sea, swimming across the places that were too precipitous to pass. Thus by an unexpected attack from the rear he overwhelmed the guards of the defile.[1]
When Gnaeus Pompey on one occasion was prevented from crossing a river because the enemy's troops were stationed on the opposite bank, he adopted the device of repeatedly leading his troops out of camp and back again. Then, when the enemy were at last tricked into relaxing their watch on the roads in front of the Roman advance, he made a sudden dash and effected a crossing.[2]
When Porus, a king of the Indians, was keeping Alexander of Macedon from leading his troops across the river Hydaspes, the latter commanded his men to make a practice of running toward the water. When by that sort of manœuvre he had led Porus to guard the opposite bank, he suddenly led his army across at a higher point of the stream.[3]
The same Alexander, prevented by the enemy from crossing the river Indus, began to send horsemen into the water at different points and to threaten to effect a crossing. Then, when he had the barbarians keyed up with expectation, he seized an island a little further off, at first with a small force, then with a larger one, and from there sent troops to the further bank. When the entire force of the enemy rushed away to overwhelm this band, he himself crossed safely by fords left unguarded and reunited all his troops.[3]
Xenophon once ordered his men to attempt a crossing in two places, in the face of Armenians who had possession of the opposite bank. Being repulsed
- ↑ 389–388 B.C. Cf. Polyaen. iii. ix. 33.
- ↑ Cf. the Spartan trick at Aegospotami, Xen. Hell. ii. i. 21ff.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 326 B.C. Cf. Polyaen. iv. iii. 9; Plut. Alex. 60: Curt. xiii. 13. Frontinus, misled by different names given to the river, probably took the same story from two different sources. Cf. Introd. p. xxv.
