BOOK VII.
[C.1] So they prayed to the gods and went to their place, and the squires brought food and drink to Cyrus and his staff as they stood round the sacrifice.

And he took his breakfast where he stood, after making the due offering, sharing what he had with all who needed it, and he poured out the libation and prayed, and then drank, and his men with him.
Then he supplicated Zeus, the god of his fathers, to be his leader and helper in the fight, and so he mounted his horse and bade those about him follow.

[2] All his squires were equipped as he was, with scarlet tunics, breastplates of bronze, and brazen helmets plumed with white, short swords, and a lance of cornel-wood apiece.

Their horses had frontlets, chest-plates, and armour for their shoulders, all of bronze, and the shoulder-pieces served as leg-guards for the riders.

In one thing only the arms of Cyrus differed from the rest: theirs was covered with a golden varnish and his flashed like a mirror.