and left the way to Babylon and Susa open.  At Thapsacus there was little difficulty in persuading the Greeks, who had no longer the sea before their eyes, to continue the march; they only stipulated for a further increase of pay, which was readily promised them by the sanguine prince, who believed himself on the point of obtaining by their aid the inexhaustible treasures of the Empire.  The river, which happened to be unusually low for the time of year, was easily forded.  Cyrus entered Mesopotamia, and continued his march down the left bank of the Euphrates at the quickest rate that it was possible to move a hundred thousand Orientals.  In thirty-three days he had accomplished above 600 miles, and had approached within 120 miles of Babylon without seeing any traces of an enemy.  His only difficulties were from the nature of the country, which, after the Khabour is passed, becomes barren, excepting close along the river.  From want of fodder there was a great mortality among the baggage-animals; the price of grain rose; and the Greeks had to subsist almost entirely upon meat.  At last, when the Babylonian alluvium was reached, with its abundance of fodder and corn, signs of the enemy began to be observed.  Artaxerxes, who after some doubts and misgivings had finally determined to give his enemy battle in the plain, was already on his way from Babylon, with an army reckoned at 900,000 men and had sent forward a body of horse, partly to reconnoitre, partly to destroy the crops, in order to prevent Cyrus and his troops from benefiting by them.  Cyrus now advanced slowly and cautiously, at the rate of about fourteen miles a day, expecting each morning to fight a general engagement before evening came.  On the third night, believing the battle to be imminent, he distributed the commands and laid down a plan of operations.  But morning brought no appearance of the enemy, and the whole day passed tranquilly.  In the course of it, he came upon a wide and deep trench cut through the plain for a distance of above forty miles—­a recent work, which Artaxerxes had intended as a barrier to stop the progress of his enemy.  But the trench was undefended and incomplete, a space of twenty feet being left between its termination and the Euphrates.  Cyrus, having passed it, began to be convinced that his brother would not risk a battle in the plain, but would retreat to the mountains and make his stand at Persepolis or Ecbatana.  He therefore continued his march negligently.  His men piled their arms on the wagons or laid them, across the beasts of burthen; while he himself exchanged the horse which he usually rode for a chariot, and proceeded on his way leisurely, having about his person a small escort, which preserved their ranks, while all the rest of the troops were allowed to advance in complete disarray.