of all whom they could overpower. For seven days they harassed the rear of the Greeks, who, as they also kept all their provisions in hill-forts, could get nothing in their country.
But the beginning of the end was now come in the retreat of the Ten Thousand, for in a few days they arrived at the large and wealthy city of Gymnias, thought by some to correspond to the Erzerum of modern times. Here the governor sent out a guide to conduct them through a country with which his own people were at war. And the guide told them that in five days he would lead them to a place whence they could see the Euxine, and that if he failed in this they might kill him. As soon as they had entered the hostile country, he exhorted them to burn and plunder, which doing, they marched on. And on the fifth day they came to the mountain called Theches, held sacred in the neighbourhood; and when the front ranks had reached the summit and caught sight of the sea, they raised a great-shout. Xenophon and the rear-guard, hearing it, thought that the army was being attacked in front, for the people whose country they had devastated were hanging about them. But the noise continually increased, as fresh men kept getting to the top and immediately joined in the shouts of the others, and Xenophon thought something extraordinary must have happened. So, mounting his horse, he took the cavalry with him, and galloped forward to give aid, when presently they made out that the soldiers were shouting "Thalatta! Thalatta!"—"The Sea! The Sea!" and cheering one another.
