her favour. Therefore you undergo toil and danger gladly.

[13] "Now if I said all this of you, and my heart were not in my
words, I should but cheat myself. For in so far as you should fail to
fulfil my hopes of you, it is on me that the shame would fall. But I
have faith in you, bred of experience: I trust in your goodwill
towards me, and in our enemy's lack of wit; you will not belie my
hopes. Let us go forth with a light heart; we have no ill-fame to
fear: none can say we covet another man's goods unlawfully. Our enemy
strikes the first blow in an unrighteous cause, and our friends call
us to protect them. What is more lawful than self-defence? What is
nobler than to succour those we love? [14] And you have another ground
of confidence--in opening this campaign I have not been forgetful of
the gods: you have gone in and out with me, and you know how in all
things, great and small, I strive to win their blessing. And now," he
added, "what need of further words? I will leave you now to choose
your own men, and when all is ready you will march into Media at their
head. Meanwhile I will return to my father and start before you, so
that I may learn what I can about the enemy as soon as may be, and
thus make all needful preparations, so that by God's help we may win
glory on the field."

[C.6] Such were his orders and they set about them at once. But Cyrus
himself went home and prayed to the gods of his father's house, to
Hestia and Zeus, and to all who had watched over his race. And when he
had done so, he set out for the war, and his father went with him on
the road. They were no sooner clear of the city, so says the story,
than they met with favourable omens of thunder and lightning, and
after that they went forward without further divination, for they felt
that no man could mistake the signs from the Ruler of the gods. [2]