Anabasis

At this moment Cyrus rode along the line, attended only by Pigres, his interpreter, and three or four others, and shouted to Clearchus to lead his army against the enemy’s centre, for the reason that the King was stationed there; and if, he said, we are victorious there, our whole task is accomplished.

Clearchus, however, since he saw the compact body at the enemy’s centre and heard from Cyrus that the King was beyond his left wing (for the King was so superior in numbers that, although occupying the centre of his own line, he was beyond Cyrus’ left wing), was unwilling to draw the right wing away from the river, for fear that he might be turned on both flanks; and he told Cyrus, in reply, that he was taking care to make everything go well.

At this critical time the King’s army was advancing evenly, while the Greek force, still remaining in the same place, was forming its line from those who were still coming up. And Cyrus, riding along at some distance from his army, was taking a survey, looking in either direction, both at his enemies and his friends.

Then Xenophon,[*](The author. He always speaks of himself in the third person.) an Athenian, seeing him from the Greek army, approached so as to meet him and asked if he had any orders to give; and Cyrus pulled up his horse and bade Xenophon tell everybody that the sacrificial victims and omens were all favourable.

While saying this he heard a noise running through the ranks, and asked what the noise was. Xenophon replied that the watchword was now passing along for the second time.[*](i.e. back again, from the last man to the first.) And Cyrus wondered who had given it out, and asked what the watchword was. Xenophon replied Zeus Saviour and Victory.

And upon hearing this Cyrus said, Well, I accept it, and so let it be. After he had said these words he rode back to his own position.At length the opposing lines were not three or four stadia apart, and then the Greeks struck up the paean and began to advance against the enemy.

And when, as they proceeded, a part of the phalanx billowed out, those who were thus left behind began to run; at the same moment they all set up the sort of war-cry which they raise to Enyalius,[*](i.e. Ares.) and all alike began running. It is also reported that some of them clashed their shields against their spears, thereby frightening the enemy’s horses.

And before an arrow reached them, the barbarians broke and fled. Thereupon the Greeks pursued with all their might, but shouted meanwhile to one another not to run at a headlong pace, but to keep their ranks in the pursuit.

As for the enemy’s chariots, some of them plunged through the lines of their own troops, others, however, through the Greek lines, but without charioteers. And whenever the Greeks saw them coming, they would open a gap for their passage; one fellow, to be sure, was caught, like a befuddled man on a race-course, yet it was said that even he was not hurt in the least, nor, for that matter, did any other single man among the Greeks get any hurt whatever in this battle, save that some one on the left wing was reported to have been hit by an arrow.