Xenophon and the Greeks

Mithridates added 800 additional cavalrymen to his ranks for a total of 1000. He hoped to capture the Greeks and hand them over to Tissa Faranese. Xenophon ordered all nearby goats, cattle, sheep and donkeys to be slaughtered so that their bodies could be stuffed with hay and laid across the Great Zab River. They also sewed up and covered them with soil, so as not to be slippery. This created a bridge on which Xenophon led his men before the Persians could get to them. And so Mithridates's defeated army was forced into a retreat and lost many men in the process.