THEY halted for that day and went forward on the next, rising earlier than usual, as they had a watercourse to cross8 and were afraid that the enemy might attack them while they were crossing it. They had got across this before Mithridates again put in an appearance, this time with a thousand cavalry and about four thousand archers and slingers. He had asked and obtained this number of troops from Tissaphernes and had promised that if he got them, he would hand the Greeks over to him as prisoners. His low opinion of the Greeks was based on the fact that in the earlier attack he had come to no harm, in spite of his small numbers, and thought that he had inflicted severe losses on the Greeks.
When the Greeks were nearly a mile away from their crossing of the watercourse, Mithridates with his whole force moved over too. Orders had been issued to the necessary numbers of peltasts and hoplites to drive the enemy back, and the cavalry had been told to press the pursuit confidently, as adequate forces would be there to support them. When Mithridates caught them up and the sling stones and arrows began to arrive, a trumpet was sounded, and immediately those who had been ordered to do so ran forward in a body and the cavalry made their charge. The enemy did not wait for them, but fled back to the watercourse. Many of the native infantry were killed in this pursuit and about eighteen of their cavalry were taken alive in the watercourse. The Greeks, acting on their own initiative, mutilated the corpses, so that the sight of them might cause as much fear as possible among the enemy.
After suffering this defeat the enemy retired, and the Greeks marched on safely for the rest of the day and reached the river Tigris. There was a large deserted city there called Larissa,9 which in the old days used to be inhabited by the Medes. It had walls twenty-five feet broad and a hundred feet high, with a perimeter of six miles. It was built of bricks made of clay, with a stone base of twenty feet underneath. At the time when the Persians seized the empire from the Medes, the King of the Persians laid siege to this city but was quite unable to take it. A cloud, however, covered up the sun and hid it from sight until the inhabitants deserted the place, and so the city was taken. Near the city there was a pyramid of stone, a hundred feet broad, and two hundred feet high. Many of the natives from the neighbouring villages had run away and taken refuge on it.
From here a day’s march of eighteen miles brought them to a large undefended fortification near a city call Mespila, which was once inhabited by the Medes. The base of this fortification was made of polished stone in which there were many shells. It was fifty feet broad and fifty feet high. On top of it was built a brick wall fifty feet in breadth and a hundred feet high. The perimeter of the fortification was eighteen miles. Medea, the King’s wife, is supposed to have taken refuge here at the time when the Medes lost their empire to the Persians, and the King of the Persians, when he beseiged the city, could not take it either by the passing of time or by assault. Zeus, however, drove the inhabitants out of their wits with a thunderstorm, and so the city was taken.
Next came a day’s march of twelve miles in the course of which Tissaphernes made his appearance. He had with him not only his own cavalry, but also the force which Orontas (the man who had married the King’s daughter) commanded, the native troops which Cyrus had commanded on his march inland, the troops with which the King’s brother had come to reinforce the King, and, in addition, all the troops which the King had given him; so that his army appeared enormous. On coming close, he brought up some of his companies to the rear of the Greeks, and led others round on the flanks, but did not dare to make a direct assault or show any willingness to take a risk. Instead he ordered his men to use their slings and bows. Then the Rhodians, who were posted at intervals in the Greek ranks, used their slings, and the) archers shot their arrows, and no one failed to hit a man (indeed one could hardly miss if one tried to), and Tissaphernes got out of range with alacrity, as did the rest of his army.
For the remainder of the day the Greeks marched on, with the Persians following them. The natives did no further damage by their old methods of long-range fighting since the Rhodians could sling further than the Persian slingers and further even than most of their archers. The Persians use large bows, and so all the arrows of theirs which were picked up came in useful to the Cretans, who constantly used the enemy’s arrows and practised long-range shooting with a high trajectory. A number of bow-strings were found in the villages, and some lead also which could be used for the slings.
