(400 B.C.)
The next day it was thought necessary to march away as fast as
possible, before the enemy's force should be reassembled, and get
possession of the pass. Collecting their baggage at once, therefore,
they set forward through a deep snow, taking with them several guides;
and, having the same day passed the height on which Tiribazus had
intended to attack them, they encamped. Hence they proceeded three
days' journey, through a desert tract of country, a distance of
fifteen parasangs, to the river Euphrates, and passed it without being
wet higher than the middle. The sources of the river were said not to
be far off.
Hence they advanced three days' march, through much snow and a level
plain, a distance of fifteen parasangs; the third day's march was
extremely troublesome, as the north wind blew full in their faces,
completely parching up everything and benumbing the men. One of the
augurs, in consequence, advised that they should sacrifice to the
wind; and a sacrifice was accordingly offered, when the vehemence of
the wind appeared to every one manifestly to abate. The depth of the
snow was a fathom; so that many of the baggage-cattle and slaves
perished, with about thirty of the soldiers. They continued to burn
fires through the whole night, for there was plenty of wood at the
place of encampment. But those who came up late could get no wood;
those therefore who had arrived before, and had kindled fires, would
not admit the late comers to the fire unless they gave them a share of
the corn or other provisions that they had brought. Thus they shared
with one another what they respectively had. In the places where the
fires were made, as the snow melted, there were formed large pits that
reached to the ground; and here there was accordingly opportunity to
measure the depth of the snow.
Hence they marched through snow the whole of the following day, and
many of the men contracted the bulimia. Xenophon, who commanded in the
rear, finding in his way such of the men as had fallen down with it,
knew not what disease it was. But as one of those acquainted with it
told him that they were evidently affected with bulimia, and that they
would get up if they had something to eat, he went round among the
baggage, and, wherever he saw anything eatable, he gave it out, and
sent such as were able to run to distribute it among those diseased,
who, as soon as they had eaten, rose up and continued their march. As
they proceeded, Cheirisophus[50] came, just as it grew dark, to a
village, and found a spring in front of the rampart, some women and
girls belonging to the place fetching water. The women asked them who
they were; and the interpreter answered, in the Persian language, that
they were people going from the king to the satrap. They replied that
he was not there, but about a parasang off.
However, as it was late, they went with the water-carriers within the
rampart to the head man of the village; and here Cheirisophus, and as
many of the troops as could come up, encamped; but of the rest, such
as were unable to get to the end of the journey spent the night on the
way without food or fire; and some of the soldiers lost their lives on
that occasion. Some of the enemy too, who had collected themselves
into a body, pursued our rear, and seized any of the baggage-cattle
that were unable to proceed, fighting with one another for the
possession of them. Such of the soldiers, also, as had lost their
sight from the effects of the snow, or had had their toes mortified by
the cold, were left behind. It was found to be a relief to the eyes
against the snow if the soldiers kept something black before them on
the march, and to the feet, if they kept constantly in motion, and
allowed themselves no rest, and if they took off their shoes in the
night; but as to such as slept with their shoes on, the straps worked
into their feet, and the soles were frozen about them; for when their
old shoes had failed them, shoes of raw hides had been made by the
men themselves from the newly skinned oxen.
From such unavoidable sufferings, some of the soldiers were left
behind, who, seeing a piece of ground of a black appearance, from the
snow having disappeared there, conjectured that it must have melted;
and it had, in fact, melted in the spot from the effect of a fountain,
which was sending up a vapor in a woody hollow close at hand. Turning
aside thither, they sat down and refused to proceed farther. Xenophon,
who was with the rear-guard, as soon as he heard this, tried to
prevail on them by every art and means not to be left behind, telling
them, at the same time, that the enemy were collected and pursuing
them in great numbers. At last he grew angry; and they told him to
kill them, as they were quite unable to go forward. He then thought it
the best course to strike terror, if possible, into the enemy that
were behind, lest they should fall upon the exhausted soldiers. It was
now dark, and the enemy were advancing with a great noise, quarreling
about the booty that they had taken, when such of the rear-guard as
were not disabled started up, and rushed toward them, while the tired
men, shouting as loud as they could, clashed their spears against
their shields. The enemy, struck with alarm, threw themselves into the
hollow amid the snow, and no one of them afterward made himself heard
from any quarter.
Xenophon, and those with him, telling the sick men that a party would
come to their relief next day, proceeded on their march, but before
they had gone four stadia they found other soldiers resting by the
way in the snow, and covered up with it, no guard being stationed over
them. They roused them up, but they said that the head of the army was
not moving forward. Xenophon, going past them, and sending on some of
the ablest of the peltasts, ordered them to ascertain what it was that
hindered their progress. They brought word that the whole army was in
that manner taking rest. Xenophon and his men, therefore, stationing
such a guard as they could, took up quarters there without fire or
supper. When it was near day, he sent the youngest of his men to the
sick, telling them to rouse them and oblige them to proceed.
At this juncture Cheirisophus sent some of his people from the
villages to see how the rear were faring. The young men were rejoiced
to see them, and gave them the sick to conduct to the camp, while they
themselves went forward, and, before they had gone twenty stadia,
found themselves at the village in which Cheirisophus was quartered.
When they came together, it was thought safe enough to lodge the
troops up and down in the villages. Cheirisophus accordingly remained
where he was, and the other officers, appropriating by lot the several
villages that they had in sight, went to their respective quarters
with their men.
Here Polycrates, an Athenian captain, requested leave of absence, and,
taking with him the most active of his men, and hastening to the
village which Xenophon had been allotted, surprized all the villagers
and their head man in their houses, together with seventeen colts that
were bred as a tribute for the king, and the head man's daughter, who
had been but nine days married; her husband was gone out to hunt
hares, and was not found in any of the villages. Their houses were
under ground, the entrance like the mouth of a well, but spacious
below; there were passages dug into them for the cattle, but the
people descended by ladders. In the houses were goats, sheep, cows,
and fowls, with their young; all the cattle were kept on fodder within
the walls.[51] There were also wheat, barley, leguminous vegetables,
and barley-wine, in large bowls; the grains of barley floated in it
even with the brims of the vessels, and reeds also lay in it, some
larger and some smaller, without joints; and these, when any one was
thirsty, he was to take in his mouth and suck. The liquor is very
strong, unless one mixed water with it, and a very pleasant drink to
those accustomed to it.