and each of the thousand had orders to raise thirty men from the
commons--ten targeteers, ten slingers, and ten archers--and thus three
regiments were levied, 10,000 archers, 10,000 slingers, and 10,000
targeteers, over and above the thousand Peers. The whole force was to
be put under the command of Cyrus. [6] As soon as he was appointed,
his first act had been to offer sacrifice, and when the omens were
favourable he had chosen his two hundred Peers, and each of them had
chosen their four comrades. Then he called the whole body together,
and for the first time spoke to them as follows:--

[7] "My friends, I have chosen you for this work, but this is not the
first time that I have formed my opinion of your worth: from my
boyhood I have watched your zeal for all that our country holds to be
honourable and your abhorrence for all that she counts base. And I
wish to tell you plainly why I accepted this office myself and why I
ask your help. [8] I have long felt sure that our forefathers were in
their time as good men as we. For their lives were one long effort
towards the self-same deeds of valour as are held in honour now; and
still, for all their worth, I fail to see what good they gained either
for the state or for themselves. [9] Yet I cannot bring myself to
believe that there is a single virtue practised among mankind merely
in order that the brave and good should fare no better than the base
ones of the earth. Men do not forego the pleasures of the moment to
say good-bye to all joy for evermore--no, this self-control is a
training, so that we may reap the fruits of a larger joy in the time
to come. A man will toil day and night to make himself an orator, yet
oratory is not the one aim of his existence: his hope is to influence
men by his eloquence and thus achieve some noble end. So too with us,
and those like us, who are drilled in the arts of war: we do not give
our labours in order to fight for ever, endlessly and hopelessly, we