er and nearer to the shore, left to
each of them a more confined strip of cultivable land. For these cities
the time had not yet arrived to be conquered and absorbed by the inland
monarchies around them, as Miletus and the cities on the western coast
of Asia Minor had been. The Paphlagonians were at this time the only
native people in those regions who formed a considerable aggregated
force, under a prince named Korylas; a prince tributary to Persia, yet
half independent--since he had disobeyed the summons of Artaxerxes to
come up and help in repelling Cyrus--and now on terms of established
alliance with Sinope, though not without secret designs, which he wanted
only force to execute, against that city. The other native tribes to the
eastward were mountaineers both ruder and more divided; warlike on their
own heights, but little capable of any aggressive combinations.

Though we are told that Perikles had once despatched a detachment of
Athenian colonists to Sinope, and had expelled from thence the despot
Timesilaus,--yet neither that city nor any of her neighbors appear to
have taken part in the Peloponnesian war, either for or against Athens;
nor were they among the number of tributaries to Persia. They doubtless
were acquainted with the upward march of Cyrus, which had disturbed all
Asia; and probably were not ignorant of the perils and critical state of
his Grecian army. But it was with a feeling of mingled surprise,
admiration, and alarm, that they saw that army descend from the
mountainous region, hitherto only recognized as the abode of Kolchians,
Makrones, and other analogous tribes, among whom was perched the mining
city of Gymnias.

Even after all the losses and extreme sufferings of the retreat the
Greeks still numbered, when mustered at Kerasus, 8600 heavy-armed
foot-soldiers, with light-armed foot-soldiers, bowmen, and slingers,
making a total of above 10,000 military persons. Such a force had never
before been seen in the Euxine. Considering both the numbers and the
now-acquired discipline and self-confidence of the Cyreians, even Sinope
herself could have raised no force capable of meeting them in the field.
Yet they did not belong to any city, nor receive orders from any
established government. They were like those mercenary armies which
marched about in Italy during the fourteenth century, under the generals
called Condottieri, taking service sometimes with one city, sometimes
with another. No one coul