Anabasis

This agreement concluded, they proceeded to take breakfast; and immediately after breakfast Cheirisophus led the whole army forward about ten stadia toward the enemy, in order to make them quite certain that he was going to advance upon them by this road.

After they had had dinner and night had come on, the men appointed to the task set forward and gained possession of the mountain, while the remainder of the troops rested where they were. And when the enemy perceived that the mountain was occupied, they awake and kept many fires burning through the night.

As soon as day came Cheirisophus offered sacrifice and led the army forward along the road, while the party that had seized the mountain, advanced along the heights.

As for the enemy, the majority remained at the pass over the mountain, but a part of them went to meet the detachment on the heights. Now before the two main bodies got near one another, those upon the heights came to close combat, and the Greeks were victorious and began their pursuit.

Meanwhile the main body of the Greeks was moving upward from the plain, the peltasts charging at a run upon the enemy’s battleline and Cheirisophus following at a quick-step with the hoplites.

But the enemy on the road no sooner saw their detachment on the heights being defeated than they took to flight; and while not many of them were killed, a great number of wicker shields were captured, which the Greeks rendered useless by slashing them with their sabres.

When they had climbed to the top of the pass, after offering sacrifice and setting up a trophy they descended into the plain on the farther side, and reached villages full of many good things.

After this they marched into the country of the Taochians five stages, thirty parasangs; and their provisions were running low, for the Taochians dwelt in strongholds, and in these strongholds they kept all their provisions stored away.

Now when the Greeks arrived at one of them which contained no town nor houses, but was only a place where men and women and a great number of cattle were gathered, Cheirisophus proceeded to attack this stronghold as soon as he reached it; and when his first battalion grew weary, another advanced to the attack, and yet another; for it was not possible for them to surround the place in continuous line, because its sides were precipitous.

The moment Xenophon came up with the rearguard, consisting of both peltasts and hoplites, Cheirisophus said to him: You have come in the nick of time; for the place must be captured; for the army has no provisions unless we capture this place.

Then they took counsel together, and when Xenophon asked what it was that prevented their effecting an entrance, Cheirisophus replied: There is this one way of approach which you see, but when one tries to go along by this way, they roll down stones from this overhanging rock; and whoever gets caught, is served in this fashion—and with the words he pointed out men with their legs and ribs crushed.

But suppose they use up their stones, said Xenophon, there is nothing then, is there, to hinder one’s passing? For surely there is nothing we can see on the other side except a few men yonder, and only two or three of them are armed.

Furthermore, as you can see for yourself, the distance we must traverse under attack is about a plethrum and a half. Now as much as a plethrum of that distance is covered with tall, scattered pine trees, and if men should stand behind them, what harm could they suffer either from the flying stones or the rolling ones? The remaining space, then, amounts to about half a plethrum, and that we must cross on the run at a moment when the stones stop coming.

But, said Cheirisophus, the very moment we begin to push out toward the trees, the stones fly in quantities. Precisely the thing we want, said Xenophon, for they will use up their stones the sooner. But let us make our way to a spot from which we shall have only a short distance to run across, in case we can do that, and an easy retreat, in case we choose to come back.

Thereupon Cheirisophus and Xenophon set forth, and with them Callimachus of Parrhasia, a captain; for he was the officer of the day in command of the captains of the rearguard; and the other captains remained in a place of safety. Following this lead about seventy men got out under shelter of the trees, not all together, but one by one, each protecting himself as best he could.

But Agasias of Stymphalus and Aristonymus of Methydrium, who were likewise captains of the rearguard, and others also, took places outside the cover of the trees, for not more than the one company[*](viz. Callimachus’ company.) could stand among them with safety.

At that moment Callimachus hit upon a scheme: he would run forward two or three steps from the particular tree he was under and, when the stones began to fly, would draw back without any trouble; and at every one of his dashes more than ten cart-loads of stones would be used up.

But when Agasias saw what Callimachus was doing, with the whole army for spectators, he became fearful that the other would be the first to make the run across to the stronghold; so without asking Aristonymus or Eurylochus of Lusi (though the former was close by and both were his friends) or any one else to join him, he dashed forward himself and proceeded to go past everybody.

Callimachus, however, when he saw him going by, seized the rim of his shield; and at that moment Aristonymus of Methydrium ran past both of them, and upon his heels Eurylochus of Lusi. For all these four were rivals in valour and continually striving with one another; and in thus contending they captured the stronghold, for once they had rushed in not a stone came down from above.

Then came a dreadful spectacle: the women threw their little children down from the rocks and then threw themselves down after them, and the men did likewise. In the midst of this scene Aeneas of Stymphalus, a captain, catching sight of a man, who was wearing a fine robe, running to cast himself down, seized hold of him in order to stop him;