[13] Accordingly I will let you all go back to your homes in freedom, and I will allow you and your fellows to take counsel together and choose whether you will have us for your enemies or your friends.

If you decide on war, you had better not come here again without your weapons, but if you choose peace, come unarmed and welcome: it shall be my care to see that all is well with you, if you are my friends." [14] And when the Chaldaeans heard that, they poured out praises and thanks, and then they turned homewards and departed.
Meanwhile the king, receiving the call of Cyrus, and hearing the business that was at hand, had gathered his workmen together and took what he thought necessary and came with all speed.

[15] And when he caught sight of Cyrus, he cried: "Ah, my lord, blind mortals that we are! How little can we see of the future, and how much we take in hand to do! I set myself to win freedom and I made myself a slave, and now, when we were captured and said to ourselves that we were utterly undone, suddenly we find a safety we never had before.

Those who troubled us are taken now, even as I would have them.

[16] Be well assured, Cyrus," he added, "that I would have paid the sum you had from me over and over again simply to dislodge the Chaldaeans from these heights.