Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises (Penguin Classics) (28 page)

1
.
visible signs
…
of the fighting:
For his many battle scars see 2.13.

2
.
go through uncontested:
The Greek
akoniti
meant literally ‘without dust’, a technical term derived from the distinctly dust-ridden competitions in wrestling and pancration (all-in wrestling combined with boxing and judo) and extended to other athletic contests.

3
.
unswerving: Aprophasistos
is picked up again significantly in the summation at 11.13. It occurs also in
Cavalry Commander
2.9.

4
.
maidens in its orderliness
: A Greek maiden was not supposed to do anything to catch a man’s eye; moreover, the way one walked was, according to Greek physiognomic notions, an index of one’s moral character. Maidenly deportment was supposedly inculcated in Spartan boys by the educational regime prescribed by Lycurgus (
Spartan Society
5.3, in Penguin
Plutarch on Sparta
).

1
.
old age as an excuse
: Not quite true – see
A History of My Times
5.4.13 (Agesilaus, then aged about 66, cried off from leading a campaign in 378).

2
.
coup… the laws
: How, indeed – except that in about 400, within a year of Agesilaus’ accession, one Cinadon did attempt a coup (or so Xenophon reports at
A History of My Times
3.3.4–11).

3
.
a catastrophe
: This alleged principled ‘panhellenism’ of Agesilaus is of course just so much bunkum and balderdash – see
chapter 1 note 32
; for his – and Xenophon’s – enmity towards the entirely Greek Thebes, see
chapter 2 note 5
. Xenophon’s unconventional application of
philhellen
, ‘supporter of Greece’, to a Greek rather than a non-Greek is also nothing but a rhetorical flourish.

4
.
the whole Persian army:
The Battle of the Nemea River (394) is described at
A History of My Times
4.2.9–23, where there is no mention of Agesilaus’ distress on hearing the news at 4.3.1–2.

5
.
the Persians:
Compare and contrast Thucydides 4.80.4, where the Spartans have no compunction in ‘annihilating’ some 2,000 Helots (in about 424).

6
.
harassing the Persians in any way he could:
The implied chronology is at best misleading: Agesilaus sailed for Asia in 396, and the ‘war against other Greeks’, which in
A History of My Times
3.5.1–2 Xenophon ascribes to Persian bribery, began only in 395. The apologetic trumpeting of his alleged Persia-hatred is
designed to exonerate Agesilaus from the responsibility he surely bore for the conclusion and – especially – the exploitation of the King’s Peace in 386.

1
.
my friendship:
Cf. Plutarch
Moralia
213–e. The supposed occasion was some time after the conclusion of the King’s Peace; again, the purpose of the story is apologetic.

2
.
return home
: Aristodemus was great-great-grandson of Heracles (see
chapter 1 note 1
). The local Spartan version of the ‘Return of the Descendants of Heracles’ myth portrayed Aristodemus as leader when the Heraclids (re) occupied Sparta. ‘Lycurgus’ is said to have forbidden the use of any tool apart from a saw in the making of doors, to discourage ‘extravagance’ (Plutarch,
Lycurgus
13, in Penguin
Plutarch on Sparta
).

3
.
daughter… public cart
: A pupil of Aristotle, Dicaearchus, tried but failed to discover the daughter’s name; Plutarch himself discovered in Sparta’s archives that Agesilaus had had two daughters, named Eupolia and Proauga (
Agesilaus
19.10). Travel to Amyclae in the ‘public cart’ was for a religious purpose, to participate in the Hyacinthia festival (2.17).

4
.
and fear
. Xenophon has strayed rather far from the virtue of ‘charm’ (8.1) and back to financial honesty (4.1).

1
.
their way
: For a revealing vignette of Agesilaus at work, see
A History of My Times
5.4.28; cf. Plutarch,
Agesilaus
4.5.

2
.
of wealth
: Cynisca (‘Puppy’) was probably Agesilaus’ full sister. Xenophon significantly under-reports her achievement: in 396, she was the first woman ever to win the four-horse chariot-race at Olympia, and moreover won it again at the next games of 392. Pausanias 3.15.1, 5.111.5 (Penguin
Guide to Greece
, vol. 2, pp. 50, 231–2) mentions her commemorative dedication at Olympia and the hero-shrine to her at Sparta.

3
.
his renown… there is
: Similar words and sentiments are found at
Hiero
11.5 – 8, especially 11.7; cf. 4.6 and Herodotus 5.111. Contrast
Cyropaedia
2.3.7–15.

