The First Four Books of Xenophon's AnabasisXenophon
History
The First Four Books of Xenophon's Anabasis
Xenophon
Cyrus, the Younger, approximately 423 B.C.-401 B.C.; Iran -- History -- To 640
4. The king and the main body of Greeks were now distant from each other
about thirty stadia, the Greeks pursuing those that had been opposed to
them, as if they had conquered all; the Persians engaged in plundering,
as if they were wholly victorious. 5. But when the Greeks found that the
king with his troops was amongst their baggage; and the king, on the
other hand, heard from Tissaphernes, that the Greeks had routed that
part of his line which had been opposed to them, and were gone forward
in pursuit, the king, on his part, collected his forces, and formed
them in line again; while Clearchus, on the other side, calling to him
Proxenus, who happened to be nearest to him, consulted with him whether
they should send a detachment to the camp, or proceed, all of them
together, to relieve it. 6. In the mean time, the king was observed
again approaching them, as it seemed, in their rear. The Greeks,
wheeling round, prepared to receive him, in the belief that he would
attack them on that quarter; the king, however, did not lead his troops
that way, but led them off by the same route by which he had before
passed on the outside of their left wing; taking with him both those who
had deserted to the Greeks during the engagement, and Tissaphernes with
the troops under his command.
7. Tissaphernes had not fled at the commencement of the engagement, but
had charged through the Greek peltasts, close to the banks of the river.
In breaking through, however, he killed not a single man, for the
Greeks, opening their ranks, struck his men with their swords, and
hurled their javelins at them. Episthenes of Amphipolis had the command
of the peltasts, and was said to have proved himself an able captain. 8.
Tissaphernes, therefore, when he thus came off with disadvantage, did
not turn back again, but, proceeding onwards to the Grecian camp, met
the king there; and thence they now returned together, with their forces
united in battle-array. 9. When they were opposite the left wing of the
Greeks, the Greeks feared lest they should attack them on that wing,
and, enclosing them on both sides, should cut them off; they therefore
thought it advisable to draw back this wing,[74] and to put the river in
their rear. 10. While they were planning this manœuvre, the king,
having passed beyond them, presented his force opposite to them, in the
same form in which he had at first come to battle; and when the Greeks
saw their enemies close at hand, and drawn up for fight, they again sang
the pæan, and advanced upon them with much greater spirit than before.
11. The Barbarians, on the other hand, did not await their onset, but
fled sooner[75] than at first; and the Greeks pursued them as far as a
certain village,[76] where they halted; 12. for above the village was a
hill, upon which the king's troops had checked their flight, and though
there were no longer any infantry[77] there, the height was filled with
cavalry; so that the Greeks could not tell what was doing. They said,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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