After the review, Cyrus addressed the Hellene officers. ‘Men of Hellas,’ he said, ‘it is not from any scarcity of troops of my own that I have brought you hither, but because I know that you are braver and stronger than a whole multitude of Barbarians. See that you prove yourselves worthy of the freedom that you enjoy. Believe me when I say that I envy you this, and would willingly part with all my treasures to purchase it, and even with far more precious possessions. The Barbarians trust to their overwhelming numbers, and to the deafening clamour with which they charge, but if you resist them bravely, you will find them--it shames me to say so--nothing but a cowardly mob. Bear yourselves bravely, and if I conquer, I will send you back to your homes with such treasures as will make you envied by all your friends. Yet I hope that many of you will prefer to remain in my service, instead of returning to Hellas.’ When Cyrus had ended his speech, a Hellene from the island of Samos answered him, saying, ‘There are many of us, Cyrus, who think that it is all very well in the hour of danger to promise mountains of gold, but that when the danger is past, you may forget your promises, or it may not perhaps be in your power to fulfil them.’ ‘The empire of my father,’ said Cyrus, ‘stretches northwards to the regions where men cannot live because of the cold, and southwards to the regions where men cannot live because of the heat, and all the countries that lie between are governed by the friends of my brother. If we conquer, I will set my friends over all that land. I have less fear that I shall not have enough gifts with which to reward my friends, than that I shall not have enough friends on whom to bestow my gifts. To each of you moreover, ye officers of the Hellenes, I will give, in remembrance of this campaign, a crown of gold.’ The rest of the soldiers quickly heard of the dazzling prospects held out by Cyrus, and there was not a man among them who did not long for the battle to begin. At the same time the officers were anxious that Cyrus should not expose himself, for everything depended on his escaping unhurt, and they urged him to take up a safe position behind the cavalry. But Cyrus would not hear of such a thing, and in this he was perfectly right. In our days the general is regarded as the head of the army who has to think for all, and he would be blamed if he were to risk his life without actual necessity. But in the time of Cyrus, the general in command always took his share of the actual fighting, and would have been thought a coward if he had not been seen by friend and foe alike, in the fore-front of the battle.