Those placed at the back of the chorus were called (like the soldiers arrayed behind the line of battle) ψιλεῖς;(1535) the choregus, however, did not merely defray the expenses of the chorus, but he also led it in person; and indeed a choregos once performed the duties of flute-player at Lacedæmon.(1536) If then every citizen took some part in these choruses, it follows that they must have been trained to them, and have practised them from childhood; as we know on the other hand that the whole musical instruction of Crete and Sparta was intended as a preparation for them.(1537) Accordingly, the musical school was called _chorus_ among the Dorians;(1538) in musical training there was a constant reference to the public choral dances. Hence we perceive that, at least in early times, a certain cultivation of music within the limits prescribed by the national manners was common to all Spartans; and the saying of the poet Socrates,(1539) “that the bravest of the Greeks also made the finest choruses,” was peculiarly applicable to them; also Pratinas the scenic poet speaks of “the Lacedæmonian cicada,(1540) as ready for the chorus.”(1541) In later times, indeed, the numbers of the citizens in Sparta so greatly diminished, and war occupied so much of the public attention, that the favourable side of Spartan discipline was cast into the shade, and Aristotle ascribes with truth to the Spartans of his time a just discrimination and taste for music, but no scientific knowledge of it.(1542) The cultivation of music, however, was the more general among the Dorians and kindred race of Arcadians, from the circumstance that women took a part in it, and sang and danced in public both with men and by themselves.(1543) On the nature of the _parthenia_, or the choruses performed by girls, the character and education of Doric virgins enable us to decide with confidence, when we are told, that the parthenia were accompanied by Dorian music, and there was something in them exceedingly grave and solemn.(1544) It appears likewise, that aged persons, who at Athens would have been ridiculed for dancing at religious ceremonies, at Sparta often took a part in the great choruses, as is proved by the accounts of the three great choirs of boys, men, and _old men_, which seem to have danced at several great festivals.(1545) 5. Having now in the foregoing remarks considered the peculiarities of the Doric race, as well in general as with respect to Sparta in particular, we shall next give some account of the progress of music among the several states of that race.