When Mystichides was archon in Athens, the Romans elected in place of consuls three military tribunes, Marcus Furius, Gaius, and Aemilius. This year Artaxerxes, the King of the Persians, made war upon Evagoras, the king of Cyprus. He busied himself for a long time with the preparations for the war and gathered a large armament, both naval and land; his land force consisted of three hundred thousand men including cavalry, and he equipped more than three hundred triremes. [2] As commanders he chose for the land force his brother-in-law Orontes, and for the naval Tiribazus, a man who was held in high favour among the Persians. These commanders took over the armaments in Phocaea and Cyme, repaired to Cilicia, and passed over to Cyprus, where they prosecuted the war with vigour. [3]
Evagoras made an alliance with Acoris,2 the king of the Egyptians, who was an enemy of the Persians, and received a strong force from him, and from Hecatomnus, the lord of Caria, who was secretly co-operating with him, he got a large sum of money to support his mercenary troops. Likewise he drew on such others to join in the war with Persia as were at odds with the Persians, either secretly or openly. [4] He was master of practically all the cities of Cyprus, and of Tyre and some others in Phoenicia. He also had ninety triremes, of which twenty were Tyrian and seventy were Cyprian, six thousand soldiers of his own subjects, and many more than this number from his allies. In addition to these he enlisted many mercenaries, since he had funds in abundance. And not a few soldiers were sent him by the king of the Arabs and by certain others of whom the King of the Persians was suspicious.
