At night the ears, and not the eyes, are the channels of information and the guides for action, and at night any confusion is a far more serious matter than by day, and far more difficult to put right.

For this reason silence must be studied and order absolutely maintained.

[44] Whenever you mean to rise before daybreak, you must make the night-watches as short and as numerous as possible, so that no one may suffer on the march because of his long vigil before it; and when the hour for the start arrives the horn must be blown.

[45] Gentlemen, I expect you all to present yourselves on the road to Babylon with everything you require, and as each detachment starts, let them pass down the word for those in the rear to follow." [46] So the officers went to their quarters, and as they went they talked of Cyrus, and what a marvellous memory he had, always naming each officer as he assigned him his post.

[47] The fact was Cyrus took special pains over this: it struck him as odd that a mere mechanic could know the names of all his tools, and a physician the names of all his instruments, but a general be such a simpleton that he could not name his own officers, the very tools he had to depend on each time he wanted to seize a point or fortify a post or infuse courage or inspire terror.
Moreover it seemed to him only courteous to address a man by name when he wished to honour him.