The last words are remarkable, as indicating that no other
stimulus except that of ambitious rivalry and fraternal
antipathy, had force enough to overthrow the self-command of
Cyrus.
[91] Compare the account of the transport of rage which seized
the Theban Pelopidas, when he saw Alexander the despot of Pheræ
in the opposite army; which led to the same fatal consequences
(Plutarch, Pelopidas, c. 32; Cornel. Nepos, Pelop. c. 5). See
also the reflections of Xenophon on the conduct of Teleutas
before Olynthus.—Hellenic. v. 3, 7.
[92] Xen. Anab. i, 8, 22-29. The account of this battle and of
the death of Cyrus by Ktesias (as far as we can make it out from
the brief abstract in Photius—Ktesias, Fragm. c. 58, 59, ed.
Bähr) does not differ materially from Xenophon. Ktesias mentions
the Karian soldier (not noticed by Xenophon) who hurled the
javelin; and adds that this soldier was afterwards tortured and
put to death by Queen Parysatis, in savage revenge for the death
of Cyrus. He also informs us that Bagapatês, the person who by
order of Artaxerxes cut off the head and hand of Cyrus, was
destroyed by her in the same way.
Diodorus (xiv, 23) dresses up a much fuller picture of the
conflict between Cyrus and his brother, which differs on many
points, partly direct and partly implied, from Xenophon.
Plutarch (Artaxerxes, c. 11, 12, 13) gives an account of the
battle, and of the death of Cyrus, which he professes to have
derived from Ktesias, but which differs still more materially
from the narrative in Xenophon. Compare also the few words of
Justin, v, 11.
Diodorus (xiv, 24) says that twelve thousand men were slain of
the king’s army at Kunaxa; the greater part of them by the Greeks
under Klearchus, who did not lose a single man. He estimates the
loss of Cyrus’s Asiatic army at three thousand men. But as the
Greeks did not lose a man, so they can hardly have killed many
in the pursuit; for they had scarcely any cavalry, and no great
number of peltasts,—while hoplites could not have overtaken the
flying Persians.
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