232 HISTORICAL TALES.

Of these two sons, the new king was timid and
incompetent; Cyrus was remarkably shrewd and
able, and was filled with a consuming ambition. He
wanted the Persian throne and knew the best means
of obtaining it. He was well aware of the military
ability of the Greeks. It was he who supplied the
money which enabled Sparta to overthrow Athens.
He now secretly enlisted a body of about thirteen
thousand Greeks, promising them high pay if they
would enter his service; and with these, and one
hundred thousand Asiatics, he marched against his
brother.

But Cyrus was too shrewd to let his purpose be
known. He gave out that he was going to put down
some brigand mountaineers. Then when he had got
his army far eastward, he threw off the mask and
started on the long march across the desert to Baby-
lonia. The Greeks had been deceived. At first they
refused to follow him on so perilous an errand, and
to such a distance from home. But by liberal
promises he overcame their objections, and they
marched on till the heart of Babylonia was reached.

The army was now in the wonderfully fertile
country between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris,
that rich Mesopotamian region which had been part
of the Persian empire since the great cities of
Nineveh and Babylon were taken by the Persians
a century before. And in all this long march no
enemy had been met. But now Cyrus and his
followers found themselves suddenly confronted by
a great Persian army, led by Artaxerxes, the king,

First a great cloud of white dust was seen in the