This report agreed with the accounts given by the prisoners, for Cyrus was always at pains to gave men captured from whom he could get some information, and he would also send out spies disguised as runaway slaves.
[12] Such were the tidings, and when the army heard the news there was much anxiety and concern, as one may well suppose.

The men went about their work with an unusual quietness, their faces clouded over, or gathered in knots and clusters everywhere, anxiously asking each other the news and discussing the report.

[13] When Cyrus saw that fear was in the camp, he called a meeting of his generals, and indeed of all whose dejection might injure the cause and whose confidence assist it.
Moreover, he sent word that any of the attendants, or any of the rank and file, who wished to hear what he had to say, would be allowed to come and listen.

When they met, he spoke as follows: [14] "My friends and allies, I make no secret of the reason I have called you here.

It was because I saw that some of you, when the reports of the enemy reached us, looked like men who were panic-stricken.