Xenophon's Anabasis

Xenophon's Anabasis

John Bjarne Grover

I made the following translation on the 'kurdish' chapter of Xenophon's 'Anabasis' (IV, iii) for use as parallel text to half of my TEQ book 9 - the other half being Matthew 2.1-23, the two texts showing interesting parallelisms, potentially relevant also to a Fast Fourier Transform. I bring it here for the sake of the modern idea of a political role of a turkish influence from around the Black Sea.

Xenophon's Anabasis, chapter IV, iii - on the 'Carduchians'

On this day they encamped in the villages at the open plains by the river Centrites, being two plethra wide as the border between the Armenian and the Carduchian lands. And the Greeks there halted happily when they saw the camp-place; for the river was in the distance of six or seven stadia from the mountains of the Carduchians. And there they encamped very happily, being in possession of what they needed and remembering all the toil they had escaped. For almost seven days they had travelled through the land of the Carduchians continuously fighting, and they had suffered badly like they had never done from the king and from Tissaphernes together. And when they had found this, they happily encamped. But at dawn the next day they saw heavily armed horsemen guarding the other side of the river to prevent their crossing, and footmen lined up on the bluffs above the horsemen to prevent them from stepping into Armenia. They represented Orontas and Artouchas, and were Armenians, Mardians and hired Chaldaeans. The Chaldaeans were said to be free and bold soldiers - they carried wickerwork shields and lances. And the bluffs that these men were lined up on were three or four plethra off from the river; one road that could be seen led upwards looking rather home-made, as the Greeks discovered when they started the crossing. But they discovered that the water reached them above a woman's breasts, and the river was rough with big stones and slippery slopes; they could neither carry their things in the water or above it as the river would snatch them away; for if somebody carried their things on the head, he would be naked against arrows and other projectiles; and so they returned and encamped on the river bank again. And so in the following night, on the nearby mountain ridges they saw the many Carduchians gathering under arms. That made the Greeks distressed, seeing the great difficulties in crossing the river, and seeing those who were there to prevent the crossing and the Carduchians pressing on them from behind. That day and night they remained in deep distress. But Xenophon had a dream: He seemed to be bound in fetters, which then fell apart by themselves and he was freed and could walk around as he pleased. Since it was very early morning, he went to Cheirisophos and said that he had hopes that things would be fine, and he explained to him his dream. Cheirisophos conceived that as soon as there was to be the first break of dawn, all the generals in the camp would make an offering. And the omens were good already at the first attempt, and the generals and captains went away and told the army to get their breakfast. While they were having breakfast, two young men came running up to Xenophon; for everybody knew that even if he was breakfasting or dining, or if he was sleeping, they could come to him and wake him up and tell him about it if there were any interesting news about the strife. And they told him that they had been collecting dry sticks as firewood to a fire, and then they observed on the other side an old man, a woman and some young girls coming down the cliff with a bag of clothes to hide in a cave in the rocks. They saw that it was safe to cross, since the horse-men could not come down to that place. So they stripped their clothes off and took only a dagger in hand to swim over to the other side; and they could walk over to the other side without even wetting their waists. Having crossed, they took the clothes and returned immediately. Xenophon himself immediately made a libation and ordered to fill in the cups of the young men and promised to the gods to compensate for the dream, the ford and all the other good things. Having made the libation, he led the young men to Cheirisophos and they repeated it for him. And having heard the news, Cheirisophos also made a libation. And having made the libation, he ordered that they should pack up the baggage and called the generals to discuss how they best could make the crossing, battling those in front while not suffering any harm from those behind. And he ordered that Cheirisophos should take the lead and cross the river with half of the army, while the other half should remain on this side with Xenophon, while the baggage animals and the crowd should cross the river between these. Since this appeared reasonable, they started immediately; the young men led the way to the river on the left; the road to the crossing-place was four stadia. And while they travelled, the Armenian cavalry followed in parallel on the other side of the river. And when they had come to the ford and the bluffs at the river, the hoplites halted, and Cheirisophos as the first put a wreath upon his head, stripped off his cover and took up his arms, and ordered the others to do the same; and he ordered the captains to line up their companies, those to his left side and those to his right. And the diviners gave sacrifices to the river; the soldiers shot arrows and used slings, but without reaching their goals; and since the divinations were positive, all the soldiers started singing the paean and raised the war-cry, and all the women joined the chorus. For there were many women in the crowd. And Cheirisophos went into the river together with his followers, but Xenophon along with the best of the rearguard started running back to the original ford at the crossing-place by the Armenian hill, pretending to cross there in order to attack from the other side. And the Armenian warriors, seeing that the men with Cheirisophos were easily crossing the water, and seeing those with Xenophon returning back again, fearing that they could be cut off, fled as well as they could to escape from the river. And since they were on the road, they stretched out towards the mountain. Lukios, who was in command of the horsemen, and Aiskhines, who was in command of Cheirisophos' peltasts, when they saw them flee at top speed, took up the pursuit; and the warriors shouted that they should not flee but follow on to the mountains. Then Cheirisophos also crossed, but did not pursue their horsemen, but immediately took possession of the bluff at the river, against the warriors there. And these, seeing their own horsemen and hoplites escaping, gave up the bluffs and their highest point at the river. When Xenophon saw that things proceeded well on the other side, he retreated hastily towards the crossing soldiers; for the Carduchians already seemed to be coming down on the plain as to attack those left on their side. Cheirisophos had taken possession of the bluff, and Lukios and a few other men pursued and attacked the baggage-carriers who were left and took possession of some fine garments and drinking-cups. And while the Greek baggage-carriers and the crowd crossed the highest point, Xenophon turned around towards the Carduchians and faced their hoplites, and gave order to the captains to form squadrons out of their soldiers, and to order them into suitable positions; and the captains and their soldiers went towards the Carduchians while the rearguard took up position at the river. But the Carduchians, when they saw the rearguard of the crowd being left isolated and now looking like a small group, fell quickly on them while singing a kind of song. And Cheirisophos, since everything was firm on his side, sent to Xenophon the peltasts, slingers and bowmen and ordered them to do what he commanded. As Xenophon saw these starting to cross, he sent a messenger instructed to remain at the river and not cross it; and when they were beginning to cross, those on the other side should little by little step into the river as if they were in the process of crossing, the javelin men prepared with their javelins, covering together with the bowmen; but they were not to proceed far into the river. To his own men he ordered that when the slingers began to sling and the shields resounded, they should start to sing the paean and proceed towards the soldiers, and when these turned around and the trumpeter gave signal from the bank to the warriors, they should turn right and follow the rearguard leaders and cross the river as fast as they could without leaving their position and without being entangled in each others' feet; and the one would be the best who first came over to the other side. The Carduchians saw that only few had remained - for many of those who should be in position would have gone to take care of pack animals and equipment and women - but these boldly started to attack with slings and arrows. The Greeks, singing the paean, started running against them, and they did not meet the attack; for while they were equipped well for fighting in the mountains, they were not equipped for this close fighting in the open plain. And then suddenly sounded the trumpet; and while the Carduchian soldiers were fleeing rapidly, the Greeks suddenly turned around and fled towards the river as fast as they could. Some of the Carduchians discovered this and turned to run back to the river and wounded a few Greeks with arrows, but most of them were fleeing even when the Greeks were on the other side. And those who bravely had come to meet Xenophon and had advanced further than they were ripe for, returned back again with Xenophon; and some of these were also wounded.