From hence they marched for five days through a level country, where they met with no resistance. But now provisions again began to fail. There was no lack of food in the country, but the Taochians had taken care to store everything within their castles, which were strong, fortified places, always perched on the top of some rugged height. The Hellenes did not think it prudent to attack these castles, and in spite of their hunger, were forced to pass them by.
On the sixth day however they came to a fortress which they were obliged to attack, for they were quite without food. It was built upon the edge of an overhanging cliff and beneath it was a river, and a road running beside the river. In this fortress all the men, women and children of the neighbourhood had assembled, together with their cattle, and had piled together great heaps of stones to hurl down upon the Hellenes.
Having tried in vain to find some means of taking the place, Cheirisophus called a halt, and waited until Xenophon came up. In answer to his question as to why they were at a standstill, Cheirisophus replied, ‘The only approach to this place is by the road under the cliff, and the moment we attempt to pass, they hurl down stones upon us from above of which this is the result,’ and he pointed to some poor fellows lying on the ground whose legs and ribs had been broken.
As usual, Xenophon had something to suggest. ‘It seems to me,’ he said, ‘that there are not many of them up there, and that it will not take long to exhaust their supply of stones.’ And then, having carefully examined the place, he added, ‘The dangerous piece of road is about a hundred and fifty feet in length, of which two-thirds is covered with great pine trees, not very far apart. One, or at the most two leaps, will take us from the shelter of one group of pine trees to the next, and then, when the stones begin to fail, we must run as fast as possible over the last fifty feet of open ground.’
About seventy men were entrusted with the task of freeing the approach to the fortress, and one of them hit upon a clever device for bringing down the stones as fast as possible. From beneath the shelter of a pine tree, he ran a step or two forward to attract the attention of the enemy, who at once hurled all their biggest stones at the place, but before they could touch him, he was back under the shelter of his tree. He did this so often that at last there was quite a heap of stones lying in front of him, but he himself was untouched.
The other men followed his example, and made it a sort of game, enjoying the sensation, pleasant alike to old and young, of courting danger for a moment, and then quickly escaping it. When the stones were almost exhausted, the soldiers raced one another over the exposed part of the road, each eager to be the first to reach the fortress. The Taochians made no further resistance, but, fearing the vengeance of the Hellenes, men, women and children flung themselves over the edge of the cliff and were dashed to pieces.
One of the soldiers, seeing a Taochian who appeared to be better dressed than the rest, about to throw himself over the precipice, ran up to him and tried to pull him back, but the Taochian grasped him in his strong arms and dragged him forward with him over the edge, so that both perished together.
The Hellenes took few prisoners, but much spoil, cattle and asses in abundance, and whole flocks of sheep.
XXXVII
THE SEA! THE SEA!
The next country through which the Hellenes had to make their way was inhabited by the Chalybeans, who like the Taochians, were a free people, not subject to the Great King. In their country were iron mines which they had worked from the most ancient times, and they knew how to smelt the iron and make it into steel.