8. After these mutual assurances, the Macrones immediately assisted them in cutting away the trees, and made a passage for them, as if to bring them over, mingling freely among the Greeks; they also gave such facilities as they could for buying provisions, and conducted them through their country for three days, until they brought them to the confines of the Colchians. 9. Here was a range of hills,[237] high, but accessible, and upon them the Colchians were drawn up in array. The Greeks, at first, drew up against them in a line,[238] with the intention of marching up the hill in this disposition; but afterwards the generals thought proper to assemble and deliberate how they might engage with the best effect. 10. Xenophon then said it appeared to him that they ought to relinquish the arrangement in line, and to dispose the troops in columns;[239] "for a line," pursued he, "will be broken at once, as we shall find the hills in some parts impassable, though in others easy of access; and this disruption will immediately produce despondency in the men, when, after being ranged in a regular line, they find it dispersed. 11. Again, if we advance drawn up very many deep, the enemy will stretch beyond us on both sides, and will employ the parts that outreach us in any way they may think proper; and if we advance only a few deep, it would not be at all surprising if our line be broken through by showers of missiles and men falling upon us in large bodies. If this happen in any part, it will be ill for the whole extent of the line. 12. I think, then, that having formed our companies in columns, we should keep them so far apart from each other as that the last companies on each side may be beyond the enemy's wings. Thus our extreme companies will both outflank the line of the enemy, and, as we march in file, the bravest of our men will close with the enemy first, and wherever the ascent is easiest, there each division will direct its course. 13. Nor will it be easy for the enemy to penetrate into the intervening spaces, when there are companies on each side, nor will it be easy to break through a column as it advances; while, if any one of the companies be hard pressed, the neighbouring one will support it; and if but one of the companies can by any path attain the summit, the enemy will no longer stand their ground." 14. This plan was approved, and they threw the companies into columns. Xenophon, riding along from the right wing to the left, said. "Soldiers, the enemy whom you see before you, are now the only obstacle to hinder us from being where we have long been eager to be. These, if we can, we must eat up alive."[240]