428 ARTAXERXES. furlongs distant from Babylon. And here Clearchus be- seeching Cyrus before the fight to retire behind the com- batants,* and not expose himself to hazard, they say he replied, " What is this, Clearchus ? Would you have me, who aspire to empire, show myself unworthy of it ? " But if Cyrus committed a great fault in entering head- long into the midst of danger, and not paying any regard to his own safety, Clearchus was as much to blame, if not more, in refusing to lead the Greeks against the main body of the enemy, where the king stood, and in keep- ing his right wing close to the river, for fear of being surrounded. For if he wanted, above all other things, to be safe, and considered it his first object to sleep in a whole skin, it had been his best way not to have stirred from home. But, after marching in arms ten thousand furlongs from the sea-coast, simply on his own choosing, for the purpose of placing Cyrus on the throne, to look about and select a position which would enable him, not to preserve him under whose pay and conduct he was, but himself to engage with more ease and security seemed much like one that through fear of present dan- gers had abandoneid the purpose of his actions, and been false to the design of his expedition. For it is evident from the very event of the battle that none of those who were in array around the king's person could have stood the shock of the Grecian charge ; and had they been beaten out of the field, and Artaxerxes either fled or fallen, Cyrus would have gained by the victory, not only safety, but a crown. And, therefore, Clearchus, by his caution, must be considered more to blame for the result in the
- The manuscripts read, the A later correction has been Lace-
Macedonians — which Amyot seems daraonians; but makedoiwn, Mace- to have turned into Greeks (der- donians, is more justly taken as a riere la bataille des Grecs) — to corruption of makhomenon, com make the meaning right ; as there batants. Were of course no Macedonians.
