Anabasis

While these things were going on, the Greeks were making forays in quest of booty, and while some parties would secure it, others did not. And in one case, when Cleaenetus led forth his own company and another against a difficult stronghold, the commander himself was killed and many of his men besides.

The time came when it was no longer possible to obtain provisions and return to the camp on the same day. Then Xenophon took some Trapezuntians for guides and led forth half the army to the country of the Drilae, leaving the other half behind to guard the camp—because the Colchians, since they had been driven out of their houses, were now gathered together in one great body and had taken a position on the heights above the camp.

For the Trapezuntians would not lead the Greeks to districts from which provisions could be secured easily, because they were friendly to the people of those districts; but they were eager to lead them into the territory of the Drilae, at whose hands they were continually suffering losses, though their country was mountainous and difficult to traverse and its inhabitants the most warlike of all that dwell upon the Euxine.

When the Greeks had reached the highlands, the Drilae set fire to such of their strongholds as seemed to them easy to capture, and fell back; and the Greeks could secure nothing except an occasional pig or ox or other animal that had escaped the fire. There was one stronghold, however, which was their metropolis, and into this they had all streamed. Around it was an exceedingly deep ravine, and the approaches to the place were difficult.

Now the peltasts, who had run five or six stadia ahead of the hoplites, crossed this ravine and, seeing quantities of sheep and other property, essayed an attack upon the stronghold; in their train there followed a considerable number of spearmen who had set out after provisions, so that the party that crossed the ravine amounted to more than a thousand men.

But when they found themselves unable with all their fighting to capture the place (for there was a wide trench around it, backed by a rampart, and upon the rampart palisades had been set and wooden towers constructed at frequent intervals), their next move was to try to withdraw; and then the enemy pressed hard upon them.

To get away by running proved impossible, inasmuch as the descent from the stronghold to the ravine only allowed them to go in single file, and they accordingly sent a messenger to Xenophon, who was at the head of the hoplites. The messenger came and reported:

There is a stronghold full of all kinds of stores. We cannot capture it, for it is strong; and we cannot easily get away, for the defenders rush out and attack us, and the road that leads back is a difficult one.