The G reeks
arrive at
Zâkhii.
They are
closely
pressed.
The Greeks
force their
tv ay to
some villages
on the Tigris.
when a shower of darts, stones, &c., announced that it was in
possession of the Persians; but after a stout resistance they
succeeded in forcing this, as well as the subsequent position,
and with some loss finally reached a village at the foot of the
mountain. Here they found an abundance of provisions, particularly
wheaten flour and wine, with barley for the horses; and
during a halt of three days, arrangements were made for the
care of the wounded by establishing a medical department consisting
of eight surgeons for this purpose.1
The four preceding marches of six parasangs each, or from
forty-eight to fifty miles, as well as the distance from Tel
Keif, and the nature of the Jebel ’Abyadh, or Cha Spi, of the
Kurds, make the position of Zakhu,2 or Zakko, on the Khabur,
answer the description of this halting-place of Xenophon.3
During the succeeding day’s march over the level country
beyond Zakhu, the Greeks were so much pressed by Tissa-
phernes, that it became necessary to halt at the first village.
A skirmish succeeded, in which the Persians were worsted and
forced to retire. The latter encamped, as they were accustomed
to do, at the distance of sixty stadia, as a security from night
attacks, which cause so much alarm to the Persians, owing to
the manner of picqueting their horses. On perceiving that the
Persians were clear off, the Greeks decamped, and in two
marches, probably passing over the plain of Zakhu in the line
of the present Chaldean village of Tel Bobbin, without seeing
the enemy, they gained the winding mountain valleys of Kurdistan.
A superior knowledge of the country, and the greater
speed of their horses, had however been turned to account by
the Persians in the meantime, and the Greeks, to their astonishment,
found the enemy in possession of the heights (probably
near the ruins of the castle of Rahabi) over which they necessarily
must pass, whilst the troops of Ariaeus and Tissaphernes
pressed upon their rear.4 The skill and courage of Xenophon,
however, soon triumphed over this difficulty, for by making a
1 Anabasis, lib. I I I . , cap. iv. 2 See Index Map.
8 Anabasis ; and Ainsworth’s Travels in the Track of the Ten Thousand
Greeks, p. 144.
4 Anabasis, lib. I I I ., cap. iv.
flank movement at the head of a select body of troops,
the defenders were, turned, and the pass being forced> the
Greeks proceeded in their march and encamped at one of the
well-stored villages in the plain near the Tigris; now, doubtless,
the tract round J ezireh-ibn-’Gmar.1
The lofty barriers of Jebel Judi being in front, a? well as on
one flan k , and an almost impassable river on the other, or
western side, the pass leading to the plain being moreover
occupied by a numerous army, an individual, whose name weft P™P^fthe
deserved to have been recorded, offered to extricate the ten r;ver.
thousand from their perilous position by enabling them to. pass
the river; the project was to form for the troops a bridge consisting
of 10,000 inflated skins of sheep, goats, and. other
animals, covered with hurdles and turf.2
This ingenious contrivance was however declined, from an The Greeks
o | . i examine the
opinion that the troops might be attacked during the passage, country, and
and the Greeks made a retrograde, or rather a flank movement,
penetrating, or more properly exploring, a valley running in an
easterly direction into the mountains ; probably along the vale
of Mar Yuhannah, now the seat of a Chaldean bishop.3 In
the villages, of this valley, the Greeks not only obtained supplies,
but also intelligence almost of equal importance, since it enabled
them to decide on the best means of accomplishing their
hazardous enterprise.
Besides the route westward to Lydia, Ionia, &c., and that determine^»
which they had partly followed from Babylonia, also a third une 0f march,
going eastward to Susa and the Persian Ecbatana, they learnt
from some prisoners that there was a fourth leading northward
over the Carduchian mountains, by which the march might be
continued without either crossing the Tigris, or being so much
exposed as before to the enemy s cavalry.
Having decided on scaling the mountains to follow the last
route, a rapid night-march not only carried the Greeks some
1 Ainsworth’s Travels in the Track of the Ten Thousand Greeks, p. 148.
2 An account of such bridges will be found in the Chapter on Arts and
Sciences at the end of this volume.
8 Travels in the Track of the Ten Thousand, by ~W. F. Ainsworth.
Parker, 1844.