On that day, then, after the Greeks had come to some villages and encamped, the natives retired, having had the worst of the long-range fighting. Next day the Greeks stayed where they were and provided themselves with food, of which there was a good supply in the villages. On the day after that they continued their march over the plain, with Tissaphernes following them and shooting at them from a distance. On this march the Greeks came to the conclusion that the square was a bad formation to adopt when the enemy were in the rear. When the two flanks of the square are compressed, because of the road becoming narrower, or in going through a pass in the mountains or in crossing a bridge, what is bound to happen is that the hoplites get pushed out of position and make heavy going of it, crowded together as they are, and confused; and the result is that, when they are in this disordered state, one can make no use of them. Then, when the flanks diverge again, those who were previously pushed out of position are bound to get dispersed, and the space between the two flanks is not filled up, and, when this happens to the men they get dispirited with the enemy at their heels. So whenever they had to make any sort of crossing, over a bridge or anything else, each man struggled to be the first across, and that gave the enemy an excellent chance of attacking them.
The generals took note of this situation, and formed six companies of a hundred men each. They appointed captains for the companies and other commanders for each fifty men and for each twenty-five men. Whenever the two flanks were pushed in on each other on the march, these six companies waited behind, so as not to cause any disorder in the flanks: afterwards they came up again on the left and right of the flanks. And when the sides of the square opened out, they would fill up the centre, marching into the opening, if it was a small one by companies with six men in front, or if it was larger with twelve men in front, or if it was very large indeed with twenty-five men in front, so that the centre of the square was always full. When they had to make any crossing, by a bridge or otherwise, they preserved their order, the captains leading their companies across in turn. They were also ready for action if there was any demand for it in any part of the main body.
In this formation they went forward for four days. In the course of the fifth day’s march they noticed a kind of palace with a number of villages in its neighbourhood, and saw that the road to the palace went across high ground which formed the foothills of the mountain beneath which the village was. The Greeks were pleased to see the hills, as was natural enough considering that their enemy’s force was of cavalry; but when they had marched on and, after ascending the first hill, had just gone down into the valley to ascend the next, the natives made an attack on them. Whipped on to it under the lash, they hurled their javelins and sling-stones and arrows from their high ground down on to the ground below, inflicting a number of wounds. They got the upper hand of the Greek light troops and kept them penned up inside the square of hoplites, so that for that day both the slingers and the archers, being mixed up with the general crowd, were of no use at all. When the Greeks tried to escape from their difficulties by driving the enemy back, they, being hoplites, found it hard going to get to the top of the hill, while the enemy darted away from them quickly. Again, when they made their way back to the rest of the army, they suffered just as before, and the same thing happened on the second hill. They therefore decided not to allow the soldiers to move from the third hill until they had led up into the mountain a force of peltasts from the right flank of the square. When these peltasts got on to higher ground than the enemy who were coming after, the enemy gave up attacking the troops on their descent, since they were frightened of being cut off and having enemies on both sides of them. They marched in this way for the rest of the day, some by the road over the hills and others keeping pace with them along the mountain, until they came to the villages. They then appointed eight doctors, as there were a number of wounded.10
They stayed here for three days, partly for the sake of the wounded, and partly because they could get plenty of food – wheat-flour and wine and a lot of barley that had been stored there for horses. All this had been collected for the man who was satrap of the country.
On the fourth day they went down to the plain; but when Tissaphernes and his force caught them up, they took the lesson of hard facts which was to encamp at the first place where they saw a village and not to go on marching and fighting at the same time. This was because they had many men out of action, both the wounded and those who were bearing them, and those who took over the arms of the bearers. However, when they had encamped and the natives advanced on the village in an attempt to engage in long-range fighting, the Greeks had very much the better of it. There was a great difference between starting from one’s own ground to repel the enemy, and fighting while on the march with the enemy at one’s heels.
