaying Artagerses, rode towards the king himself, and the king rode towards him, both of them in silence. Ariaeus, the friend of Cyrus, struck the king first but did not wound him. The king hurled his spear and missed Cyrus, but struck Satiphernes, a man of noble birth and a trusted friend of Cyrus, and slew him. Cyrus hurled his javelin at the king, drove it through his breastplate, making a wound in his breast two fingers’ breadths deep, and cast him from his horse. Upon this there was much disorder, and many took to flight. The king rose, and with a few followers, among whom was Ktesias, took refuge on a hill hard by. Meanwhile Cyrus was carried by his horse a long distance forward into the midst of his enemies, and, as it was now growing dark, he was not recognised by his foes, and was being sought for in vain by his friends. Excited by his victory, and full of spirit and pride, he rode about through the ranks, crying, “Out of my way, wretches.” As Cyrus shouted these words in Persian, some made way for him, but the tiara fell from his head, and a young man named Mithridates, not knowing who he was, hurled a javelin and struck him on the temple near the eye. The wound bled profusely, and Cyrus became dizzy and faint, so that he fell from his horse. The horse rushed away from him and was lost, but the servant of the man who struck Cyrus took up his saddle-cloth, which fell from his horse, and which was drenched with blood.
When Cyrus began to recover from the effects of this blow, some few of his eunuchs tried to mount him upon another horse and get him safe away from the field. As, however, he could not mount, he proposed to walk, and the eunuchs supported him as he went, faint and weak in his body, but still imagining himself to be the victor as he heard the fugitives calling Cyrus their king and begging him for mercy. At this time certain men of Kaunus, of mean and low condition, who followed the king’s army to perform menial services, happened to join the party with Cyrus, supposing them to be friends. When, however, they managed to distinguish that the surcoats which they wore over their armour were purple, while all the king’s soldiers wore white ones, they perceived that they were enemies. One of them ventured to strike Cyrus from behind with a spear, not knowing who he was. The javelin struck Cyrus behind the knee, cutting the vein there, and in his fall he also struck his wounded temple against a stone, and so died. This is the story of Ktesias, in which he seems, as it were, to hack poor Cyrus to death with a blunt sword.
XII. When Cyrus was dead it happened that Artasyras, who was called the king’s eye,[583] rode past. Recognising the eunuchs who were mourning over the body, he asked the most trusted of them, “Pariskas, who is this beside whom you sit weeping?” He answered, “Artasyras, do you not see that it is Cyrus, who is dead?” Artasyras was astonished at this news, bade the eunuch be of good courage and guard the body, and himself rode in haste to Artaxerxes, who had given up all hope of success, and was in great bodily suffering from his wound and from thirst. Artasyras, with great delight, told him that he had seen Cyrus lying dead. On hearing this Artaxerxes at first wished to go to see it himself, and bade Artasyras lead him to the spot; but as there was much talk and fear of the Greeks, who were said to be advancing and carrying all before them; he decided to send a party to view the body; and thirty men went carrying torches. Meanwhile, as the king himself was almost dying of thirst the eunuch Satibarzanes went in search of drink for him; for there was no water in the place where he was, nor indeed anywhere near the army. After much trouble the eunuch at length fell in with one of the low Kaunian camp followers, who had about four pints of putrid water in a skin, which he took from the man and carried it to the king. When the king had drunk it all, he asked him if he was not disgusted with the water; and the king swore by the gods that he never had drank either wine or the purest of water with such pleasure. “So,” added he, “if I be not able to find the man who gave you this water and reward him for it, I pray that the gods may make him rich and happy.”
XIII. While they were talking thus, the thirty men rode up in high spirits, announcing to him his unlooked-for good fortune. Artaxerxes now began to recover his courage from the number of men who began to assemble round him, and descended from the hill amidst the glare of many torches. When he reached the body, the head and right hand were cut off, in accordance with some Persian custom. He ordered the head to be brought to him, took hold of it by the long thick hair, and showed it to those who were still wavering or fleeing. They all were filled with amazement, and did homage to him, so that he soon collected a force of seventy thousand men, accompanied by whom he re-entered his camp. He had left it in the morning, according to Ktesias, with an army of four hundred thousand men; though Deinon and Xenophon both estimate the forces actually engaged at a higher figure. Ktesias states that the number of the dead was returned to Artaxerxes as nine thousand, but that he himself thought that the corpses which he saw lying on the field must amount to more than twenty thousand. This point admits of discussion; but Ktesias tells an obvious untruth when he says that he was sent on an embassy to the Greeks, together with Phalinus of Zakynthus, and some other persons. Xenophon knew that Ktesias was at the king’s court, for he makes mention of him, and has evidently read his history; so that he never would have passed him over, and only mentioned Phalinus of Zakynthus, if Ktesias had really come as interpreter on a mission of such importance. But Ktesias, being a wonderfully vain man, and especially attached to the Lacedæmonians and to Klearchus, constantly in his history introduces himself, while he sings the praises of Lacedæmon and of Klearchus.
