Selecta capita ex scriptoribus Graecis in usum classis quintae Carolinae

10.

2Thus, Cyrus, having brought in the wild animals, gave them to his grandfather and said that he himself had hunted them for him. He did not show the javelins, but he set them down, bloodied, where he thought his grandfather would see them. Astyages said, "But child, I accept with pleasure whatever you give me; yet I have no need of any of these things, such that you should be in danger." And Cyrus said, "If, then, you do not need them, I beg you, grandfather, give them to me, so that I may distribute them to my peers." "But child," said Astyages, "take them and distribute them to whomever you wish, and whatever else of the others you want as well."

11.

And Cyrus took them and gave them to the boys, and at the same time said, "Oh boys, how we were playing the fool when we hunted the animals in the park! For it seems to me to be the same as if someone were hunting animals that were tied up. First of all, it was in a small enclosure; then, they were small and mangy, and one of them was lame, another missing a limb. But the wild animals in the mountains and meadows, how fine, how large, and how sleek they appeared! The deer jumped toward the sky as if they had wings, and the boars, just as they say brave men do, charged forward to meet us. Because of the vastness, it was not even possible to miss them. They are better," he said, "even when dead, than those enclosed ones were when alive. But," he said, "would your fathers let you go out on a hunt?" "They would easily," they said, "if Astyages were to order it."