Chapter 28
CHAPTER IV. But early on the morrow Cyrus offered sacrifice, and meanwhile the rest of the army took their breakfast and after the libation they armed themselves a great and goodly company in bright tunics and splendid breastplates and shining helmets all the horses had frontlets and chest plates the chargers had armor on their shoulders and the chariot horses on their flanks
so that the whole army flashed with bronze and it shone like a flower with scarlet the eight-horse chariot of abradaptis was a marvel of beauty and richness and just as he was about to put the linen corslet of his native land panthea came bringing him a golden breastplate and a helmet of gold and armlets and broad bracelets for his wrists and a full-flowing purple tunic and a hyacinth-coloured helmet plume all these she had made for him in secret taking the measure of his armor without his knowledge and when he saw them he gazed in wonder and said dear wife and did you destroy your own jewels to make this armor for me but she said no my lord at least not the richest of them all for you shall be my loveliest jewel when others see you as i do now as she spoke she put the armour on him but then though she tried to hide it the tears rolled down her cheeks
and truly when abradates was arrayed in the new panoply he who had been fair enough to look upon before was now a sight of splendour noble and beautiful and free and indeed his nature was he took the reins from the charioteer and was about to set foot on the car when panthea bade the bystanders withdraw and said to him my own lord little need to tell you what you know already yet this i say if any woman loved her husband more than her own soul i am of her company why should i try to speak our lives say more than any words of mine and yet feeling for you what you know i swear to you by the love between us that i would rather go down in the grave beside you after a hero's death than live on with you in shame i have thought you worthy of the highest and believe myself worthy to follow you and i bear in mind the great gratitude we owe cyrus who when i was his captive chosen for his spoil was too high-minded to treat me as a slave or dishonor me as a free woman
he took me and saved me for you as though i had been his brother's wife and when araspas my warder turned from him i promised if he would let me send for you i would bring him a friend in the other's place far nobler and more faithful and as panthea spoke abradates listened with rapture to her words and when she ended he laid his hand upon her head and looking up to the heavens he prayed aloud oh most mighty zeus make me worthy to be panthea's husband and the friend of cyrus who showed us honor then he opened the driver's seat and mounted the car and the driver shut the door and panthea could not take him in her arms again so she bent and kissed the chariot box then the car rolled forward and she followed unseen till abradaptis turned and saw her and cried be strong panthea be of good heart farewell and hee thee home thereupon her chamberlains and her maidens took her and brought her back to her own carriage and laid her down and drew the awning but no man of all who was there that day splendid as abradathus was in his chariot had eyes to look on him until panthea had gone
meanwhile cyrus had found the victims favourable and his army was already drawn up in the order he had fixed he had scouts posted ahead one behind the other and he called his officers together for his final words gentlemen my friends and allies the sacred signs from heaven are as they were the day the gods gave us victory before and i would call to your minds thoughts to bring you gladness and confidence for the fight you are far better trained than your enemies you have lived together and worked together far longer than they you have won victories together what they have shared with one another has been defeat and those who have not fought as yet feel they have traitors to the right and left of them while our recruits know that they enter battle in company with men who help their allies those who trust each other will stand firm and fight without flinching but when confidence has gone no man thinks anything but flight forward then gentlemen against the foe
drive our scythe chariots against the defenceless cars let our armed cavalry charge their unprotected horse and charge them home the mass of their infantry you have met before and as for the egyptians they are armed in much the same way as they are marshalled they carry shields too big to let them stir or see they are drawn up a hundred deep which will prevent all but the merest handful fighting if they count on forcing us back by their weight they must first withstand our steel and the charge of our cavalry and if any of them do hold firm how can they fight at once against cavalry infantry and turrets of artillery for our men on the towers will be there to help us they will smite the enemy until he flies instead of fighting if you think that there is anything wanting tell me now god helping us we will lack nothing and if any man wishes to say anything let him speak now if not go to the altar and pray to the gods to whom we have sacrificed and then fall in let each man say to his own men what i have said to him let him show the men he rules that he is fit to rule
let them see the fearlessness in his face his bearing and his words end of section twenty eight
