Curiously enough the anticipation of Cyrus, when at the council of war he admonished the Hellenes not to mind the shouting of the Asiatics, was not justified.  Instead of shouting, they came on in deep silence, softly and slowly, with even tread.  At this instant, Cyrus, riding past in person, accompanied by Pigres, his interpreter, and three or four others, called aloud to Clearchus to advance against the enemy’s centre, for there the king was to be found:  “And if we strike home at this point,” he added, “our work is finished.”  Clearchus, though he could see the compact body at the centre, and had been told by Cyrus that the king lay outside the Hellenic left (for, owing to numerical superiority, the king, while holding his own centre, could well overlap Cyrus’s extreme left), still hesitated to draw off his right wing from the river, for fear of being turned on both flanks; and he simply replied, assuring Cyrus that he would take care all went well.

At this time the barbarian army was evenly advancing, and the Hellenic division was still riveted to the spot, completing its formation as the various contingents came up.  Cyrus, riding past at some distance from the lines, glanced his eye first in one direction and then in the other, so as to take a complete survey of friends and foes; when Xenophon the Athenian, seeing him, rode up from the Hellenic quarter to meet him, asking him whether he had any orders to give.  Cyrus, pulling up his horse, begged him to make the announcement generally known that the omens from the victims, internal and external alike, were good[3].  While he was still speaking, he heard a confused murmur 16 passing through the ranks, and asked what it meant.  The other replied that it was the watchword being passed down for the second time.  Cyrus wondered who had given the order, and asked what the watchword was.  On being told it was “Zeus our Saviour and Victory,” he replied, “I accept it; so let it be,” and with that remark rode away to his own position.  And now the two battle lines were no more than three or four furlongs apart, when the Hellenes began chanting the paean, and at the same time advanced against the enemy.

[3] I.e. the omens from inspecting the innards of the victims, and the
    omens from the acts and movements of the victims.

But with the forward movement a certain portion of the line curved onwards in advance, with wave-like sinuosity, and the portion left behind quickened to a run; and simultaneously a thrilling cry burst from all lips, like that in honour of the war-god—­eleleu! eleleu! and the running became general.  Some say they clashed their shields and spears, thereby causing terror to the horses[4]; and before they had got within arrowshot the barbarians swerved and took to flight.  And now the Hellenes gave chase with might and main, checked only by shouts to one another not to race, but to keep their ranks.  The enemy’s chariots, reft of their charioteers, swept onwards,