Anabasis

The enemy thereupon, when they saw Cheirisophus and his division crossing the river without difficulty and likewise saw Xenophon and his men running back, were seized with fear that they might be cut off, and they fled at full speed to reach the road which led up from the river. This road once gained, they hastened on upward in the direction of the mountain.

Then Lycius, who commanded the squadron of Greek cavalry, and Aeschines, commander of the battalion of peltasts that was with Cheirisophus, upon seeing the enemy in full flight set off in pursuit, while the rest of the Greek troops shouted to them not to fall behind, but to follow the fugitives right up to the mountain.

As for Cheirisophus, after getting across he chose not to pursue the hostile cavalry, but immediately pushed up over the bluffs that reached down to the river against the infantry on top of them.[*](See 3 above.) And these troops, seeing their own cavalry in flight and hoplites advancing upon them, abandoned the heights above the river.

Xenophon no sooner saw that all was going well on the other side than he started back with all speed to join the troops that were crossing, for by this time the Carduchians could be seen descending into the plain with the manifest intention of attacking the hindmost.

Meanwhile Cheirisophus was in possession of the bluffs, and Lycius, venturing a pursuit with his small squadron,[*](Which numbered only fifty men (III. iii. 20).) had captured the straggling portion of the enemy’s baggage train, and with it fine apparel and drinking cups.

And now, with the Greek baggage train and the camp followers in the very act of crossing, Xenophon wheeled his troops so that they took a position facing the Carduchians, and gave orders to the captains that each man of them should form his own company by squads,[*](See Xen. Anab. 3.4.21-22, and note thereon.) moving each squad by the left into line of battle; then the captains and squad leaders were to face toward the Carduchians and station file closers on the side next to the river.

But as soon as the Carduchians saw the rearguard stripped of the crowd of camp followers and looking now like a small body, they advanced to the attack all the more rapidly, singing a kind of songs. As for Cheirisophus, since everything was safe on his side, he sent back to Xenophon the peltasts, slingers, and bowmen, and directed them to do whatever Xenophon might order.

But when he saw them beginning to cross, Xenophon sent a messenger and directed them to stay where they were, on the bank of the river, without crossing; at the moment, however, when his own men should begin to cross, they were to enter the river opposite them, on this side and that, as though they were going to cross it, the javelin men with hand on the thong and the bowmen with arrow on the string; but they were not to proceed far into the river.

The orders he gave to his own men were, that when sling-stones reached them and shields rang, they were to strike up the paean and charge upon the enemy, and when the enemy turned to flight and the trumpeter on the river-bank sounded the charge,[*](In order to deceive the enemy.) they were to face about to the right, the file closers were to take the lead, and all of them were to run and cross as fast as they could with every man keeping his proper place in the line, so that they should not interfere with one another; and he that got to the other side first would be the best man.

Now the Carduchians, seeing that those who were left were by this time few in number (for many even of those detailed to stay had gone off to look after pack animals or baggage or women, as the case might be), at that moment proceeded to press upon them boldly and began to sling stones and shoot arrows.

Then the Greeks struck up the paean and charged at them on the run, and they did not meet the attack; for while they were equipped well enough for attack and retreat in the mountains, their equipment was not adequate for hand-to-hand fighting.

At that instant the Greek trumpeter sounded his signal; and while the enemy began to flee much faster than before, the Greeks turned about and set out on their own flight through the river at top speed.

Some few of the enemy, perceiving this movement, ran back to the river and wounded a few Greeks with arrows, but most of them, even when the Greeks were on the other side, could still be seen continuing their flight.

But the troops that came to meet Xenophon, behaving like men and advancing farther than they should have gone, crossed back again in the rear of Xenophon’s command; and some of them also were wounded.