Assuming, then, your horses are all that horses ought to be, how is the trooper to attain a like degree of excellence? To that question I will now address myself. The art of leaping on to horseback is one which we would fain persuade the youthful members of the corps to learn themselves; though, if you choose to give them an instructor, (24) all the greater credit to yourself. And as to the older men you cannot do better than accustom them to mount, or rather to be hoisted up by aid of some one, Persian fashion. (25)
(24) Like Pheidon, in the fragment of Mnesimachus's play "The Breeder
of Horses," ap. Athen. See Courier, ib. p. 55.
(25) See "Anab." IV. iv. 4; "Horsemanship," vi. 12.
With a view to keeping a firm seat on every sort of ground, it may be perhaps be thought a little irksome to be perpetually marching out, when there is no war; (26) but all the same, I would have you call your men together and impress upon them the need to train themselves, when they ride into the country to their farms, or elsewhere, by leaving the high road and galloping at a round pace on ground of every description. (27) This method will be quite as beneficial to them as the regular march out, and at the same time not produce the same sense of tedium. You may find it useful also to remind them that the state on her side is quite willing to expend a sum of nearly forty talents (28) yearly, so that in the event of war she may not have to look about for cavalry, but have a thoroughly efficient force to hand for active service. Let these ideas be once instilled into their minds, and, mark my words, your trooper will fall with zest to practising horsemanship, so that if ever the flame of war burst out he may not be forced to enter the lists a raw recruit, unskilled to fight for fame and fatherland or even life itself.
(26) In the piping days of peace.
(27) See "Econ." xi. 17. Cf. Theophr. "Ch." viii. "The Late Learner":
{kai eis agron eph' ippou allotriou katakhoumenos ama meletan
ippazesthai, kai peson ten kephalon kateagenai}, "Riding into the
country on another's horse, he will practise his horsemanship by
the way, and falling, will break his head" (Jebb).
(28) = L10,000 circa. See Boeckh, op. cit. p. 251.
It would be no bad thing either, to forewarn your troopers that one day you will take them out yourself for a long march, and lead them across country over every kind of ground. Again, whilst practising the evolutions of the rival cavalry display, (29) it will be well to gallop out at one time to one district and again to another. Both men and horses will be benefited.
(29) Lit. "the anthippasia." See iii. 11, and "Horsemanship," viii.
10.
Next, as to hurling the javelin from horseback, the best way to secure as wide a practice of the art as possible, it strikes me, would be to issue an order to your phylarchs that it will be their duty to put themselves at the head of the marksmen of several tribes, and to ride out to the butts for practice. In this way a spirit of emulation will be roused—the several officers will, no doubt, be eager to turn out as many marksmen as they can to aid the state. (30)
(30) On competition cf. "Cyrop." II. i. 22, and our author passim.
And so too, to ensure that splendour of accoutrement which the force requires, (31) the greatest help may once again be looked for from the phylarchs; let these officers but be persuaded that from the public point of view the splendid appearance of their squadrons (32) will confer a title to distinction far higher than that of any personal equipment. Nor is it reasonable to suppose that they will be deaf to such an argument, since the very desire to hold the office of phylarch itself proclaims a soul alive to honour and ambition. And what is more, they have it in their power, in accordance with the actual provisions of the law, to equip their men without the outlay of a single penny, by enforcing that self-equipment out of pay (33) which the law prescribes.
(31) Or, "a beauty of equipment, worthy of our knights." Cf. Aristoph.
"Lysistr." 561, and a fragment of "The Knights," of Antiphanes,
ap. Athen. 503 B, {pant' 'Amaltheias keras}. See "Hiero," ix. 6;
"Horse." xi. 10.
(32) Lit. "tribes," {phulai} (each of the ten tribes contributing
about eighty men, or, as we might say, a squadron).
(33) i.e. the {katastasis}, "allowance," so technically called. Cf.
Lys. "for Mantitheos"; Jebb, "Att. Or." i. 246; Boeckh, "P. E. A."
II. xxi. p. 263; K. F. Hermann, 152, 19; Martin, op. cit. p. 341.