Anabasis by Xenophon - Book 4, Part 1

Book IV, Part I of Xenophon's Anabasis. It was now about the last watch, and enough of the night remained to allow them to cross the valley under cover of darkness, when, at the word of command, they rose and set off on their march, reaching the mountains at daybreak. At this stage of the march, Charysippus, at the head of his own division, with a whole of the light troops, led the van, while Xenophon followed behind with the heavy infantry of the rear guard, but without any light troops, since there seemed to be no danger of pursuit or attack from the rear, while they were making their way uphill. Charysippus reached the summit without any of the enemy perceiving him, then he led on slowly, and the rest of the army followed, wave upon wave, cresting the summit and ascending into the villages which nestled in the hollows and recesses of the hills. Thereupon the Cardocians abandoned their dwelling-places, and with their wives and children fled to the mountains, so there was plenty of provisions to be got for the mere trouble of taking, and the homesteads, too, were well supplied with the copious store of bronze vessels and utensils which the Hellenes kept their hands of, abstaining at the same time from all pursuit of the folk themselves, gently handling them, in hopes that the Cardocians might be willing to give them friendly passage through their country, since they, too, were enemies of the king, only they helped themselves to such provisions as fell in their way, which indeed was a sheer necessity. But the Cardocians neither gave ear, when they called to them, nor showed any other friendly sight, and now, as the last of the Hellenes descended into the villages from the pass, they were already in the dark, since, owing to the narrowness of the road, the whole day had been spent in the ascent and descent. At that instant a party of the Cardocians, who had collected, made an attack on the hindmost men, killing some and wounding others with stones and arrows, though it was quite a small body who attacked. The fact was, the approach of the Hellenic army had taken them by surprise. If, however, they had mustered in larger force at this time, the chances are that a large portion of the army would have been annihilated. As it was, they got into quarters and bivouacked in the villages that night, while the Cardocians kept many watch-fires blazing in a circle on the mountains, and kept each other in sight all round. But with the dawn, the generals and officers of the Hellenes met and resolved to proceed, taking only the necessary number of stout baggage animals, and leaving the weaklings behind. They resolved further to let go free all the lately captured slaves in the host, for the pace of the march was necessarily rendered slow by the quantity of animals and prisoners, and the number of non-competents in attendance on these was excessive, while, with such a crowd of human beings to satisfy, twice the amount of provisions had to be procured and carried. These resolutions passed, they caused a proclamation by herald to be made for their enforcement. When they had breakfasted and the march recommenced, the generals planted themselves a little to one side in a narrow place, and when they found any of the aforesaid slaves or other properties still retained, they confiscated them. The soldiers yielded obedience, except where some smuggler, prompted by desire of a good-looking boy or woman, managed to make off with his prize. During this day they contrived to get along after a fashion, now fighting and now resting. But on the next day they were visited by a great storm, in spite of which they were obliged to continue the march, owing to insufficiency of provisions. Charisophus was as usual leading in front, while Xenophon headed the rear-guard, when the enemy began a violent and sustained attack. At one narrow place after another they came up quite close, pouring in volleys of arrows and sling-stones, so that the Hellenes had no choice but to make sallies in pursuit, and then again recoil, making but very little progress. Over and over again Xenophon would send an order to the front to slacken pace, when the enemy were pressing their attack severely. As a rule, when the word was so passed up, Charisophus slackened. But sometimes, instead of slackening, Charisophus quickened, sending down a counter-order to the rear to follow on quickly. It was clear that there was something or other happening, but there was no time to go to the front and discover the cause of the hurry. Under the circumstances, the march, at any rate in the rear, became very like a rout, and here a brave man lost his life. Cleonimus, the Laconian, shot with an arrow in the ribs right through shield and corselet, as also Bassius, an Arcadian, shot clean through the head. As soon as they reached a halting place, Xenophon, without more ado, came up to Charisophus and took him to task for not having waited. "'Whereby,' he said, 'we were forced to fight and flee at the same moment, and now it has cost us the lives of two fine fellows. They are dead, and we were not able to pick up their bodies or bury them.' Charisophus answered, "'Look up there,' pointing as he spoke to the mountain. Do you see how inaccessible it all is? Only this one route, which you see, going straight up, and on it all that crowd of men who have seized and are guarding the single exit. That is why I hastened on, and why I could not wait for you. Hoping to be beforehand with them yonder in seizing the pass, the guides we have got say there is no other way.' And Xenophon replied, "'But I have got two prisoners also. The enemy annoyed us so much that we laid an ambuscade for them, which also gave us time to recover our breaths. We killed