Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises (Penguin Classics)

by Xenophon

  CHAPTER 11

  [1] I want briefly to recapitulate the various aspects of his virtue, to make my tribute easier to remember.

  Agesilaus was a scrupulous observer of sacred places even when they lay in enemy territory, because he thought it just as important to win the gods over to his side on enemy ground as it was in friendly territory.

  He never did violence to anyone, even an enemy, who had taken refuge in the sanctuary of a god, because he considered it irrational to describe people who steal from temples as sacrilegious, and then to think that there is nothing irreligious about pulling a suppliant away from the altar where he has taken refuge.1

  [2] He could constantly be heard to voice his opinion that the gods gain just as much pleasure from pious actions as they do from sanctified shrines.

  Success did not make him disdain other people, but give thanks to the gods. He offered up more sacrifices when confident than prayers when hesitant.

  He trained himself to respond to fear with a cheerful countenance and to be calm when successful.

  [3] The friends he particularly welcomed were not the ones with the most power, but the ones who were most wholehearted in their friendship.

  He never thought the worse of a person for defending himself against injustice, but he did of failure to express gratitude for a favour.2

  He rejoiced to see those who sought base gain living in poverty, and he enjoyed enriching upright people, because he wanted to make it possible for honesty to be more rewarding than dishonesty.

  It was his practice to be acquainted with all kinds of people, but to [4] be intimate only with the good.

  He thought that praise or criticism gave him as much insight into the character of the speakers as it did into the people they were speaking about.

  He did not blame people for being taken in by their friends, but he was very severely critical when they were tricked by their enemies; and he thought it clever to practise deception on a mistrustful person, but immoral to do so on a gullible person.

  He appreciated being praised by people who were also prepared to [5] find fault with things they found displeasing, and he did not find honest bluntness offensive, but he was as wary of insincerity as of a trap.

  He loathed malicious gossip even more than he hated theft, on the grounds that loss of friends is worse than loss of property.

  He was tolerant of the mistakes of ordinary citizens, with their [6] limited consequences, but took the mistakes of rulers seriously, on the grounds that they could do far more damage.

  In his opinion, manly virtue rather than idleness was appropriate for a king.

  Although he received plenty of offers from people who would have [7] done the work for free, he refused to have a physical likeness of himself set up; however, he never stopped working on memorials of his character. He thought that physical likenesses were the province of sculptors, whereas memorials ofhis character were up to him alone, and added that whereas wealthy people might want to leave the first kind of memorial, virtuous people would want to leave the second kind.3

  His attitude towards money was generous as well as honest. The [8] difference, as he saw it, was that while an honest person was content to leave other people’s money alone, a generous person also had to spend his own money to help others.

  He was always in awe of the supernatural, since he believed that a good life is no guarantee of happiness, and that only those who have died a glorious death are happy.

  [9] Unwitting neglect of virtue was bad enough, but in his opinion deliberate neglect of virtue was a worse calamity.

  He had no desire to be famous for anything unless he had put in the relevant work.

  He struck me as one of the few people who regard virtue not as something to be endured but as a comfort to be enjoyed. At any rate, praise gave him more pleasure than money.

  The courage he displayed was invariably accompanied by good sense rather than foolish risks,4 and he made a habit of putting his intelligence into practice rather than into theory.

  [10] There was no one who was more easy-going with his friends, and no one who was more terrifying to his enemies either. While he could stand any amount of hard work, he was always delighted to give in to a comrade, though he preferred good deeds to physical good looks.

  He combined the ability to control himself when things were going well with the ability to be resolute in times of danger.

  [11] His cultivation of charm was implemented by his whole way of life rather than by flippancy, and his occasional haughtiness was supported by intelligence rather than insolence. At any rate, he despised arrogance and outdid unassuming people in humility. For instance, he took pride in the plainness of his own dress and the splendid equipment of his troops, in the modesty of his own needs and his generosity towards his friends.

  [12] In addition, he was the most implacable of adversaries, but the most lenient of victors.

  He was particularly mistrustful of his enemies’ ploys, but particularly amenable to his friends’ requests.

  He combined constantly seeing to the safety of his own side with constantly making it his business to nullify the enemy’s plans.

  [13] His relatives labelled him ‘a devoted family man’, his intimates ‘unswerving’, his clients ‘ever-mindful’; the oppressed called him their ‘champion’, and those who followed him into danger their ‘saviour, second only to the gods’.

