Explore "The Retreat of the Ten Thousand" by C. Witt on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The next country through which the Hellenes had to make their way was inhabited by the Chalybeans, who like the Taochians, were a free people, not subject to the Great King. In their country were iron mines which they had worked from the most ancient times, and they knew how to smelt the iron and make it into steel.
When they went out to fight, the Chalybeans wore a cuirass made of many folds of linen, with a thick fringe at the bottom, of twisted cords. They wore also greaves and helmet, and carried a spear twenty-two feet in length, and a short curved sword, with which they cut off the heads of their fallen enemies. These they carried about, singing and dancing, and displayed them to the foe with horrible delight.