Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/121

HARDSHIPS IN KARDUCHIA. 99 After a march thus painful and perilous, the rear division al length found themselves in safety among their comrades, in villa- ges with well-stocked houses and abundance of corn and wine. So eager, however, were Xenophon and Cheirisophus to obtain the bodies of the slain for burial, that they consented to purchase them by surrendering the guide, and to march onward without any guide ; a heavy sacrifice in this unknown country, attesting their great anxiety about the burial. 1 For three more days did they struggle and fight their way through the narrow and rugged paths of the Karduchian moun- tains, beset throughout by these formidable bowmen and slingers ; whom they had to dislodge at every difficult turn, and against whom their own Kretan bowmen were found inferior, indeed, but still highly useful. Their seven days' march through this country, with its free and warlike inhabitants, were days of the utmost fatigue, suffering and peril ; far more intolerable than anything which they had experienced from Tissaphernes and the Persians. Right glad were they once more to see a plain, and to find themselves near the banks of the river Kentrites, which divided these moun- tains from the hillocks and plains of Armenia, enjoying comfort- able quarters in villages, with the satisfaction of talking over past miseries. 2 Such were the apprehensions of Karduchian invasion, that the Armenian side of the Kentrites, for a breadth of fifteen miles, was unpeopled and destitute of villages. 3 But the approach of the Greeks having become known to Tiribazus, satrap of Armenia, the banks of the river were lined with his cavalry and infantry to oppose their passage ; a precaution, which if Tissaphernes had 1 Xen. Anab. iv, 3, 23. 2 Xen. Anab. iv, 3, 2. His expressions have a simple emphasis which marks how unfading was the recollection of what he had suffered in Kar- duchia. Kal oi "EA/l^vef kvrav-9a uvenavaavTO aa/tEvot Idovres irzSiov uTrei^e 6e TUV opeuv 6 Trora/zof e t] faro, aradia TUV Kapdovxuv. Tore [tev ovv rjvhia- drjaav p.aXa r/deuf, Kal TU. fairi/deia EX OVT f Kal troT^fl TUV irape^jj^v^oTUf xovuv fj.V7][iovevovTEf. 'Errra yap fifiepaf, oo-a<77rep knopevdrjaav 610. TUV Kapdovxuv, irapai; [zaxo/tevoi AereAecrai', Kal 7rat?ov /cca oaa ovde ra ffvfttr~ avra VTCO /3a<n/.ewf <ca Ttaaatycpvovf. 'flf ovv uTTjWayftevot -JVTUV 3 Xen. Ana'i. iv, 4, 1.