Book 2 · Chapter 4

After all that, the Greeks and Ariaeus just waited for Tissaphernes. They were camped nearby, pretty much right next to each other. It was over twenty days of waiting, and during that time, visitors kept coming to Ariaeus - his brother, other family members too.

Some Persians showed up for the troops under him, cheering them on and even giving some of them promises straight from the king. He said he wouldn't hold anything against them for joining the expedition against him with Cyrus, or for anything else that had happened in the past.

While all this was going on, Ariaeus and his crew seemed to be ignoring the Greeks more and more. Honestly, most of the Greeks weren't thrilled about it. They went to Clearchus and the other generals, asking, "What are we waiting for?"

"Don't we know the king would give anything to get rid of us?" they asked. "He wants other Greeks to think twice before messing with him. Right now, it’s convenient for him to have us here because his army’s spread out. But as soon as he gathers another force, he’s definitely going to attack."

Who knows, maybe he’s already digging trenches or building walls to block our way. It's not like he's going to let us go back to Greece and brag about how a few guys like us took on the king and laughed in his face. Clearchus replied, "I'm worried about all this too.

But here's what I'm thinking: if we bail out now, they'll say we’re looking for a fight and breaking the truce. Then what? First off, no one will supply us with food or anything we need. Next, we'll have no guides.

Plus, it’s going to signal to Ariaeus to ditch us, and we’ll be left with no friends - even the ones we used to have will turn against us. I don’t know what rivers we’ll have to cross, but I do know that crossing the Euphrates with a fight is impossible.

"See, if we get forced into a battle, we have no cavalry to help us, but the enemy does - and they have the best of them. So, if we win, we won’t kill anyone, but if we lose, not a single one of us will get out alive."

"I don’t get why the king, with all his advantages, would swear oaths and make promises just to lie and ruin his reputation worldwide." He went on and on about all of this.

Meanwhile, Tissaphernes showed up, looking like he was ready to head home - he had his own troops with him, and so did Orontas, who was also there. Orontas even brought his new bride, the king's daughter, who he’d just married. The journey finally got underway.

Tissaphernes took the lead and set up a market. They moved forward, and Ariaeus followed too, leading Cyrus’s troops from Asia, right alongside Tissaphernes and Orontas, and he set up camp with them.

The Greeks, suspicious of everyone, marched separately with their guides, and camped about a couple of miles apart - maybe a little less. Both sides kept an eye on each other like enemies, which didn’t exactly ease tensions.

Sometimes, while gathering wood and grass and stuff in the same area, fights broke out, making things even worse. They’d made it three stages when they reached the wall of Media, as it was called, and passed inside. It was built with baked bricks set in bitumen.

It was twenty feet wide and a hundred feet high, and they said it was twenty miles long. It wasn’t far from Babylon. From there, they marched two stages - about eight miles - and crossed two canals, one with a regular bridge, the other with a bridge made of seven boats.

These canals came from the Tigris, and from them a whole system of smaller ditches was dug across the country, starting big and getting smaller and smaller, until they were just tiny channels, like the ones in Greece used to water millet fields. They reached the river Tigris.

At this point, there was a big, bustling city called Sittace, about a mile and a half from the river. So, the Greeks camped next to the city, near a huge, beautiful park full of all kinds of trees. The Asiatics had crossed the Tigris, but they were completely out of sight.

After dinner, Proxenus and Xenophon were walking in front of the parade grounds when a guy came up and asked the guards where he could find Proxenus or Clearchus. He didn't ask for Menon, even though he was from Ariaeus, who was Menon's friend.

As soon as Proxenus said, I'm the one you're looking for, the guy replied, I was sent by Ariaeus and Artaozus, who’s been a solid friend to Cyrus in the past, and they’re your well-wishers. They’re warning you to be careful in case the barbarians attack you tonight.

"There’s a big group of troops in the nearby park. They’re also telling you to secure the bridge over the Tigris, because Tissaphernes is planning to tear it down tonight if he can, so you can’t cross and you’ll be trapped between the river and the canal."

Hearing this, they took the guy to Clearchus and told him what he said. Clearchus was really worried, and honestly, pretty freaked out by the news. But a young guy who was there had an idea - he pointed out that the two warnings didn’t make sense.

If they were planning an attack, why would they destroy the bridge? If there were half a dozen bridges, he said, it wouldn’t help us escape - there’s nowhere to run!

"But, if we win, and the bridge is down, they’ll be the ones who can’t escape, and no one will be able to send them reinforcements from the other side, no matter how many of them there are, because the bridge will be gone."

Clearchus listened to the reasoning, and then he asked the messenger, "How big is the country between the Tigris and the canal?" "It's a pretty big area," he replied, "with tons of villages and big cities."

Then it hit them: the barbarians had sent the guy subtly, worried the Greeks would cut the bridge and take the island. The island had strong defenses on both sides - the Tigris and the canal - and they could get food from the country, which was huge and rich, with plenty of people to farm it.

Plus, anyone wanting to mess with the king could find a safe harbor there. After that, they relaxed and went to sleep, but they still sent a guard to watch the bridge, just in case.

No one attacked, and no enemy forces even came near the bridges, so the guards could report that everything was quiet in the morning. But as soon as it was daylight, they started crossing the bridge, which had thirty-seven boats, and they were super careful.

They’d heard from some Greeks with Tissaphernes that the enemy might try to attack them while they were crossing. Turns out, that was all wrong, though they did see Glus watching with some other people to see if they made it across the river.

But once he was sure they’d crossed, he rode off and disappeared. From the Tigris, they marched for four days - twenty parasangs - to the Physcus River, which was about a hundred feet wide and had a bridge over it.

There was a big, bustling city called Opis nearby, where the Greeks ran into Cyrus’s and Artaxerxes’s half-brother. He was leading a huge army from Susa and Ecbatana to help the king. He stopped his troops and watched the Greeks march past. Clearchus had them move in columns, two people wide.

The front of the army would stop, and then that effect would ripple down the line, like this: stop! stop! stop! - it looked massive even to the Greeks themselves, and the Persian was totally blown away by the sight.

From there, they marched through Media for six days - thirty parasangs - to the villages of Parysatis, Cyrus’s and the king’s mom. Tissaphernes handed these over to the Greeks to raid, but he said they weren’t allowed to make the people slaves.

The villages were full of grain, cattle, and other stuff. Then they marched for four days - twenty parasangs - keeping the Tigris on their left.

On the first of those days, across the river, was a big, wealthy city called Caenae, where the locals used to float loaves of bread, cheese, and wine across on rafts made of animal skins.