Book 5
1.1
Such were their words and deeds. Then Cyrus ordered the men whom he knew to be Cyaxares’s most intimate friends to divide among themselves the keeping of the king’s portion of the booty. AndCyrus’s disposal of his prizes what you offer me, he added, I accept with pleasure; but it shall always be at the service of any one of you who at any time is most in need of it. If you please, then, Cyrus, said one of the Medes who was fond of music, when I listened last evening to the music-girls whom you now have, I was entranced; and if you will give me one of them, I should, I think, be more happy to go to war with you than to stay at home. Well said Cyrus, I will not only give her to you, but I believe that I am under greater obligation to you for your asking than you to me for receiving her; so thirsty am I to do you favours. So he that asked received her.
1.2
Then Cyrus called to him Araspas, a Mede, who had been his friend from boyhood—the same one toI. iv. 26 whom he had given his Median robe when he laid it off as he was returning from Astyages’s court to Persia—and bade him keep for him both the lady and the tent.
