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Xenoetas

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Often appears with: tigris crossing · tigris · supply, logistics, and encampment · strategy and the aims of war · siege of seleucia · siege and fortification · night crossing · molon’s camp · molon revolt · military discipline and training · marsyas gorge · forged letters

Usually: narrative (2) · crisis of belief (1)

The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) primary

Polybius · c. 160–118 BCE (composition of the Histories; later books/fragments extend beyond this span)
BOOK I > BOOK V (29/36)

Antiochus III shifts from the Coele-Syria plan to confronting Molon, sending the Achaean Xenoetas, marching through Apameia and the Marsyas gorge, and withdrawing when Xenoetas is defeated.

[Sidenote: Molon takes up arms.] +45.+ Being masters, then, of a territory of proportions worthy of a kingdom, his great power had made Molon from the first a formidable enemy: but when the royal generals appeared to have abandoned the country to him, and his own forces were elated at the successful issue of their first hopes, the terror which he inspired became absolute, and he was believed by the Asiatics to be ir…

The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) primary

Polybius · c. 160–118 BCE (composition of the Histories; later books/fragments extend beyond this span)
BOOK I > BOOK V (30/36)

Xenoetas, initially successful, attempts to cross the Tigris after Molon’s men claim Molon’s army will defect, but Molon’s night positioning and marshy ground trap the attackers.

[Sidenote: Xenoetas at first successful.] The fact was that when the general Xenoetas had been despatched with absolute powers, as I have before stated, his unexpected elevation caused him to treat his friends with haughtiness and his enemies with overweening temerity. His first move however was sufficiently prudent. He marched to Seleucia, and after sending for Diogenes the governor of Susiana, and Pythiades the co…