And when you have chosen your leader, and had your breakfast, send him hither to me." [23] So they did as Cyrus bade them, and when he led the army out, he stationed their new general close to his own person, and told him to keep his detachment there, "So that you and I," said he, "may rekindle the courage in their souls." In this order they marched out, and thus they buried the Cadousian dead and ravaged the country.

Which done, they went back to the province of Gadatas, laden with supplies taken from the foe.
[24] Now Cyrus felt that those who had come over to his side and who dwelt in the neighbourhood of Babylon would be sure to suffer unless he were constantly there himself, and so he bade all the prisoners he set free take a message to the king, and he himself despatched a herald to say that he would leave all the tillers of the soil unmolested and unhurt if the Assyrian would let those who had come over to him continue their work in peace.

[25] "And remember," he added, "that even if you try to hinder my friends, it is only a few whom you could stop, whereas there is a vast territory of yours that I could allow to be cultivated.
As for the crops," he added, "if we have war, it will be the conqueror, I make no doubt, who will reap them, but if we have peace, it will be you.

If, however, any of my people take up arms against you, or any of yours against me, we must, of course, each of us, defend ourselves as best we can." [26] With this message Cyrus despatched the herald, and when the Assyrians heard it, they urged the king to accept the proposal, and so limit the war as much as possible.

[27] And he, whether influenced by his own people or because he desired it himself, consented to the terms.
So an agreement was drawn up, proclaiming peace to the tillers of the soil and war to all who carried arms.
[28] Thus Cyrus arranged matters for the husbandmen, and he asked his own supporters among the drovers to bring their herds, if they liked, into his dominions and leave them there, while he treated the enemy's cattle as booty wherever he could, so that his allies found attraction in the campaign.