King Artaxerxes had learned some time before from Pharnabazus that Cyrus
was secretly collecting an army to lead against him, and when he now learned that he was on the
march, he summoned his armaments from every place to Ecbatana in Media.
[
2]
When the contingents from the Indians and certain other peoples were
delayed because of the remoteness of those regions, he set out to meet Cyrus with the army that
had been assembled. He had in all not less than four hundred thousand soldiers, including
cavalry, as Ephorus states.
[
3]
When he arrived on the plain of
Babylonia, he pitched a camp beside the Euphrates, intending to leave his baggage in it; for he
had learned that the enemy was not far distant and he was apprehensive of their reckless
daring.
[
4]
Accordingly he dug a trench sixty feet wide and ten
deep and encircled the camp with the baggage-waggons of his train like a wall. Having left
behind in the camp the baggage and the attendants who were of no use in the battle, he
appointed an adequate guard for it, and leading forward in person his army unencumbered, he
advanced to meet the enemy which was near at hand.
[
5]
When Cyrus saw the King's army advancing, he at once drew up his own force
in battle order. The right wing, which rested on the Euphrates, was held by infantry composed
of Lacedaemonians and some of the mercenaries, all under the command of Clearchus the
Lacedaemonian, and helping him in the fight were the cavalry brought from Paphlagonia, more
than a thousand. The left wing was held by the troops from Phrygia and Lydia and about a
thousand of the cavalry, under the command of Aridaeus.
[
6]
Cyrus
himself had taken a station in the centre of the battle-line, together with the choicest troops
gathered from Persians and the other barbarians, about ten thousand strong; and leading the van
before him were the finest-equipped cavalry, a thousand, armed with Greek breastplates and
swords.
[
7]
Artaxerxes stationed before the length of his
battleline scythe-bearing chariots in no small number, and the wings he put under command of
Persians, while he himself took his positions in the centre with no less than fifty thousand
elite troops.