some of them, and did our best to catch one or two alive, for this very reason, that we might have guides who knew the country to depend upon.' The two were brought up at once, and questioned separately. Did they know of any other road than the one visible? The first said no, and in spite of all sorts of terrors applied to extract a better answer, no, he persisted, where nothing could be got out of him. He was killed before the eyes of his fellow. This latter then explained, "'Yonder man said he did not know, because he has got a daughter married to a husband in those parts. I can take you,' he added, "'by a good road, practicable even for beasts.' And when asked whether there was any point on it difficult to pass, he replied that there was a cold which it would be impossible to pass, unless it were occupied in advance. Then it was resolved to summon the officers of the Light Infantry, and some of those of the Heavy Infantry, and to acquaint them with the state of affairs, and ask them whether any of them were minded to distinguish themselves, and would step forward as volunteers on an expedition. Two or three Heavy Infantry soldiers stepped forward at once. Two Arcadians, a Gastonomus of Methydrium, and a Gassius of Stymphalis. And in emulation of these, a third, also an Arcadian, Callimachus, from Parassia, who said he was ready to go, and would get volunteers from the whole army to join him. "'I know,' he added, ''there will be no lack of youngsters to follow where I lead.' After that they asked, were there any Captains of Light Infantry willing to accompany the expedition? Aristius. Achaean, who on several occasions proved his usefulness to the army on such service, volunteered. Number 2. It was already late afternoon when they ordered the storming party to take a snatch of food and set off. Then they bound the guide and handed him over to them. The agreement was, that if they succeeded in taking the summit, they were to guard the position that night, and at daybreak to give a signal by bugle. At this signal the party on the summit were to attack the enemy in occupation of the visible pass, while the generals with the main body would bring up their suckers, making their way up with what speed they might. With this understanding off they set, two thousand strong, and there was a heavy downpour of rain. But Xenophon, with his rear-guard, began advancing to the visible pass, so that the enemy might fix his attention on this road, and the party creeping round might, as much as possible, elude observation. Now when the rear-guard, so advancing, had reached a ravine which they must cross in order to strike up the steep, at that instant the barbarians began rolling down great boulders, each a wagon-load, some larger, some smaller. Against the rocks they crashed and splintered, flying like sling-stones in every direction, so that it was absolutely out of the question even to approach the entrance of the pass. Some of the officers, finding themselves balked at this point, kept trying other ways, nor did they desist till darkness set in, and then, when they thought they would not be seen retiring, they returned to supper. Some of them who had been on duty in the rear-guard had had no breakfast, it so happened. However, the enemy never ceased rolling down their sling-stones all through the night, as was easy to infer from the booming sound. The party with the guide made a circuit and surprised the enemy's guards seated round their fire, and after killing some, and driving out the rest, took their places, thinking that they were in possession of the height. As a matter of fact, they were not, for above them lay a breast-like hill, skirted by the narrow road on which they had found the guards seated. Still, from the spot in question, there was an approach to the enemy, who were seated on the pass before mentioned. Here, then, they passed the night, but at the first glimpse of dawn they marched stealthily and in battle-order against the enemy. There was a mist, so that they could get quite close without being observed. But as soon as they caught sight of one another, the trumpet sounded, and with a loud cheer they rushed upon the fellows, who did not wait their coming, but left the road and made off, with a loss of only a few lives, however, so nimble were they. Charisophus and his men, catching the sound of the bugle, charged up by the well-marked road, while others of the generals pushed their way up by pathless routes, where each division chanced to be, the men mounting as they were best able, and hoisting one another up by means of their spears, and these were the first to unite with the party who had already taken the position by storm. Xenophon, with a rear-guard, followed the path which the party with the guide had taken, since it was easiest for the beasts of Berthen. One half of his men he had posted in rear of the baggage-animals, the other half he had with himself. In their course they encountered a crest above the road, occupied by the enemy, whom they must either dislodge or be themselves cut off from the rest of the Hell-ends. The men by themselves could have taken the same route as the rest, but the baggage-animals could not mount by any other way than this. Here, then, with shouts of encouragement to each other, they dashed up the hill with their storming columns, not from all sides, but leaving an avenue of escape for the enemy, if he chose to avail himself of it. For a while, as the men scrambled up where each best could, the natives kept up a fire of arrows and darts, yet did not receive them at close quarters, but presently left the position in flight. No sooner, however, were the Hell-ends safely past this crest, than they came in sight of another in front of them, also occupied, and deemed