as hirelings merely for pay’s sake, but for the gratitude which we shall rightly feel to you, to whom we owe our lives.  As I dwell on these matters, I confess, the idea of your feeling mistrust of us is so astonishing, that I would give much to discover the name of the man, who is so clever of speech that he can persuade you that we harbour designs against you.”  Clearchus ended, and Tissaphernes responded thus—­

[2] We learn from Diodorus Siculus, xiv. 35, that the Egyptians had
    revolted from the Persians towards the end of the reign of Darius.

“I am glad, Clearchus, to listen to your sensible remarks; for with the sentiments you hold, if you were to devise any mischief against me, it could only be out of malevolence to yourself.  But if you imagine that you, on your side, have any better reason to mistrust the king and me, than we you, listen to me in turn, and I will undeceive you.  I ask you, does it seem to you that we lack the means, if we had the will, to destroy you? have we not horsemen enough, or infantry, or whatever other arm you like, whereby we may be able to injure you, without risk of suffering in return? or, possibly, do we seem to you 17 to lack the physical surroundings suitable for attacking you?  Do you not see all these great plains, which you find it hard enough to traverse even when they are friendly? and all yonder great mountain chains left for you to cross, which we can at any time occupy in advance and render impassable? and all those rivers, on whose banks we can deal craftily by you, checking and controlling and choosing the right number of you whom we care to fight!  Nay, there are some which you will not be able to cross at all, unless we transport you to the other side.

“And if at all these points we were worsted, yet ‘fire,’ as they say, ‘is stronger than the fruit of the field’:  we can burn it down and call up famine in arms against you; against which you, for all your bravery, will never be able to contend.  Why then, with all these avenues of attack, this machinery of war, open to us, not one of which can be turned against ourselves, why should we select from among them all that method, which alone in the sight of God is impious and of man abominable?  Surely it belongs to people altogether without resources, who are helplessly struggling in the toils of fate, and are villains to boot, to seek accomplishment of their desires by perjury to heaven and faithlessness to their fellows.  We are not so unreasoning, Clearchus, nor so foolish.

“Why, when we had it in our power to destroy you, did we not proceed to do it?  Know well that the cause of this was nothing less than my passion to prove myself faithful to the Hellenes, and that, as Cyrus went up, relying on a foreign force attracted by payment, I in turn might go down strong in the same through service rendered.  Various ways in which you Hellenes may be useful to me you yourself have mentioned, but there is one still greater.  It is the great king’s privilege alone to wear the tiara upright upon his head, yet in your presence it may be given to another mortal to wear it upright, here, upon his heart.”