The army marched through Iconium and from there into the land of Lycaonia. Now out of his own province of Phrygia, Cyrus authorized the army to plunder the land as hostile territory. Cyrus sent the queen home ahead of his army as he continued on through Cappadocia and approached a high mountain pass that led to Cilicia. On the other side the queen’s husband King Syennesis was waiting with an army to block Cyrus’ advance. When Cyrus marched his massive army out of Phrygia he had crossed his Rubicon. He had left his designated territory and was now in open rebellion.
Halting in a plain below the pass, Cyrus sent Meno with his troops to take an alternate route around the pass. When this detachment appeared in Cilicia threatening Syennesis’ rear, the latter withdrew without a fight. Cyrus was now free to cross the pass with his main army. In Cilicia he found a fertile plain surrounded by tall mountains and bordered by the sea on the south. He proceeded on to the prosperous city of Tarsus, where Syennesis had his palace, now abandoned. The army pillaged the city and palace, while Cyrus summoned Syennesis to meet him. Finally Queen Epyaxa convinced her husband to come. He did, and gave Cyrus money for his army while Cyrus gave the king royal gifts and promised not to plunder his territory henceforth.[21]
At this point it was obvious even to the mercenaries that Cyrus was not waging a local campaign but fomenting a rebellion that would take them into dangers they had not anticipated when they signed on. They went on strike. Clearchus, who was emerging as the leader of the Greek contingent, wanted to go on; he used psychology to bring the Greek troops around, warning of the dangers of turning back with Cyrus as their enemy. The troops sent a delegation to Cyrus to ask what was going on. He answered that he was planning to fight a personal enemy of his, Abrocomas, near the Euphrates River. Cyrus would raise their pay by 50 percent. He still did not admit to making war on the Great King. The Greeks suspected the worst, but the offer of high pay (and the promise of more plunder) proved irresistible to the mercenaries.[22]
The army marched on to Issus, a seaport at the juncture of Asia Minor and Syria. There a fleet of thirty-five Peloponnesian and twenty-five Egyptian ships arrived in support of Cyrus. The fleet had brought Cheirisophus of Sparta with seven hundred hoplites to join the expedition. Four hundred Greek mercenaries who had deserted the army of Abrocomas also joined Cyrus there. Sparta’s friendship with Cyrus was leading to international entanglements. Cyrus’s army now marched down to the Cilician Gates, a walled passage between mountain cliffs and the sea, which guarded the entrance to Syria. Cyrus had called for a navy to help force a passage in case Abrocomas’ force was waiting to block him. But Abrocomas had retreated, so Cyrus’ army passed the Gates unopposed.[23]
Abrocomas, the satrap of Syria, reportedly had a huge army of 300,000 under his command. It appears that this army had assembled not to contend with Cyrus but to put down a rebellion in Egypt. The Egyptian situation may explain why Cyrus chose to initiate his invasion when he did, why King Artaxerxes had been hoping that a war with Tissaphernes in Ionia would keep Cyrus busy, and also why Egyptian ships came to support Cyrus’s expedition.[24]
[21].Xenophon Anabasis 1.2.19-27.
[22].Xenophon Anabasis 1.3; Diodorus 14.20.5.
[23]. Xenophon Anabasis 1.4.1-5
[24].Briant 2002:619-620.