it advisable to storm it also. But now it struck Xenophon that if they left the ridge just taken unprotected in their rear, the enemy might re-occupy it, and attack the baggage-animals as they filed past, presenting a long extended line owing to the narrowness of the road by which they made their way. To obviate this, he left some officers in charge of the ridge, Cephisodorus, son of Cephisophon, an Athenian, and Picrates, the son of Amphidemus, an Athenian, and Archagoras, an Argive exile, while he in person with the rest of the men attacked the second ridge. This they took in the same fashion, only to find that they had still a third knoll left, far the steepest of the three. This was none other than the mamelon mentioned as above the outpost, which had been captured over their fire by the volunteer storming-party in the night. But when the Hell-ends were close, the natives, to the astonishment of all, without a struggle deserted the knoll. It was conjectured that they had left their position from fear of being encircled and besieged. But the fact was that they, from the higher ground, had been able to see what was going on in the rear, and had all made off in this fashion to attack the rear-guard. So then Xenophon, with the youngest men, scaled up to the top, leaving orders to the rest to march on slowly, so as to allow the hindmost companies to unite with them. They were to advance by the road, and when they reached the level, to ground-arms. Meanwhile, the Argive Archagoras arrived, in full flight, with the announcement that they had been dislodged from the first ridge, and that Capicidorus and Amphicrates were slain, with a number of others besides, all, in fact, who had not jumped down the crags and so reached the rear-guard. After this achievement, the barbarians came to a crest facing the mamelon, and Xenophon held a colloquy with them by means of an interpreter to negotiate a truce, and demanded back the dead bodies. These they agreed to restore if he would not burn their houses, and to these terms Xenophon agreed. Meanwhile, as the rest of the army filed past, and the colloquy was proceeding, all the people of the place had time to gather gradually, and the enemy formed, and as soon as the Helens began to descend from the mamelon to join the others where the troops were halted, on rushed the foe, in full force, with hue and cry. They reached the summit of the mamelon from which Xenophon was descending, and began rolling down crags. One man's leg was crushed to pieces. Xenophon was left by his shield-bearer, who carried off his shield, but Eurylochus of Lucia, an Arcadian hoplite, ran up to him, and threw his shield in front to protect both of them. So the two together beat a retreat, and so too the rest, and joined the serried ranks of the main body. After this, the whole Hellenic force united, and took up their quarters there, in numerous beautiful dwellings, with an ample store of provisions, for there was wine so plentiful that they had it in cemented cisterns. Xenophon and Charisophus arranged to recover the dead, and in return restored the guide. Afterwards they did everything for the dead, according to the means at their disposal, with the customary honours paid to good men. Next day they set off without a guide, and the enemy, by keeping up a continuous battle, and occupying in advance every narrow place, obstructed passage after passage. Accordingly, whenever the van was obstructed, Xenophon, from behind, made a dash up the hills and broke the barricade, and freed the vanguard by endeavouring to get above the obstructing enemy. Whenever the rear was the point attacked, Charisophus, in the same way, made a detour, and by endeavouring to mount higher than the barricaders, freed the passage for the rear rank. And in this way, turn and turn about, they rescued each other, and paid unflinching attention to their mutual needs. At times it happened that, the relief party having mounted, encountered considerable annoyance in their descent from the barbarians, who were so agile that they allowed them to come up quite close, before they turned back and still escaped, partly no doubt because the only weapons they had to carry were bows and slings. They were, moreover, excellent archers, using bows nearly three cubits long, and arrows more than two cubits. When discharging the arrow, they draw the string by getting a purchase with the left foot planted forward on the lower end of the bow. The arrows pierced through shield and cuirass, and the Hellenes, when they got hold of them, used them as javelins, fitting them to their thongs. In these districts the Cretans were highly serviceable. They were under the command of Stratocles, a Cretan. When the generals heard this news, they resolved to collect the troops, and they set off at once, taking the prisoner to act as guide, and leaving a garrison behind with Sophonisus Stymphalian in command of those who remained in the camp. As soon as they had begun to cross the hills, the light infantry, advancing in front and catching sight of the camp, did not wait for the heavy infantry, but with a loud shout rushed upon the enemy's entrenchment. The natives, hearing the din and clatter, did not care to stop, but took rapidly to their hills. But, for all their expedition, some of them were killed, and as many as twenty horses were captured, with a tent of tirabasis, and its contents silver-footed couches and goblets, besides certain persons styling themselves the butlers and bakers. As soon as the generals of the heavy infantry division had learnt the news, they resolved to return to the camp with all speed, for fear of an attack being made on the remnant left behind. The recall was sounded, and the retreat commenced. The camp was reached the same day.