but presently left the position in flight. No
sooner, however, were the Hellenes safely past this crest, than they
came in sight of another in front of them, also occupied, and deemed
it advisable to storm it also. But now it struck Xenophon that if they 13
left the ridge just taken unprotected in their rear, the enemy might
re-occupy it and attack the baggage animals as they filed past,
presenting a long extended line owing to the narrowness of the road by
which they made their way. To obviate this, he left some officers in
charge of the ridge--Cephisodorus, son of Cephisophon, an Athenian;
Amphicrates, the son of Amphidemus, an Athenian; and Archagoras, an
Argive exile--while he in person with the rest of the men attacked the
second ridge; this they took in the same fashion, only to find that
they had still a third knoll left, far the steepest of the three. This
was none other than the mamelon mentioned as above the outpost, which
had been captured over their fire by the volunteer storming party in
the night. But when the Hellenes were close, the natives, to the
astonishment of all, without a struggle deserted the knoll. It was
conjectured that they had left their position from fear of being
encircled and besieged, but the fact was that they, from their higher
ground, had been able to see what was going on in the rear, and had
all made off in this fashion to attack the rearguard.

So then Xenophon, with the youngest men, scaled up to the top, leaving
orders to the rest to march on slowly, so as to allow the hindmost
companies to unite with them; they were to advance by the road, and
when they reached the level to ground arms (3). Meanwhile the Argive
Archagoras arrived, in full flight, with the announcement that they
had been dislodged from the first ridge, and that Cephisodorus and
Amphicrates were slain, with a number of others besides, all in fact
who had not jumped down the crags and so reached the rearguard. After
this achievement the barbarians came to a crest facing the mamelon,
and Xenophon held a colloquy with them by means of an interpreter, to
negotiate a truce, and demanded back the dead bodies. These they
agreed to restore if he would not burn their houses, and to these
terms Xenophon agreed. Meanwhile, as the rest of the army filed past,
and the colloquy was proceeding, all the people of the place had time
to gather gradually, and the enemy formed; and as soon as the Hellenes
began to descend from the m