s, instead of
constructing a bridge with them; but this would not have been safe,
for the transportation of the army by such a means would be gradual
and slow; and if the enemy were lurking in the neighborhood, and
should make an attack upon them in the midst of the operation, while
a part of the army were upon one bank and a part upon the other, and
another portion still, perhaps, in boats upon the stream, the defeat
and destruction of the whole would be almost inevitable. Cyrus planned
the formation of the bridge, therefore, as a means of transporting his
army in a body, and of landing them on the opposite bank in solid
columns, which could be formed into order of battle without any delay.

While Cyrus was engaged in the work of constructing the bridge,
embassadors appeared, who said that they had been sent from Tomyris.
She had commissioned them, they said, to warn Cyrus to desist entirely
from his designs upon her kingdom, and to return to his own. This
would be the wisest course, too, Tomyris said, for himself, and she
counseled him, for his own welfare, to follow it. He could not foresee
the result, if he should invade her dominions and encounter her
armies. Fortune had favored him thus far, it was true, but fortune
might change, and he might find himself, before he was aware, at the
end of his victories. Still, she said, she had no expectation that he
would be disposed to listen to this warning and advice, and, on her
part, she had no objection to his persevering in his invasion. She did
not fear him. He need not put himself to the expense and trouble of
building a bridge across the Araxes. She would agree to withdraw all
her forces three days' march into her own country, so that he might
cross the river safely and at his leisure, and she would await him at
the place where she should have encamped; or, if he preferred it, she
would cross the river and meet him on his own side. In that case, he
must retire three days' march from the river, so as to afford her the
same opportunity to make the passage undisturbed which she had offered
him. She would then come over and march on to attack him. She gave
Cyrus his option which branch of this alternative to choose.

Cyrus called a council of war to consider the question. He laid the
case before his officers and generals, and asked for their opinion.
They were unanimously agreed that it would be best for him to accede
to the last of the two proposals made to him, viz., t