  He was the only person, as far as I know, ever to have proved that [14] while physical vigour may deteriorate with age, in good people mental strength is not subject to the ageing process.5 At any rate, he never stopped aspiring to a high and noble reputation, as long as* his body was capable of acting as a vehicle for his mental strength. And so was [15] there anyone who did not prove to be outshone in his youth by the elderly Agesilaus? Was there anyone who in his prime was as terrifying to his enemies as Agesilaus was when he was at the extremity of old age? Whose departure was a greater cause for rejoicing among the enemy than that of Agesilaus, despite the fact that he was an old man when he died? Who could compare with Agesilaus, even when he was on the verge of death, in raising the morale of the troops fighting alongside him? Was there any young man who was missed after his death more than Agesilaus, for all his age? His service to his fatherland [16] during his lifetime was so perfect that even after his death he was still a major benefactor of the state. And so he was brought back to his eternal dwelling-place, with memorials to his courage scattered throughout the world, and a royal tomb in his fatherland.6

  HOW TO BE A GOOD CAVALRY COMMANDER

  (Hipparchicus)

  INTRODUCTION

  Within two decades of Xenophon’s death, Alexander the Great’s leadership of the elite Macedonian Companion Cavalry at Chaeroneia in Boeotia in 338 was a crucial factor in his father Philip’s devastating defeat of the Athenians and Thebans that led to Greece’s subjection to Macedon. But Macedon was exceptional among states of the Greek mainland for giving a decisive role to cavalry; another great exception was Thessaly, and a significant though lesser one Boeotia. Elsewhere in Greece the front-line force was the phalanx of heavy-armed hoplite infantrymen, or at Athens, exceptional in another way, its fleet of triremes. Even the Peloponnesian War, which brought about so many military innovations, did not result in a significant promotion of Greek cavalry warfare. For a start, the terrain was usually against it; so too were the Greeks’ generally low level of technology and relatively egalitarian social organization. Here therefore, as often, Xenophon was arguing something of a rearguard case, although the Athenian cavalry seems to have shed most of the odium in which it had been clothed some three to four decades earlier.

  The treatise is based on Xenophon’s own extensive personal experience and expertise both at home in Greece and in Asia Minor. The command of technical detail is formidable. Xenophon was, in the words of the Loeb editor, E. C. Marchant, ‘both an excellent judge of a horse and a highly accomplished horseman’ and had a ‘profound interest in cava
lry and knowledge of its use’ (Marchant, pp. xxxiii, xxviii). Specifically, the work is addressed to the situation of cavalry command at Athens, about which we are given more precise information in a treatise of c. 330 on the Athenian democratic constitution, whose author (Aristotle or a pupil) had certainly read Xenophon. If Cavalry Commander can be given a fairly precise date in the mid-360s (see chapter 1 note 11), it may have been intended to have a directly practical impact, especially as Xenophon’s two sons, who had been raised partly in Sparta, returned to Athens in the 360s to fight in alliance with Sparta against the common enemy Thebes; one of them, Gryllus, perished in a cavalry engagement shortly before the major confrontation at Mantinea in 362, which the Boeotian side under Epameinondas won.

  However, too much should not be made of these possible specific references and applications. As usual in Xenophon’s works, the primary emphasis is placed on morality, in this instance on the moral and religious qualities required to lead men as a cavalry commander in any situation, place or time. The work assumes, no doubt autobiographically, that it is the individual skills and actions of the commanders that determine the overall efficiency of the cavalry. The next treatise in this selection, On Horsemanship, may or may not have been written by Xenophon as a companion piece. But it is in any case by no means the only other work in the Xenophontic corpus that attempts to make horse sense. Some parts of Cavalry Commander closely resemble Memoirs of Socrates 3.3, for example, and Ischomachus, the gentleman-farmer hero of Estate-manager, is naturally an excellent horseman who has his horse led to and from his farm, where he mounts and performs military exercises (9.17–20).

  HOW TO BE A GOOD CAVALRY COMMANDER

  CHAPTER 1

  Before doing anything else, you should offer up a sacrifice and ask [1] the gods to ensure that the way in which you conduct your command – your thoughts, words and deeds – not only may afford them particular pleasure, but also may be particularly effective in bringing yourself, your friends and your state alliances, honour and general benefit. Once you have secured the favour of the gods,1 you next [2] have to recruit horsemen, making sure that you do not fall short of the legal quota and that the cavalry is at full strength. Additional recruits are needed to stop the numbers dwindling because men are always leaving for some reason or another, such as getting too old to carry on.2

  While the quota is being filled, you should take care that the horses [3] are being fed sufficiently to guarantee their ability to endure hard physical work. After all, any horses that are too weak to exert themselves will not be able to catch up with a fleeing adversary or escape from pursuit. You must also make sure that they are tractable, because disobedient horses are a help to the enemy rather than their own side. Any horses that kick while being ridden must be weeded out, because [4] horses of this type often do more harm than the enemy. You must also make sure that, as far as their feet are concerned, the horses are capable of being ridden even over rough ground,3 because you can be sure that they will do you no good at all anywhere it hurts them to ride.

  Once the horses are satisfactory, you should next train their riders. [5] The first thing you have to ensure is that they are capable of jumping up on to a horse’s back, because that has saved many a life; the second skill to develop is the ability to ride over all kinds of terrain, because the enemy will not always be found on the same kind of ground.

