Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises (Penguin Classics) (12 page)
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Authors: Xenophon
(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 cavalry 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).
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 horseback
4
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 notes
7
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 qualification
8
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.
[24] As for the men under your command knowing how to obey orders, it is important to explain to them all the benefits obedience entails even in theory,
*
as well as arranging things so that the disciplined ones prosper in actual fact, while the undisciplined ones lose out.
The most effective way, to my mind, of encouraging each of your [25] regimental commanders to take pride in heading up a well-turned-out regiment is to equip the scouts under your direct command with the finest arms and armour, compel them to practise javelin-throwing as much as possible, and take personal charge of them during their javelin-throwing displays (once you have put in plenty of practice yourself).
12
If you were in a position to offer the regiments prizes for expertise [26] in all the accomplishments people expect to see rehearsed in the exhibitions put on by the cavalry, I am sure this would go a very long way towards introducing a competitive spirit throughout Athens.
13
Look at what happens in the choral competitions, where a great deal of effort and money is spent in the hope of gaining trivial prizes. However, you would have to find judges of such impeccable character that their verdict would be a source of pride for the winners.
Let us suppose that your men are now fully trained in all these respects; [1] it is of course also necessary for them to know a formation which will enable them to look their most magnificent in religious processions and out on the riding-grounds, fight their best if called upon to do so, and make their way along roads and across rivers with the least difficulty and disorder. I will now try to explain which formation they should adopt, in my opinion, to achieve all this.
In the Athenian system, the cavalry is divided by tribe into ten [2] regiments. I think you should begin by appointing, with the approval of the relevant regimental commander, fit, ambitious men, who long for success and glory, as officers to lead each section often men within these regiments. These are the men you should post in the front rank. Next you should choose some of your most level-headed veterans – [3] the same number as the section leaders – to occupy the rear rank of each section of ten. To use an analogy: iron best cuts through iron when the cutter’s leading edge is strong and is backed up by sufficient impetus.
[4] As for the ranks between the front and the rear, the section leaders should select whom they want to stand behind them, and then every rank in turn should do the same; this would make it likely that everyone would have behind him someone he particularly trusted.[5] However, you must make absolutely certain that a capable man backs up each file, because it takes a brave man to stiffen the resolve of the men in front of him if they are ever called on to attack an enemy position, and such a man is also more likely to provide sound leadership [6] and save the lives of his fellow tribesmen if it is time to retreat. Of course, having an even number of section leaders makes it possible to divide each regiment into equal parts in more ways than if there were an odd number of them.
There are two reasons why I like this formation. In the first place, all the men in the front rank are officers, and men are more likely to think they ought to strive for success if they are in positions of responsibility than if they are ordinary rank-and-file soldiers. In the second place, passing an order on to officers rather than ordinary soldiers is a far more efficient way of getting something done.
1
[7] With this formation, the regimental commanders should post each of the section leaders as
*
they want them for an outing, just as it is the cavalry commander who stations the regimental commanders as he wishes before an expedition. If orders are given in advance like this, matters proceed in a far more disciplined fashion than they would if the men imitated the chaos of people leaving the theatre and getting [8] in one another’s way. Moreover, faced with a frontal assault, the men in the front rank are far more willing to fight when they know that is where they have been stationed, and the same goes for the men in the rear in the event of a surprise attack from behind, since they know [9] better than to abandon their post. If they take up positions at random, however, they impede one another on narrow roads and when crossing rivers, and none of them is prepared to put himself in a position that would involve fighting the enemy.
Every single one of your men must receive thorough training in all these matters if they are to give their leader unswerving support.
