The First Four Books of Xenophon's Anabasis

CHAPTER X.

The head and right-hand of Cyrus cut off. Artaxerxes pursues

Ariæus, plunders the camp of Cyrus, and then returns to attack the

victorious Greeks, who put him to flight, recover what he had

seized, and return to their camp.

1. The head and right-hand of Cyrus were then cut off. The king, and the troops that were with him, engaging in pursuit, fell upon the camp of Cyrus; when the soldiers of Ariæus no longer stood their ground, but fled through their camp to the station whence they had last started; which was said to be four parasangs distant. 2. The king and his followers seized upon many other things, and also captured the Phocæan woman, the mistress of Cyrus, who was said to be both accomplished and beautiful. 3. His younger mistress, a native of Miletus, being taken by some of the king's soldiers, fled for refuge, without her outer garment, to the party of Greeks,[73] who were stationed under arms to guard the baggage, and who, drawing themselves up for defence, killed several of the pillagers; and some of their own number also fell; yet they did not flee, but saved not only the woman, but all the rest of the property and people that were in their quarters.

4. The king and the main body of Greeks were now distant from each other about thirty stadia, the Greeks pursuing those that had been opposed to them, as if they had conquered all; the Persians engaged in plundering, as if they were wholly victorious. 5. But when the Greeks found that the king with his troops was amongst their baggage; and the king, on the other hand, heard from Tissaphernes, that the Greeks had routed that part of his line which had been opposed to them, and were gone forward in pursuit, the king, on his part, collected his forces, and formed them in line again; while Clearchus, on the other side, calling to him Proxenus, who happened to be nearest to him, consulted with him whether they should send a detachment to the camp, or proceed, all of them together, to relieve it. 6. In the mean time, the king was observed again approaching them, as it seemed, in their rear. The Greeks, wheeling round, prepared to receive him, in the belief that he would attack them on that quarter; the king, however, did not lead his troops that way, but led them off by the same route by which he had before passed on the outside of their left wing; taking with him both those who had deserted to the Greeks during the engagement, and Tissaphernes with the troops under his command.

7. Tissaphernes had not fled at the commencement of the engagement, but had charged through the Greek peltasts, close to the banks of the river. In breaking through, however, he killed not a single man, for the Greeks, opening their ranks, struck his men with their swords, and hurled their javelins at them. Episthenes of Amphipolis had the command of the peltasts, and was said to have proved himself an able captain. 8. Tissaphernes, therefore, when he thus came off with disadvantage, did not turn back again, but, proceeding onwards to the Grecian camp, met the king there; and thence they now returned together, with their forces united in battle-array. 9. When they were opposite the left wing of the Greeks, the Greeks feared lest they should attack them on that wing, and, enclosing them on both sides, should cut them off; they therefore thought it advisable to draw back this wing,[74] and to put the river in their rear. 10. While they were planning this manoeuvre, the king, having passed beyond them, presented his force opposite to them, in the same form in which he had at first come to battle; and when the Greeks saw their enemies close at hand, and drawn up for fight, they again sang the pæan, and advanced upon them with much greater spirit than before. 11. The Barbarians, on the other hand, did not await their onset, but fled sooner[75] than at first; and the Greeks pursued them as far as a certain village,[76] where they halted; 12. for above the village was a hill, upon which the king's troops had checked their flight, and though there were no longer any infantry[77] there, the height was filled with cavalry; so that the Greeks could not tell what was doing. They said, that they saw the royal standard, a golden eagle upon a spear,[78] with expanded wings.[79]

13. But as the Greeks were on the point of proceeding thither, the cavalry too left the hill; not indeed in a body, but some in one direction and some in another; and thus the hill was gradually thinned of cavalry, till at last they were all gone. 14. Clearchus, however, did not march up the hill, but, stationing his force at its foot, sent Lycius the Syracusan and another up the hill, and ordered them, after taking a view from the summit, to report to him what was passing on the other side. 15. Lycius accordingly rode thither, and having made his observations, brought word that the enemy were fleeing with precipitation. Just as these things took place, the sun set.