In the middle of the afternoon came the time for the enemy to retire, as the natives (fearing that the Greeks might make a night attack) always encamped at least six miles away from the Greek army. A Persian army is useless at night, since their horses are tethered and usually tied by the feet as well, so that they cannot run away if they are loosed. If, then, there is a disturbance, the horses have to be caparisoned for their Persian riders, and bridled, and then the rider has to put on his armour and mount – all of which is difficult to do by night and in the middle of an uproar. This was the reason why they camped a great distance away from the Greeks.
Now, when the Greeks became aware that the enemy wanted to retire and indeed were passing round the order to do so, they issued, in the enemy’s hearing, an order to their own troops that they should get their baggage together. The natives then put off their departure for a time, but when it got late they went off, not thinking it desirable to march and come into camp by night.
The Greeks, seeing that they were now undoubtedly retiring, broke camp themselves and marched away, doing as much as six miles. This put such a distance between the two armies that there was no sign of the enemy either on the next day or on the day after that. On the fourth day the natives, who had gone forward during the night, occupied a commanding position on the right of the road by which the Greeks intended to march. This was one of the heights of a mountain which overlooked the way down into the plain. When Chirisophus saw that this height had been occupied in advance of them he summoned Xenophon from the rear and asked him to bring his peltasts and come to the front. Xenophon, however, observed Tissaphernes and his whole force coming into sight and so he did not lead the peltasts forward. Instead he rode up himself to Chirisophus and asked him, ‘Why are you calling for me?’
Chirisophus replied: ‘You can see for yourself. The hill that overlooks our way down has been occupied in advance of us. We cannot get past unless we drive them off it. But why didn’t you bring the peltasts?’
Xenophon replied that he did not think it was wise to leave the rear unguarded while the enemy were in sight. ‘However,’ he said, ‘the time has certainly come to decide how one can dislodge those people from the hill.’
At this point Xenophon .noticed that the summit of the mountain was higher than the ground on which their own army was and that there was a possible approach from it to the hill where the enemy were. So he said: “The best thing to do, Chirisophus, is for us to advance on the summit as fast as we can. If we can occupy it, those who are commanding our road will not be able to maintain their position. If you like, you stay here with the main body. I will volunteer to go ahead. Or, if you prefer it, you march on the mountain and I will stay here.’
‘I will give you the choice,’ said Chirisophus, ‘of doing whichever you like.’
Xenophon, pointing out that he was the younger man, chose to make the advance on the mountain, but asked Chirisophus to let him have some men from the front to go with him, as it would take time to bring up men from the rear. Chirisophus let him have the peltasts who were at the front and took those who were in the middle of the square. He also ordered the three hundred, all picked men, whom he had under his personal command at the front of the square to go with Xenophon.
They then marched away as quickly as they could, but when the enemy on the hill saw that the Greeks were making their way to the summit, they too started off immediately to contest the position. Then there was a lot of shouting, from the Greek army cheering on its men on the one side and from Tissaphernes’ people cheering on their men on the other side. Xenophon rode along the ranks on horseback, urging them on. ‘Soldiers,’ he said, ‘consider that it is for Greece you are fighting now, that now you are fighting your way to your children and your wives, and that with a little hard work now, we shall go on the rest of our way unopposed.’
Soteridas, a man from Sicyon, said: ‘We are not on a level, Xenophon. You are riding on horseback, while I am wearing myself out with a shield to carry.’
When Xenophon heard this, he jumped down from his horse, pushed Soteridas out of the ranks, took his shield away from him and went forward on foot as fast as he could, carrying the shield. He happened to be wearing a cavalry breastplate as well, so that it was heavy going for him. He kept on encouraging those in front to keep going and those behind to join up with them, though struggling along behind them himself. The other soldiers, however, struck Soteridas and threw stones at him and cursed him until they forced him to take back his shield and continue marching. Xenophon then remounted and, so long as the going was good, led the way on horseback. When it became impossible to ride, he left his horse behind and hurried ahead on foot. And so they got to the summit before the enemy.