Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/46

36 During the next day's march, which was twelve miles, Tissaphernes came upon them in force. He had with him his own cavalry, all the native troops who had served under Cyrus, and who had marched so long as comrades to the Greeks, the division of Orontes, the King's son-in-law, and that additional army which had been brought up by the King's illegitimate brother, and which the Greeks had seen before. These vast masses of men surrounded the Greeks like a cloud on every side except the front. They never charged, however, and only used missiles. The Rhodian slingers and the Greek bowmen immediately answered with the utmost effect, never missing a shot in such dense ranks, and the Persians presently retreated on all sides.

The next day the Greeks altered to some extent the disposition of their force, as the single hollow square was found too inflexible in cases of narrow roads, hills, or bridges. For more easy adaptation to such circumstances, they formed six companies of one hundred men each, subdivided into smaller companies of twenty-five, each under its own officer, with directions to fall behind or close up as the exigencies of the march might require. In this form they marched for four days, and on the fifth came to some hills. On commencing the ascent they found the enemy on the heights above them, and they saw the native officers flogging on their men to attack them with darts, stones, and arrows. Many were wounded, and their advance was hindered, until they had succeeded in sending up a detachment from their right wing to occupy a height above the Persians, who, thus threatened, desisted from the attack, and