[5] Homer insists on the beauty of Achilles.
“Nireus from Syma brought three balanced ships,
Nireus, the fairest man that came to Troy
Of all the Greeks, save Peleus’ blameless son.”
[6] A complete description of the organization of the Macedonian army would be out of place in a book of this kind. Any reader who may be anxious to make himself acquainted with the subject will find it treated with much fulness in Grote’s “History of Greece” (vol. xii. pp. 75-89). For my purposes a brief outline will suffice. The Macedonian infantry consisted (1) of the Pezetæri, or Foot Companions, who made up the phalanx, of which I shall have occasion to say something hereafter; (2) the Hypaspistæ, i.e., “shield-bearers,” originally a bodyguard for the person of the king, but afterwards, as has been in the case of many modern armies, our own included, enlarged into a considerable force of light infantry; (3) irregular troops, javelin-throwers, archers, &c. A select corps of actual body-guards was chosen out of the Hypaspistæ. The horse was divided into (1) heavy cavalry, armed with a xyston or thrusting pike; (2) light cavalry, who carried a lighter weapon. These may be called Lancers.
[7] On the Hellespont, the nearest point of Europe to Asia.
[8] When Lysander the Spartan was urged to destroy Athens, then at his mercy, he replied that he could not “put out one of the eyes of Greece!”
[9] The names of the two were Charidemus and Ephialtes. Ephialtes was killed at the siege of Halicarnassus. Of Charidemus we shall hear again.
[10] As a matter of fact Phocion was born in 401, and was therefore sixty-seven years old.
[11] He was one of the “Royal Youths.” Q. Curtius gives this description of this corps: “It was the custom among the Macedonian nobles to hand over their grown-up sons to the king, for the performance of functions which differed but little from domestic service. They took it in turns to pass the night close to the door of the house in which the king slept. They received the king’s horses from the grooms, and brought them to him when he was ready to mount. They accompanied him when he hunted, and they stood close to him in battle. In return, they were carefully instructed in all the branches of a liberal education. They had the especial distinction of sitting down to meals with the king. No one but the king himself was allowed to inflict corporal punishment upon them. This company was the Macedonian training-ground for generals and officers.”