With a view to keeping a firm seat on every sort of ground, it may be perhaps be thought a little irksome to be perpetually marching out, when there is no war;[26] but all the same, I would have you call your men together and impress upon them the need to train themselves, when they ride into the country to their farms, or elsewhere, by leaving the high road and galloping at a round pace on ground of every description.[27] This method will be quite as beneficial to them as the regular march out, and atthe same time not produce the same sense of tedium.You may find it useful also to remind them that the state on her side is quite willing to expend a sum of nearly forty talents[28] yearly, so that in the event of war she may not have to look about for cavalry, but have a thoroughly efficient force to hand for active service.Let these ideas be once instilled into their minds, and, mark my words, your trooper will fall with zest to practising horsemanship, so that if ever the flame of war burst out he may not be forced to enter the lists a raw recruit, unskilled to fight for fame and fatherland or even life itself.
[26] In the piping days of peace.
[27] See "Econ." xi.17.Cf.Theophr."Ch." viii."The Late Learner":
{kai eis agron eph' ippou allotriou katakhoumenos ama meletan ippazesthai, kai peson ten kephalon kateagenai}, "Riding into the country on another's horse, he will practise his horsemanship by the way, and falling, will break his head" (Jebb).
[28] = L10,000 circa.See Boeckh, op.cit.p.251.
It would be no bad thing either, to forewarn your troopers that one day you will take them out yourself for a long march, and lead them across country over every kind of ground.Again, whilst practising the evolutions of the rival cavalry display,[29] it will be well to gallop out at one time to one district and again to another.Both men and horses will be benefited.
[29] Lit."the anthippasia." See iii.11, and "Horsemanship," viii.
10.
Next, as to hurling the javelin from horseback, the best way to secureas wide a practice of the art as possible, it strikes me, would be to issue an order to your phylarchs that it will be their duty to put themselves at the head of the marksmen of several tribes, and to ride out to the butts for practice.In this way a spirit of emulation will be roused--the several officers will, no doubt, be eager to turn out as many marksmen as they can to aid the state.[30]
[30] On competition cf."Cyrop." II.i.22, and our author passim.
And so too, to ensure that splendour of accoutrement which the force requires,[31] the greatest help may once again be looked for from the phylarchs; let these officers but be persuaded that from the public point ofview the splendid appearance of their squadrons[32] will confer a title to distinction far higher than that of any personal equipment.Nor is it reasonable to suppose that they will be deaf to such an argument, since the very desire to hold the office of phylarch itself proclaims a soul alive to honour and ambition.And what is more, they have it in their power, in accordance with the actual provisions of the law, to equip their men without the outlay of a single penny, by enforcing that self-equipment out of pay[33] which the law prescribes.
[31] Or, "a beauty of equipment, worthy of our knights." Cf.Aristoph."Lysistr." 561, and a fragment of "The Knights," of Antiphanes, ap.Athen.503 B, {pant' 'Amaltheias keras}.See "Hiero," ix.6; "Horse."xi.10.
[32] Lit."tribes," {phulai} (each of the ten tribes contributing about eighty men, or, as we might say, a squadron).
[33] i.e.the {katastasis}, "allowance," so technically called.Cf.Lys."for Mantitheos"; Jebb, "Att.Or." i.246; Boeckh, "P.E.A." II.
xxi.p.263; K.F.Hermann, 152, 19; Martin, op.cit.p.341.
But to proceed.In order to create a spirit of obedience in your subordinates, you have two formidable instruments;[34] as a matter of plain reason you can show them what a host of blessings the word discipline implies; and as a matter of hard fact you can, within the limits of the law, enable the well-disciplined to reap advantage, while the undisciplined are made to feel the pinch at every turn.
[34] "The one theoretic, the other practical."But if you would rouse the emulation of your phylarchs, if you would stir in each a personal ambition to appear at the head of his own squadron in all ways splendidly appointed, the best incentive will be your personal example.You must see to it that your own bodyguard[35] are decked with choice accoutrement and arms; you must enforce on them the need to practise shooting pertinaciously; you must expound to them the theory of the javelin, yourself an adept in the art through constant training.[36]
[35] Techn.{prodromoi}, possibly = the Hippotoxotai, or corps of 200 mounted archers--Scythians; cf."Mem." III.iii.11.Or, probably, "mounted skirmishers," distinct from the {ippotexotai}.Cf.Arrian,"An." i.12.7.See Aristot."Ath.Pol." 49.5.
[36] Reading as vulg.{eisegoio}, or if with L.D.{egoio} (cf.above,S.21), trans."you must lead them out to the butts yourself."Lastly, were it possible to institute and offer prizes to the several tribal squadrons in reward for every excellence of knighthood known to custom in the public spectacles of our city, we have here, I think, an incentive which will appeal to the ambition of every true Athenian.How small, in the like case of our choruses, the prizes offered, and yet how great the labour and how vast the sums expended![37] But we must discover umpires of such high order that to win their verdict will be as precious to the victor as victory itself.
[37] See "Hell." III.iv.15; "Hiero," ix.3; "Cyrop." I.vi.18; Martin, op.cit.p.260 f.
