Book 3 · Chapter 4

That day they chilled out, but the next they woke up super early and headed out, because they had a ravine to cross, and they were worried the enemy would ambush them while they were crossing.

Once they made it across, Mithridates showed up again with a thousand horsemen, plus four thousand archers and slingers. He’d gotten this whole crew through Tissaphernes, promising to hand over the Hellenes to him in return.

He's been feeling pretty cocky ever since his last little raid, thinking he caused a lot of trouble without losing anyone. When the Hellenes were completely across and about a mile from the ravine, Mithridates and his forces crossed too.

Orders had been passed down the line, telling everyone which light infantry and heavy infantry would join the chase; and the cavalry were told to follow up confidently, because they had a lot of backup behind them.

So, when Mithridates caught up and they were close enough for arrows and slingshots to reach them, the bugle sounded for the Hellenes; and immediately, the troops under orders charged into close combat, and the cavalry went on the attack.

The enemy didn't stick around - they bolted towards the ravine. During the chase, the Asiatics lost a bunch of their infantry, and as many as eighteen of their cavalry were captured in the ravine.

As for those who were killed, the Hellenes, acting on impulse, mutilated their bodies to freak out the enemy. That's how the enemy fared and how they retreated; but the Hellenes continued their march safely for the rest of the day, reaching the Tigris River.

Here, they stumbled upon a huge, abandoned city called Larissa - a place where the Medes used to live. Its walls were twenty-five feet wide and a hundred feet high, and the whole thing stretched for two parasangs around. It was built of clay bricks, sitting on a twenty-foot-high stone base.

The Persian king had been trying to take this city while the Persians were fighting to grab the empire from the Medes, but he couldn’t do it. Then, a cloud covered the sun, blocking out the light, and the inhabitants left the city, so it fell.

Next to the city was a stone pyramid, a hundred feet wide and two hundred feet high. A lot of barbarians who had fled from nearby villages took shelter inside. From there, they marched about six parasangs to a huge, abandoned fortress across from the city - a place called Mespila.

The Medes used to live there. The basement was made of polished stone filled with shells; it was fifty feet wide and fifty feet high. A brick wall was built on top of that, fifty feet wide and four hundred feet high; the whole wall stretched for six parasangs around.

According to the story, Medea, the king's wife, fled to this city when the Medes lost their empire to the Persians. The Persian king also laid siege to this city, but he couldn’t take it, no matter how long he tried. But Zeus sent a wave of panic over the inhabitants, and the city fell.

They marched about twenty miles. But, while they were still on that stretch, Tissaphernes showed up. He brought his own horsemen and a force from Orontas - who was married to the king’s daughter - plus the Asiatics Cyrus had brought along earlier.

And there were also troops the king’s brother had sent as backup, and those Tissaphernes himself had gotten from the king. So, the army looked pretty massive. When they got close, he stopped some of his troops in the back and shifted others to the sides.

But he didn't attack right away; he seemed nervous and just told his slingers to sling and his archers to shoot. But when the Rhodian slingers and bowmen, spread out along the line, fired back - and every shot hit its mark - Tissaphernes quickly retreated, with the rest of his troops following.

For the rest of the day, one side kept moving forward, and the other followed. But now the Asiatics weren’t much of a threat with their shooting. Because the Rhodians could shoot farther than the Persian slingers, or even most of the archers.

The Persian bows are huge, so the Cretans found the arrows they picked up useful, and kept using their enemies’ arrows, practicing by shooting them high in the air. They also found lots of bowstrings in the villages - and lead, which they used for their slings.

So, at the end of the day, the Greeks stumbled upon some villages, and no sooner had they set up camp than the barbarians retreated, having definitely lost the fight.

The next day was a total standstill: they stopped and restocked, since there was tons of corn in the villages. But the day after, they kept moving through the plain (of the Tigris), and Tissaphernes was still sticking around with his skirmishers.

That's when the Hellenes realized how bad it was to march in a square with an enemy chasing them.

Basically, whenever the sides of an army lined up like that get squeezed together - like on a narrow road, between hills, or crossing a bridge - the heavy infantry couldn't help but get pushed out of formation.

It was a mess, partly because they were actually being pressed, and partly from all the confusion. Or, if the sides spread out again, the troops hadn’t even recovered from the last squeeze before they were pulled apart, creating a huge gap between the sides.

The soldiers started doubting themselves, especially with an enemy right on their heels. Whenever they had to cross a bridge or find another way through, each unit rushed to be the first across, making it easy for the enemy to attack. So, the generals figured out what was wrong and started to fix it.

They divided the army into six divisions, each with about a hundred soldiers, and each division had its own captains and officers in charge of smaller groups. These new groups were supposed to fall back to the rear and clear the sides whenever the army needed to move closer together.

They did this by turning away from the sides. When the sides stretched out again, they filled in the gaps - with columns of smaller groups if the gap was small, with columns of half-groups if it was wider, or with even smaller groups if it was really wide.

That way, there was never a space between the sides. If they needed to cross a bridge or something, there was no confusion - the groups crossed one at a time. And if they needed to form a battle line, these groups moved to the front and joined in.

They moved forward four stages, but before they finished the fifth, they spotted a palace with villages all around it. They also saw that the road leading to it went over rolling hills, part of a mountain range, under which the village lay.