XIV. After the battle, Artaxerxes sent most splendid and valuable presents to Artagerses, the son of the man who had been slain by Cyrus, and handsomely rewarded Ktesias and the rest of his companions. He sought out the Kaunian from whom he had received the water-skin, who was a poor and humble man, and made him rich and honoured. He also took pains to appoint suitable punishments to those who had misconducted themselves. One Arbakes, a Mede, deserted to Cyrus during the battle, and when Cyrus fell again returned to his allegiance. Artaxerxes, perceiving that he had done so not from treachery but from sheer cowardice, ordered him to carry a naked courtesan about the market-place upon his shoulders for the whole of one day. Another deserter, who besides changing sides falsely boasted that he had slain two of the enemy, was condemned by the king to have his tongue pierced with three needles. As Artaxerxes believed, and wished all men to think that he had himself slain Cyrus, he sent presents to Mithridates, who was the first man that wounded Cyrus, and bade those who carried the presents say, “The king honours you with these presents, because you found Cyrus’s saddle-cloth and brought it to him.” And when the Carian, who had struck Cyrus under the knee, demanded a present, he bade those who carried the presents say, “The king gives you these for having been second to bring him the good news; for Artasyras first, and you next, brought him the news of the death of Cyrus.” Mithridates retired in silence, much vexed at this; but the unhappy Carian, as often happens, was ruined by his own folly. Excited by his good fortune into trying to obtain more than became him, he refused to take what was offered him for having brought good news, but remonstrated loudly, declaring that he, and no one else, slew Cyrus, and that he was most unjustly being deprived of the credit of the action. The king, when he heard this, was greatly angered, and ordered the man’s head to be struck off. His mother, Parysatis, who was present, said, “My king, do not thus rid yourself of this pestilent Carian. He shall receive from me a fitting punishment for what he has dared to say.” The king handed him over to her, and Parysatis ordered the executioners to torture him for ten days, and then to tear out his eyes and pour molten copper into his ears until he died.
XV. Mithridates also came to an evil end after a few days by his folly. He came dressed in the robe, and adorned with the ornaments which he had received from the king, to a banquet at which the eunuchs of the king and of the king’s mother were present. When they began to drink the most influential of the eunuchs of Parysatis said to him: “What a fine dress, Mithridates, and what fine necklaces and bracelet the king has given you! How valuable is your scimitar? Indeed, he has made you fortunate and envied by all men.” Mithridates, who was already in liquor, answered: “What are these things, Sparamixes? I proved myself on that day worth more than these to the king.” Sparamixes smiled and said, “I do not grudge you them, Mithridates, but come—as the Greeks say that there is truth in wine—tell us how it can be so great or brilliant an achievement to find a saddle-cloth that has fallen off a horse, and to bring it to the king.” This the eunuch said, not because he did not know the truth, but because he wished to lead Mithridates, whose tongue was loosened by wine, to expose his folly before the company. Mithridates could not restrain himself, and said: “You may say what you please about saddle-cloths and such nonsense; I tell you plainly, that it was by my hand that Cyrus fell. I did not hurl my javelin in vain, like Artagerses, but I just missed his eye, struck him through the temple, and felled him to the ground; and with that blow he died.” All the rest of the guests, foreseeing the miserable end to which Mithridates would certainly come, cast their eyes upon the ground; but the host said: “My good Mithridates, let us now eat and drink, adoring the fortune of the king, but let us not talk about subjects which are too high for us.”
XVI. After this, the eunuch told Parysatis what Mithridates had said, and she told the king, who was much enraged, because he was proved not to have spoken the truth, and had been deprived of the sweetest part of his victory; for he wished to persuade all men, Asiatics and Greeks alike, that in the skirmish when he and his brother met he himself had been wounded by Cyrus, but had struck him dead. He therefore condemned Mithridates to the punishment of the boat. This is as follows:—Two wooden boats are made, which fit together. The criminal is placed on his back in one of them, and then the other is placed over him, and the two are fastened so as to leave his head, feet, and hands outside, but covering all the rest of his body. They give him food, and if he refuses it, they force him to eat it by pricking his eyes. When he has eaten they pour a mixture of milk and honey into his mouth and over his face. They then keep turning his eyes towards the sun, his whole face becomes completely covered with flies. As all his evacuations are necessarily contained within the boat, worms and maggots are generated from the corruption, which eat into his body; for when the man is certainly dead, they take off the upper boat and find all his flesh eaten away, and swarms of these animals clinging to his bowels and devouring them. In this way Mithridates died, after enduring his misery for seventeen days.
XVII. The only remaining object of the vengeance of Parysatis was Masabates, the king’s eunuch who cut off the head and hand of Cyrus. As he gave no handle against himself, Parysatis devised the following plot against him. She was naturally a clever woman, and was fond of playing with the dice. Before the war, she had often played with dice with the king; and after the war when she became reconciled to him she took part in his amusements, played at games with him, encouraged his amours, and altogether permitted Statira to have but very little of his society; for Parysatis hated Statira more than any one else, and wished to have most influence with Artaxerxes herself. Finding Artaxerxes one day eager for amusement, as he had nothing to do, she challenged him to play for a thousand darics. She purposely allowed her son to win, and paid him the money: and then pretending to be vexed at her loss, called on him to cast the dice afresh for a eunuch. Artaxerxes agreed, and they agreed to play upon the condition that each of them should set apart five of their most trusty eunuchs, and that the winner was to have his choice of the rest. On these terms they played; and Parysatis, who gave the closest attention to her game, and was also favoured by fortune, won, and chose Masabates, who was not one of the excepted ones. Before the king suspected her purpose she had Masabates arrested, and delivered him to the executioners with orders to flay him alive, impale his body sideways upon three stakes, and hang up his skin separately. This was done; and as the king was greatly grieved at it and was angry with her, she smiled and said ironically: “How pleasant and well-mannered you are, to be angry about a miserable old eunuch, whereas I have lost a thousand darics at dice and say nothing about it.” The king, though he was sorry to have been so cheated, yet remained quiet; but Statira, who indeed often on other occasions openly braved Parysatis, was very indignant with her for so cruelly and unjustly putting the king’s faithful eunuch to death for Cyrus’s sake.