16. Here the Greeks halted, and piling their arms, took some rest; and at the same time they wondered that Cyrus himself nowhere made his appearance, and that no one else came to them from him; for they did not know that he was killed, but conjectured that he was either gone in pursuit of the enemy, or had pushed forward to secure some post. 17. They then deliberated whether they should remain in that spot and fetch their baggage thither, or return to the camp; and it was resolved to return, and they arrived at the tents about supper-time. 18. Such was the conclusion of this day.

They found almost all their baggage, and whatever food and drink was with it, plundered and wasted; the waggons, too, full of barley-meal and wine, which Cyrus had provided, in order that, if ever a great scarcity of provisions should fall upon the army, he might distribute them amongst the Grecian troops, (and the waggons, as was said, were four hundred in number,) these also the king's soldiers had plundered. 19. Most of the Greeks consequently remained supperless; and they had also been without dinner; for before the army had halted for dinner, the king made his appearance. In this state they passed the ensuing night.

[Footnote 73: [Greek: Pros tôn Hellênôn].] "These words," says Kühner, "have wonderfully exercised the abilities of commentators." The simplest mode of interpretation, he then observes, is to take [Greek: pros] in the sense of versus, "towards," comparing iv. 3. 26; ii. 2. 4; but he inclines, on the whole, to make the genitive [Greek: Hellênôn] depend on [Greek: toutous] understood: [Greek: ekpheugei tôn Hellênôn pros (toutous) hoi etychon, k. t. l.], though he acknowledges that this construction is extremely forced, and that he can nowhere find anything similar to it. Brodæus suggested [Greek: pros to tôn Hellênôn], scil. [Greek: stratopedon], and Weiske and Schneider would read [Greek: pros to tôn Hellênôn stratopedon]. Other conjectures it is unnecessary to notice.]

[Footnote 74: [Greek: Anaptyssein].] Literally "to fold back." Whether we are to understand that one part of the wing was drawn behind the other, is not very clear. The commentators are not all agreed as to the exact sense that the word ought to bear. Some would interpret it by explicare, "to open out," or "extend," and this indeed seems more applicable to [Greek: periptyxantes] which precedes; for the Greeks might lengthen out their line that the king's troops might not surround them. But on the whole, the other interpretation seems to have most voices in favour of it.]

[Footnote 75: [Greek: Ek pleonos].] Sc. [Greek: diastêmatos]: they began to flee when the Greeks were at a still greater distance than before.]

[Footnote 76: [Greek: Mechri kômês tinos].] This is generally supposed to have been Cunaxa, where, according to Plutarch, the battle was fought. Ainsworth, p. 244, identifies Cunaxa with Imséy'ab, a place 36 miles north of Babylon.]

[Footnote 77: The infantry seem to have fled; the cavalry only were left.]

[Footnote 78: [Greek: Epi peltês epi xylou].] So stands the passage in Dindorf's text; but most editors, from Schneider downwards, consider [Greek: epi xylou] to be a mere interpretation of [Greek: epi peltês], that has crept by some accident into the text, and either enclose it in brackets or wholly omit it. [Greek: Peltê] is said by Hesychius and Suidas to be the same as [Greek: dory] or [Greek: lonchê]: and Krüger refers to Philostratus, Icon. ii. 82, [Greek: epi tês peltês aetos]. In Cyrop. vii. 1, 4, the insigne of Cyrus the elder is said to have been a golden eagle, [Greek: epi doratos makrou anatetamenos]. [Greek: Peltê] accordingly being taken in this sense, all is clear, and [Greek: epi xylou] is superfluous. Kühner gives great praise to the conjecture of Hutchinson, [Greek: epi peltês epi xystou], who, taking [Greek: peltê] in the sense of a shield, supposed that the eagle was mounted on a shield, and the shield on a spear. But the shield would surely have been a mere encumbrance, and we had better be rid of it. Yet to take [Greek: peltê] in the sense of a spear, unusual in Xenophon, is not altogether satisfactory; and it would be well if we could fairly admit into the text Leunclavius's conjecture, [Greek: epi paltou].]

[Footnote 79: [Greek: Anatetamenon].] This word is generally understood to signify that the eagle's wings were expanded. See Liddell and Scott's Lexicon; and Dr. Smith's Dict. of G. and R. Ant. sub Signa Militaria.]