with all the men available, excepting only those who were actually needed to garrison the citadels.  He next summoned the troops at present engaged in the siege of Miletus, and called upon the exiles to follow him on his intended expedition, promising them that if he were successful in his object, he would not pause until he had reinstated them in their native city.  To this invitation they hearkened gladly; they believed in him; and with their arms they presented themselves at Sardis.  So, too, Xenias arrived at Sardis with the contingent from the cities, four thousand hoplites; Proxenus, also, with fifteen hundred hoplites and five hundred light-armed troops; Sophaenetus the Stymphalian, with one thousand hoplites; Socrates the Achaean, with five hundred hoplites; while the Megarion Pasion came with three hundred hoplites and three hundred peltasts[1].  This latter officer, as well as Socrates, belonged to the force engaged against Miletus.  These all joined him at Sardis.

[1] “Targeteers” armed with a light shield instead of the larger one
    of the hoplite, or heavy infantry soldier.  Iphicrates made great
    use of this arm at a later date.

But Tissaphernes did not fail to note these proceedings.  An equipment so large pointed to something more than an invasion of Pisidia:  so he argued; and with what speed he might, he set off to the king, attended by about five hundred horse.  The king, on his side, had no sooner heard from Tissaphernes of Cyrus’s great armament, than he began to make counter-preparations.

Thus Cyrus, with the troops which I have named, set out from Sardis, and marched on and on through Lydia three stages, making two-and-twenty parasangs[2], to the river Maeander.  That river is two hundred feet[3] broad, and was spanned by a bridge consisting of seven boats.  Crossing it, he marched through Phrygia a single stage, of eight parasangs, to Colossae, an inhabited city[4], prosperous and 6 large.  Here he remained seven days, and was joined by Menon the Thessalian, who arrived with one thousand hoplites and five hundred peltasts, Dolopes, Aenianes, and Olynthians.  From this place he marched three stages, twenty parasangs in all, to Celaenae, a populous city of Phrygia, large and prosperous.  Here Cyrus owned a palace and a large park[5] full of wild beasts, which he used to hunt on horseback, whenever he wished to give himself or his horses exercise.  Through the midst of the park flows the river Maeander, the sources of which are within the palace buildings, and it flows through the city of Celaenae.  The great king also has a palace in Celaenae, a strong place, on the sources of another river, the Marsyas, at the foot of the acropolis.  This river also flows through the city, discharging itself into the Maeander, and is five-and-twenty feet broad.  Here is the place where Apollo is said to have flayed Marsyas, when he had conquered him in the contest of skill.  He hung up the skin of the conquered man, in the cavern