These hills were a welcome sight to the Hellenes, naturally, since the enemy had cavalry. But when they left the plain and climbed the first hill, and were about to go down to the next, the barbarians attacked.

From the high ground, they sent a volley of darts, slingstones, and arrows - a real downpour - wounding a lot of people until they pushed back the Hellenic light troops. The light troops had to run for cover behind the heavy infantry.

That day, those troops were totally useless, hiding with the supply wagons, both slingers and archers alike.

But when the Greeks, being really pushed, tried to chase after, they could barely make it up the hill - they were heavily armored, while the enemy just zipped away. It was the same deal when they tried to head back to join the rest of the army.

And then, on the second hill, they had to go through the same thing all over again. So, by the third small hill, they decided not to move the main force until they got a group of light infantry from the right side of the formation up to a spot on the mountain range.

Once that group was up above their pursuers, the enemy stopped attacking the main force as it came down, worried about getting cut off and stuck between two groups.

So, the rest of the day, they moved in two groups: one stuck to the road by the hills, the other marching alongside on the higher ground along the mountains. That’s how they reached the villages and got eight doctors to take care of the many wounded.

Here, they stopped for three days mostly because of the wounded, but also because they found plenty of food - wheat, wine, and huge stores of barley for the horses. That food had been collected by the local governor. On the fourth day, they started heading down into the flatlands.

But when Tissaphernes caught up with them, they realized they needed to camp in the first village they saw and give up trying to march and fight at the same time, since so many were out of action - either hurt themselves, helping the wounded, or carrying heavy gear for those who were.

But once they were camped, and the enemy, moving forward, tried to bother them with their archers, the Greeks were clearly better. A constant running fight against an enemy was one thing; holding them back from a secure base was another - and the difference was huge in their favor.

But when it got late afternoon, it was time for the enemy to leave, because they never camped within seven or eight miles of the Greek camp. They were afraid of a nighttime attack, because a Persian army wasn't worth much at night.

Their horses were tied up, and usually had their feet hobbled to stop them from running off. If there was an alarm, the soldiers had to saddle and bridle their horses, then put on their armor, and then mount - all really difficult at night and in the confusion.

That’s why they always camped far away from the Greeks. When the Greeks saw they were getting ready to leave and heard the order to pack up, the herald’s shout could be heard before the enemy was even out of earshot. For a while, the Asiatics hesitated, like they didn’t want to go.

But as night fell, they left, because it wasn’t smart to start a march and arrive by night. Now, when the Greeks were sure they were really gone, they broke up their camp and kept marching until they had covered seven and a half miles.

That way, the distance between the two armies grew so big that the enemy didn't show up at all the next day, or the day after that. But on the fourth day, the barbarians had pushed on with a forced night march and took a good spot on the right, where the Greeks had to pass.

It was a narrow ridge overlooking the descent into the flatlands.

But when Cheirisophus saw that this ridge was occupied, he called Xenophon from the back, telling him to bring up the light infantry to the front. Xenophon hesitated, because Tissaphernes and his whole army were coming up and were clearly visible. He rode forward and asked, "Why do you call me?"

The other answered, "It's obvious; look over there! This ridge overlooking our descent has been taken. We can’t get past until we push those guys out. Why didn't you bring up the light infantry? Xenophon explained that he didn’t want to leave the back unprotected with an enemy showing up.

"Still," he added, "we need to decide how to get those guys off the ridge." Just then, his eye fell on the peak of the mountain rising directly above their army, and he saw a path leading from it to the ridge where the enemy was.

He exclaimed, "The best thing we can do, Cheirisophus, is to charge straight up the mountain as fast as we can. If we take it, whoever’s in charge of the road won’t be able to stop us."

If you want, you stay in charge of the army, and I’ll go; or, if you prefer, you go up the mountain, and I’ll stay here. I’ll let you decide what you want, Cheirisophus replied.

Xenophon, noting that he was younger, volunteered to go, but he asked for a detachment from the front to go with him, since it would take too long to get troops from the back. So, Cheirisophus gave him the light infantry from the front, replacing them with those from the center.

He also included three hundred of his best troops from his own command at the head of the formation. They started moving from the low ground as quickly as possible. But the enemy on the ridge spotted their advance toward the summit of the pass and started racing toward the top too.

"The Greek troops were shouting encouragement to each other, and the troops of Tissaphernes were yelling to their own men, urging them on. Xenophon, riding his horse, rode alongside his men and fired them up. "Let's go, brave guys! Remember, this race is for Greece! Now or never!

"We’ll find our families, our wives! Just a little effort, and the rest of the march will be peaceful, without a single fight! Let’s go! But Soteridas from Sicyon said, "We’re not on equal footing, Xenophon. You’re on a horse; I can barely move with my shield."

Hearing the complaint, he jumped off his horse. In a flash, he shoved Soteridas out of the way, grabbed his shield, and started marching as fast as he could, also carrying his horseman’s armor, which was tough going.

He kept yelling to encourage the troops, telling the guys in front to lead the way and the ones behind to keep up. Soteridas didn’t escape the rest of the men. They hit him, threw things at him, and insulted him until they forced him to take back his shield and keep marching.

The other guy got back on his horse and led them as long as the ground was good. But when the slope got too steep, he got off his horse and kept going on foot, and they found themselves on the summit before the enemy.