Book 2
3.9
And Clearchus said: I, too, agree with this view; nevertheless, I shall not so report at once, but I shall delay until the messengers get fearful of our deciding not to conclude the truce; to be sure, he said, I suppose that our own soldiers will also feel the same fear. When, accordingly, it seemed that the proper time had come, he reported that he accepted the truce, and directed them to lead the way immediately to the provisions.
3.10
They proceeded, then, to lead the way, but Clearchus, although he had made the truce, kept his army in line of battle on the march, and commanded the rearguard himself. And they kept coming upon trenches and canals, full of water, which could not be crossed without bridges. They made bridges of a kind, however, out of the palm trees which had fallen and others which they cut down themselves.
3.11
And here one could well observe how Clearchus commanded; he had his spear in his left hand and in his right a stick, and whenever he thought that anyone of the men assigned to this task was shirking, he would pick out the right man and deal him a blow, while at the same time he would get into the mud and lend a hand himself; the result was that everyone was ashamed not to match him in energy.
3.12
The men detailed to the work were all those up to thirty years of age, but the older men also took hold when they saw Clearchus in such energetic haste.
3.13
Now Clearchus was in a far greater hurry because he suspected that the trenches were not always full of water in this way, for it was not a proper time to be irrigating the plain; his suspicion was, then, that the King had let the water into the plain just in order that the Greeks might have before their eyes at the very start many things to make them fearful about their journey.
3.14
The march at length brought them to villages where the guides directed them to get provisions. In these villages was grain in abundance and palm wine and a sour drink made from the same by boiling.