  [6] Third, once your men have acquired deep seats, you have to train them until as many of them as possible can throw a javelin from horseback4 and until, generally, they have all the skills of expert horsemen. Fourth, you must equip both the horses and riders with the kind of arms and armour that will enable them to inflict the maximum amount of harm on the enemy while sustaining as little as [7] possible themselves. Fifth, you must see that the men are capable of taking orders, because a good horse, a deep seat, and fine arms and armour are completely useless without obedience.

  It is of course the cavalry commander’s job to see that all these things [8] are properly ordered, but at the same time the state has recognized that it is hard for him to do it all by himself, and so it also elects commanders for each of the tribal regiments,5 and has ordained that the Council is jointly responsible for the cavalry.6 It is therefore advisable, in my opinion, for you to get your regimental commanders to share your desire for the efficiency of the cavalry, and to have suitable people address the Council with speeches designed to frighten your men (fear will make them better soldiers) and assuage any inopportune resentment the Council may feel.

  [9] Anyway, these are just notes7 to remind you of your areas of responsibility; I will now take them one by one and try to explain how to obtain the best possible result in each case.

  Starting with your men, then, the law makes it plain that you have to recruit them from among those who are, thanks to their wealth and physical condition, best qualified to serve in the cavalry, and that you are either to obtain a legal ruling about their qualification8 or to [10] persuade them to join up. The people you should take to court, in my opinion, are the ones who might otherwise be suspected of having bribed you to waive the legal procedure in their case. After all, if you fail to press the best qualified people into service first, the less well qualified ones will immediately have an excuse for not joining up.

  [11] I am also sure that there are young men who can be filled with enthusiasm for serving in the cavalry if one describes the splendour of a cavalryman’s life, while their fathers’ or guardians’ resistance can be weakened by pointing out that thanks to their wealth they will be forced to maintain a horse in the cavalry some time, by someone else if not by you. You can then add that if their boys join up during your [12] period of command, you will deter them from their extravagant craze for buying horses and you will make sure that they rapidly become expert horsemen. And you should do your best to keep these promises.

  The Council should, to my mind, decree that in future any lazy [13] horses* are to be ridden twice as much and that any horse which is incapable of keeping up is to be rejected. This would force them to feed and look after their horses better. I think the Council should also [14] rule that vicious horses are to be rejected, because this threat would encourage the men to spend longer breaking their horses in and to be more sensible when buying them. It is also worth arranging for [15] the rejection of any horses that kick during the riding-exercises, because it is impossible to get such horses to serve alongside others; they are bound to bring up the rear in any movement against the enemy, and therefore the horse’s vicious behaviour makes the rider ineffective too.9

  If anyone knows an easier and cheaper way of getting a horse’s feet [16] in prime condition, by all means use it. Otherwise, my experience leads me to recommend collecting stones from the road, each more or less a mina in weight,10 and spreading them on the ground as a surface on which to give the horse its rub-down and for it to stand on every time it leaves its manger. The point is that the horse will constantly make walking movements on the stones when it is being rubbed down or bothered by flies. Once you have tried this method and seen how well rounded your horse’s feet become, you will have confidence in the rest of my advice.

  Assuming that the horses are now satisfactory, I will explain how [17] to get your men up to scratch. I would convince the young ones to learn for themselves how to jump up on to a horse’s back, but there is also nothing wrong with laying on an instructor. If you get the older ones used to being helped up by others in the Persian fashion, you will be doing them good too.

  What about enabling your men to have deep seats whatever the [18] terrain they are riding over? It is probably too much of a nuisance to take them out on frequent rides when there is no war on, but you should get them together and advise them to practise leaving the roads and riding at speed over all kinds of ground, when they are riding out to the country, for instance, or elsewhere. This does almost as much

  [19] good as taking them out, without being so much of a nuisance. It is worth reminding them as
well that the state endures expenses of almost forty talents a year on the cavalry in order to have them ready for immediate use and not have to hunt around for cavalrymen in the event of war.11 Bearing this in mind will probably make them take their equestrian training more seriously, so as to avoid the possibility of having to fight for their country, glory and lives in an unprepared [20] state. You would also do well to warn them that you will take them out in person one day and will lead them over all kinds of terrain. And it is a good idea – better for the horses as well as their riders – to vary the kinds of terrain to which you conduct them before simulated battle manoeuvres.

  [21] I think the way to get as many of your men as possible learning how to throw the javelin from horseback is to tell the regimental commanders that you will be asking them to take personal charge of the javelineers from each regiment when they ride out to display their expertise. The chances are that they will then vie with one another to see which of them can produce the largest number of expert javelineers for the state.

  [22] The regimental commanders can also contribute hugely towards seeing that the men are properly armed, in my opinion, once they have taken on board the idea that the state gains far more, in terms of reputation, from a whole regiment being smartly turned out, than [23] if it is just their own equipment that is eye-catching. They will probably not be hard to convince of this, since it was lust for glory and honour that led them to want to hold the office of regimental commander in the first place, and since they can obtain the equipment required by law without in fact incurring any expenses themselves, given that the law allows them to compel the men to arm themselves out of their pay.