τίνες ἐόντες. For the con<*>ous question cf. v. 73. 2 (Artaphrenes), v. 105 (Darius after the burning of Sardis); it is most appropriate here.
The words put into Cyrus' month bring out dramatically the contrast between the town life of the Greeks and the village life, feudal in its arrangements, of Persia; the rich Persians lived on presents or the produce of their land. Cf. Xen. Cyr. i. 2. 3-4 for a fancy picture of the ἐλευθέρα <*> (i.e. ‘free’ from trade) in Persia. Aristotle (Pol. i. 9, p. 1257) analyses the prejudice against τὸ καπηλικόν in his day, when the Greek attitude to trade had changed greatly from that of H.
