The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume I (of X) - Greece
History
The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume I (of X) - Greece
Literature -- Collections
For engagements in the field he made the following arrangements: He
ordered that each soldier should have a purple robe and a brazen
shield; for he thought that such a dress had least resemblance to that
of women, and was excellently adapted for the field of battle, as it
is soonest made splendid, and is longest in growing soiled. He
permitted also those above the age of puberty to let their hair grow,
as he thought that they thus appeared taller, more manly, and more
terrible in the eyes of the enemy.
When they were thus equipped, he divided them into six morae of cavalry
and heavy-armed infantry. Each of these morae of the citizens has one
polemarch, four centurions, eight captains of fifty, and sixteen
enomotarchs. The men of these morae are sometimes, according to the
command issued, formed in enomotiae, sometimes by threes, sometimes by
sixes. As to what most people imagine, that the arrangement of the
Lacedaemonians under arms is extremely complex, they conceive the exact
contrary to what is the fact; for in the Lacedaemonian order the
officers are placed in the front ranks, and each rank is in a
condition to perform everything which it is necessary for it to
perform. So easy is it to understand this arrangement that no one who
can distinguish one man from another would fail of learning it; for it
is assigned to some to lead, and enjoined on others to follow.
Shiftings of place, by which the companies are extended or deepened,
are ordered by the word of the enomotarch, as by a herald; and in
these there is nothing in the least difficult to learn.
But how it is possible for men in this arrangement, even if they are
thrown into confusion, to fight with an enemy presenting themselves on
any quarter alike, it is not so easy to understand, except for those
who have been brought up under the institution of Lycurgus. The
Lacedaemonians do with the greatest ease what appears extremely
difficult to other men that are even accustomed to arms. For when they
march in column, one enomotia follows in the rear of another; and if,
when they are in this order, a body of the enemy shows itself in
front, orders are given to each enomotarch to bring up his enomotia to
the front on the left; and this movement is made throughout the whole
army, until it presents itself in full array against the enemy. But if
again, while they are in this order, the enemy should show themselves
in the rear, each rank performs the evolution, that the strongest may
always be presented to the enemy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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