our former friends will
then become our enemies. 6. Whether there is any other river for us to
cross, I do not know; but as for the Euphrates, we know that it is
impossible to cross that, if the enemy try to prevent us. Nor yet, if it
should be necessary to fight, have we any horse to support us; while the
enemy's cavalry is most numerous and efficient; so that, though we were
victorious, how many of our enemies should we be able to kill? And, if
we were defeated, it would not be possible for a man of us to escape. 7.
With regard to the king, therefore, who is aided by so many advantages,
I know not, if he wishes to effect our destruction, why he should swear,
and give his right-hand, and perjure himself before the gods, and
render his pledges faithless both to Greeks and Barbarians." He said
much besides to the same effect.

8. In the mean time Tissaphernes arrived, with his army, as if with the
view of returning home; and Orontes came with his army. Orontes also
brought[98] with him the king's daughter, whom he had received in
marriage.[99] 9. From hence they now proceeded on their march,
Tissaphernes being their guide, and securing them opportunities of
buying provisions; Ariaeus also, with the Barbarian troops of Cyrus,
marched in company with Tissaphernes and Orontes, and encamped in common
with them. 10. But the Greeks, conceiving a suspicion of these men,
began to march by themselves, taking guides of their own; and they
always encamped at the distance of a parasang, or little less, from each
other; and both parties kept on their guard against one another, as if
they had been enemies, and this consequently increased their mistrustful
feelings. 11. More than once, too, as they were gathering fuel, or
collecting grass and other such things, in the same quarter, they came
to blows with each other;[100] and this was an additional source of
animosity between them.

12. After marching three days, they arrived at the wall of Media,[101]
as it is called, and passed to the other side of it. This wall was built
of burnt bricks, laid in bitumen; it was twenty feet in thickness, and a
hundred in height, and the length of it was said to be twenty parasangs;
and it was not far distant from Babylon. 13. Hence they proceeded, in
two days' march, the distance of eight parasangs; crossing two canals,
the one by a permanent bridge, the other by a temporary one formed of
seven boats. These canals were supplied from the river Tigris