Here Gaulites, a Samian exile, and a trusty friend of Cyrus, being present, exclaimed:  “Ay, Cyrus, but some say you can afford to make large promises now, because you are in the crisis of impending danger; but let matters go well with you, will you recollect?  They shake their heads.  Indeed, some add that, even if you did recollect, and were ever so willing, you would not be able to make good all your promises, and repay.”  When Cyrus heard that, he answered:  “You forget, sirs, my father’s empire stretches southwards to a region where men cannot dwell by reason of the heat, and northwards to a region uninhabitable through cold; but all the intervening space is mapped out in satrapies belonging to my brother’s friends:  so that if the victory be ours, it will be ours also to put our friends in possession in their room.  On the whole my fear is, not that I may not have enough to give to each of my friends, but lest I may not have friends enough on whom to bestow what I have to give, and to each of you Hellenes I will give a crown of gold.”

So they, when they heard these words, were once more elated than ever themselves, and spread the good news among the rest outside.  And there came into his presence both the generals and some of the other Hellenes also, claiming to know what they should have in the event of victory; and Cyrus satisfied the expectations of each and all, and so dismissed them.  Now the advice and admonition of all who came into conversation with him was, not to enter the battle himself, but to post himself in rear of themselves; and at this season Clearchus put a question to him:  “But do you think that your brother will give battle 9 to you, Cyrus?” and Cyrus answered:  “Not without a battle, be assured, shall the prize be won; if he be the son of Darius and Parysatis, and a brother of mine.”

In the final arming for battle at this juncture, the numbers were as follows:  Of Hellenes there were ten thousand four hundred heavy infantry with two thousand five hundred targeteers, while the barbarians with Cyrus reached a total of one hundred thousand.  He had too about twenty scythe-chariots.  The enemy’s forces were reported to number one million two hundred thousand, with two hundred scythe-chariots, besides which he had six thousand cavalry under Artagerses.  These formed the immediate vanguard of the king himself.  The royal army was marshalled by four generals or field-marshals, each in command of three hundred thousand men.  Their names were Abrocomas, Tissaphernes, Gobryas, and Arbaces. (But of this total not more than nine hundred thousand were engaged in the battle, with one hundred and fifty scythe-chariots; since Abrocomas, on his march from Phoenicia, arrived five days too late for the battle.) Such was the information brought to Cyrus by deserters who came in from the king’s army before the battle, and it was corroborated after the battle by those of the enemy who were taken prisoners.