The Invasion of Cilicia

The entry into Cilicia was a road passable by wagons, extremely steep, and impossible to enter with an army if anyone were guarding it. It was said that Syennesis King of Cilicia was stationed upon the heights, guarding the pass. For this reason, Cyrus remained in the plain for a day. On the following day, a messenger arrived saying that Syennesis had abandoned the heights because he had learned that the army of Menon was already inside the mountains in Cilicia, and because he heard that triremes were sailing around from Ionia to Cilicia, under the command of Tamos, bearing the ships of the Lacedaemonians and of Cyrus himself. Cyrus ascended the mountains without anyone hindering him and saw the tents where the Cilicians had been standing guard.

From there, he descended into a large plain, beautiful, well-watered, and full of all kinds of trees and vines. It produces much sesame, millet, panic, wheat, and barley. A strong and high mountain surrounds it on all sides from sea to sea. Descending through this plain, he marched four stages, twenty-five parasangs a Persian unit of distance, roughly three to four miles, to Tarsus, a large and prosperous city of Cilicia. There were the palaces of Syennesis, the king of the Cilicians. Through the middle of the city flows a river named the Cydnus, two plethra a unit of length, roughly 200 feet in width. The inhabitants of this city, along with Syennesis, abandoned it for a stronghold in the mountains, except for those who operated the markets. Those who lived near the sea in Soli and Issus also remained. Epyaxa, the wife of Syennesis, had arrived in Tarsus five days before Cyrus. During the crossing of the mountains into the plain, two companies of Menon’s army were lost. Some said that while they were plundering something, they were cut to pieces by the Cilicians. Others said they were left behind, could not find the rest of the army or the roads, and then wandered until they perished. These were one hundred hoplites. The others...