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[13] Most of the time he pursued his march through the country in safety; but when he was not far from Dascyleium, his horsemen, who were going on ahead of him, rode to the top of a hill so as to see what was in front. And by chance the horsemen of Pharnabazus, under the command of Rhathines and Bagaeus, his bastard brother, just about equal to the Greek cavalry in number, had been sent out by Pharnabazus and likewise rode to the top of this same hill. And when the two squadrons saw one another, not so much as four plethra1 apart, at first both halted, the Greek horsemen being drawn up four deep like a phalanx,2 and the barbarians with a front of not more than twelve, but many men deep. Then, however, the barbarians charged.

1 The plethrum=c. 100 feet.

2 The “phalanx” of this period was sometimes four, seldom more than eight, deep. The tendency of later tactics was to increase its depth greatly (cp. IV. ii. 18, VI. iv. 12), a tendency which culminated in the famous Macedonian phalanx.

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