no mistrust existed as
to the object of the expedition, not even when the army passed into
Lycaonia, since its inhabitants were of the same predatory character as
the Pisidians. But when it had crossed Mount Taurus, which bounded
Cilicia, and reached Tarsus, the Greeks perceived that they had been
cheated, and refused to advance farther. Clearchus attempted to suppress
the mutiny by severe measures, but failed. He then resorted to stratagem,
and pretended to yield to the wishes of the Greeks, and likewise refused
to march, but sent a secret dispatch to Cyrus that all would be well in
the end, and requested him to send fresh invitations, that he might answer
by fresh refusals. He then, with the characteristic cunning and eloquence
of a Greek, made known to his countrymen the extreme peril of making Cyrus
their enemy in a hostile country, where retreat was beset with so many
dangers, and induced them to proceed. So the army continued its march to
Issus, at the extremity of the Issican Gulf, and near the mountains which
separate Cilicia from Syria. Here Cyrus was further re-enforced, making
the grand total of Greeks in his army fourteen thousand.

(M583) He expected to find the passes over the mountains, a day's journey
from Issus, defended, but the Persian general Abrocomas fled at his
approach, and Cyrus easily crossed into Syria by the pass of Beilan, over
Mount Amanus. He then proceeded south to Myriandus, a Phoenician maritime
town, where he parted from his fleet. Eight days' march brought his army
to Thapsacus, on the Euphrates, where he remained five days to refresh his
troops. Here again the Greeks showed a reluctance to proceed, but, on the
promise of five minae a head, nearly one hundred dollars more than a year's
pay, they consented to advance. It was here Cyrus crossed the river
unobstructed, and continued his march on the left bank for nine days,
until he came to the river Araxes, which separates Syria from Arabia. Thus
far his army was well supplied with provisions from the numerous villages
through which they passed; but now he entered a desert country, entirely
without cultivation, where the astonished Greeks beheld for the first time
wild asses, antelopes, and ostriches. For eighteen days the army marched
without other provisions than what they brought with them, parched with
thirst and exhausted by heat. At Pylae they reached the cultivated
territory of Babylonia, and the alluvial plains commenced. Three d