Kitap 15
3.18
[These persons are called Cardaces, who live upon plunder, for carda means a manly and warlike spirit.]An interpolation. The Cardaces were not Persians, but foreign soldiers. Barbari milites quos Persae Cardacas appellant, (Cornel. Nepos,) without doubt were Assyrian and Armenian Carduci. See b. xvi. c. i. § 24, and 3enoph. Anab. iv. 3. Later Gordyaei or Gordyeni, now the Kurds. Groskurd.
3.18
The daily food after the exercise of the gymnasium is bread, a cake, cardamum,Cardamum is probably the lepidum perfoliatum of Linnaeus, or the nasturtium orientale of Tournefort. 3enophon also, Expedit. Cyr. iii. 5 and vii. 8, speaks of the great use made of this plant by the Persians. a piece of salt, and dressed meat either roasted or boiled, and their drink is water.
3.18
Their mode of hunting is by throwing spears from horseback, or with the bow or the sling.
3.18
In the evening they are employed in planting trees, cutting roots, fabricating armour, and making lines and nets. The youth do not eat the game, but carry it home. The king gives rewards for running, and to the victors in the other contests of the pentathla (or five games). The youths are adorned with gold, esteeming it for its fiery appearance. They do not ornament the dead with gold, nor apply fire to them, on account of its being an object of veneration.
