The Cavalry General by Xenophon
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Boeckh, "P. E. A." 251.
[2] Or, "with sacrifice to ask of Heaven those gifts of thought and speech and conduct whereby you will exercise your office most acceptably to the gods themselves, and with . . ." Cf. Plat. "Phaedr." 273 E; "Euthr." 14 B. [3] The Greek phrase is warmer, {theon d' ileon onton}, "the gods being kindly and propitious." Cf. Plat. "Laws," 712 B. [4] Lit. "at any moment there will be too few." See "Les Cavaliers Atheniens," par Albert Martin, p. 308. But now suppose the complement of cavalry is levied,[5] the duty will devolve on you of seeing, in the first place, that your horses are well fed and in condition to stand their work, since a horse which cannot endure fatigue will clearly be unable to overhaul the foeman or effect escape;[6] and in the second place, you will have to see to it the animals are tractable, since, clearly again, a horse that will not obey is only fighting for the enemy and not his friends. So, again, an animal that kicks when mounted must be cast; since brutes of that sort may often do more mischief than the foe himself. Lastly, you must pay attention to the horses' feet, and see that they will stand being ridden over rough ground. A horse, one knows, is practically useless where he cannot be galloped without suffering. [5] Lit. "in process of being raised." [6] Or, "to press home a charge a l'outrance, or retire from the field unscathed." |
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