For the rest of the day the one army continued its march and the other its pursuit (Kai to loipon tés hémeras hoi men eporeuonto, hoi d’ heipointo). And the barbarians were no longer able to do any harm by their skirmishing at long range; for the Rhodian slingers carried father with their missiles than the Persians, farther even than the Persian bowmen. The Persian bows are also large, and consequently the Cretans could make good use of all the arrows that fell into their hands; in fact, they were continually using the enemy’s arrows, and practiced themselves in long-range work by shooting them into the air. In the villages, furthermore, the Greeks found gut in abundance and lead for the use of their slingers. As for that day’s doings, when the Greeks came upon some villages and proceeded to encamp, the barbarians withdrew, having had the worst of it in the skirmishing. The following day the Greeks remained quiet and collected supplies, for there was an abundance of corn in the villages. On the day thereafter they continued their march through the plain, and Tissaphernes hung upon their rear and kept up skirmishing.
Then it was that the Greeks found out that a square is a
poor formation when an enemy is following. For if the wings draw together,
either because the road is unusually narrow or because mountains or a bridge
make it necessary, it is inevitable that the hoplites should be squeezed out of
line and should march with difficulty, inasmuch as they are crowded together and
are likewise in confusion; the result is that, being in disorder, they are of
little service. Furthermore, when the wings draw apart again, those who were
lately squeezed out are inevitably scattered, the space between the wings is
left unoccupied, and the men affected are out of spirits when an enemy is close
behind them. Again, as often as the army had to pass over a bridge or make any
other crossing, every man would hurry, in the desire to be the first one across
and that gave the enemy a fine chance to make an attack. When the generals came
to realise these difficulties, they formed six companies of a hundred men each
and put a captain at the head of each company, adding also platoon and squad
commanders. Then in case the wings drew together in the march, these companies
would drop back, so as not to interfere with the wings, and for the time being
would move behind the wings; an when the flanks of the square drew apart again,
they would fill up the space between the wings, by companies in case this space
was rather narrow, by platoons in case it was broader, or, if it was broad, by
squads – the idea being, to have the gap filled up in any event. Again, if the
army had to make some crossing or to pass over a bridge, there was no confusion,
but each company crossed over in its turn; and if any help was needed in any part
of the army, these troops would make their way to the spot. In this fashion the
Greeks proceeded four stages.
In the course of the fifth stage they caught sight of a
palace of some sort (basileion ti), with many villages round about it, and
they observed that the road to this place passed over high hills, which
stretched down from the mountain, at whose foot the villages were situated. And
the Greeks were well pleased to see the hills, as was natural considering that
the enemy’s force was the cavalry; when, however, in their march out of the
plain they had mounted to the top of the first hill, and were descending it, so
as to ascend he next, at this moment the barbarians came upon them and down from
the hilltop discharged their missiles and sling-stones and arrows, fighting
under the lash (etoxeuon hupo
mastigón). They not only inflicted many wounds, but they got the
better of the Greek light troops and shut them up within the lines of the
hoplites, so that these troops, being mingled with the non-combatants, were
entirely useless throughout that day, slingers an bowmen alike. And when the
Greeks, hard-pressed as they were, undertook to pursue the attacking force,
they reached the hilltop but slowly, being heavy troops, while the enemy sprang
quickly out of reach; and every time they returned from a pursuit to join the
main army, they suffered again in the same way. O the second hill the same
experiences were repeated, and hence after ascending the third hill they
decided not to stir the troops from its crest until they led up a force of
peltasts from the right flank of the square to a position on the mountain. As
soon as this force had got above the hostile troops that were hanging upon the
Greek rear, the latter desisted from attacking the Greek army in its descent,
for fear that they might be cut off and find themselves enclosed on both sides
by their foes. In this way the Greeks continued their march for the remainder
of the day, the one division by the road leading over the hills while the other
followed a parallel course along the mountain slope, and so arrived at the villages.
There they appointed eight surgeons, for the wounded were many.
In these villages they remained for three days, not only for
the sake of the wounded, but likewise because they had provisions in abundance –
flour, wine, and great stores of barley that had been collected for horses, all
these supplies having been gathered together by the acting satrap of the
district. On the fourth day they proceeded to descend into the plain. But when
Tissaphernes and his command overtook them, necessity taught them to encamp in
the first village they caught sight of, and not to continue the plan of
marching and fighting at the same time; for a large number of the Greeks were hors
de combat, not only the wounded, but also those who were carrying them and
the men who took charge the arms of these carriers. When they had encamped, and
the barbarians, approaching toward the village, essayed to attack them at long
range, the Greeks had much the better of it; for to occupy a position and
therefrom ward off an attack was a very different thing from being on the march
and fighting with the enemy as they followed after.
As soon as it came to be late in the afternoon, it was time
for the enemy to withdraw. For in no instance did the barbarians encamp at a
distance less than sixty stadia from the Greek camp, out of fear that the
Greeks might attack them during the night. For a Persian army at night is a
sorry thing. Their horses are tethered, and usually hobbled also to prevent
their running away if they get lose from the tether, and hence in case of any
alarm a Persian has to put saddle cloth and bridle on his horse, and then has
also to put on his own breastplate and mount his horse – and all these things
are difficult at night and in the midst of confusion. It was for this reason
that the Persians encamped at a considerable distance from the Greeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment