fill the entire space with extended front, so forcing out the mob of
people from the centre;[17] and secondly, that in the sham fight[18]
which ensues, the tribal squadrons, swiftly pursuing and retiring,
should gallop right across and through each other, the two hipparchs
at their head, each with five squadrons under him. Consider the effect
of such a spectacle: the grim advance of rival squadrons front to
front; the charge; the solemn pause as, having swept across the
hippodrome, they stand once more confronting one another; and then the
trumpet sounds, whereat a second and yet swifter hostile advance, how
fine the effect!--and once again they are at the halt; and once again
the trumpet sounds, and for the third time, at the swiftest pace of
all, they make a final charge across the field, before dismissal;
after which they come to a halt en masse, in battle order; and, as now
customary,[19] ride up to salute the senate, and disband. These
evolutions will at once approve themselves, I think, not only for
their novelty, but for their resemblacne to real warfare. The notion
that the hipparch is to ride at a slower pace than his phylarchs, and
to handle his horse precisely in their style, seems to me below the
dignity of the office.

[16] In the hippodrome near Munychia, I suppose.

[17] Lit. ". . . it would be beautiful to form with extended front, so
as to fill the hippodrome with horses and drive out the people
from the central space, beautiful to . . ." The new feature of the
review would seem to have been the introduction of a sham fight in
three parts, down to the customary advance of the whole corps,
{epi phalaggos}. Cf. Virg. "Aen." v. 545 foll. But see Martin, op.
cit. 197.