1
.
lament
: It is in fact mainly an encomium (e.g.
chapter 1 note 7
) liberally laced with apologia (e.g.
chapter 7 note 6
).

1
.
taken refuge
: According to Thucydides (
History
1.128), the pious Spartans had explained the great earthquake and subsequent Helot revolt of the 460s as divine retribution for their having ‘raised up some helot suppliants from the altar of Poseidon, and taken them away and killed them’.

2
.
a favour
: Cf.
Cyropaedia
1.27, 4.5.29–33.

3
.
second kind
: For Agesilaus’ concern with his posthumous reputation see 9.7; but without encomia such as Xenophon’s how could he have been sure of leaving to posterity ‘memorials of his character’ (cf. 11.16)? There is surely implied Xenophontic self-reference too in 10.1 (household management) and 11.4 (praise reveals the character of the praiser).

4
.
invariably… good sense rather than foolish risks
: ‘Invariably’? But see 2.12.

5
.
ageing process
: This is perhaps an implied defence of not just Agesilaus but Spartan gerontocracy more generally; Aristotle (
Politics
1270b35ff.) challenged the ascription of virtue to members of the Spartan Gerousia and pointed out that the mind as well as the body becomes senile.

6
.
his fatherland
: Agesilaus died aged about 84 in north Africa; his body, embalmed in wax, was brought back to Sparta for the uniquely lavish funeral (‘of a grandeur that seemed to go beyond what a mere man could claim or expect’, was how Xenophon in
A History of My Times
3.3.1 described that of Agis II, Agesilaus’ half-brother and Eurypontid predecessor) accorded to Spartan kings. The posthumous benefaction is the ‘great deal of money’ already mentioned (2.31). See also
chapter 2 note 33
.

1
.
the gods:
On the indispensability of sacrifice, and the need on occasion for a commander to sacrifice repeatedly, sometimes for several days, until a favourable omen was received, see
Agesilaus
chapter 1 note 27
.

2
.
carry on
: 1,000 was the official full complement of the Athenian
hippeis
(Cavalry); that it was not easy to maintain is implied by 9.3 and 9.5. It was apparently the duty of tribally appointed ‘Cataloguers’ to list men qualified but not yet enrolled: Aristotelian
Constitution of the Athenians
(
Ath. Pol.
) 49.2, with the expert
Commentary
by P. J. Rhodes (Oxford University Press, 1981, corr. reprint, 1993). Spence, pp. 287–315 (see Further Reading) lists known Athenian cavalrymen between
c.
500 and 300.

3
.
rough ground
: The Greeks did not shoe their horses, and ground that was
hippasimos
, suitable for cavalry horses, was rare in Greece (cf. 8.13), not least in Attica (see Herodotus 5.63.4).

4
.
javelin from horseback
: The difficulty of javelin-throwing from horseback without the benefit of stirrups needs no underlining; cf.
On Horsemanship
8.10–11, 12.12–13.

5
.
tribal regiments
: The ten tribal regiments (2.2) were each commanded by a Phylarch. Note that, like the two Hipparchs (Cavalry Commanders), they were elected, not appointed through the chance of the lot. See further
Ath. Pol
. 61.4–5.

6
.
the cavalry
: The Council of 500, 50 men selected annually by lot from each of the ten Athenian civic tribes, was Athens’ principal administrative body. Among its many functions two were relevant to the administration of the cavalry: (i) the conduct of
dokimasiai
or examinations to check the credentials of those appointed to an office or military function; and (ii) the distribution of public stipends (
misthos
) of various kinds, including certainly a fodder grant for cavalrymen’s horses (
Ath. Pol.
49.1) and possibly pay when on active service (see
note 11
below). Hoards of lead tablets have been recovered from the Athenian Agora recording the colour, brand and value of cavalrymen’s horses, the latter possibly because the state would repay the value of a horse killed in action.

7
.
just notes
: In a sense the whole treatise is a
hypomnema
or
aide-mémoire
, but here and at 3.1 the author uses the term to disclaim comprehensiveness. At 9.1 he generously allows that just a ‘few readings’ of the treatise will suffice.

8
.
their qualification
: For this double requirement of health and wealth (cf. 9.5), see also
Ath. Pol
. 49.2. Wealth was required because the cavalryman had to provide his own horse, but see note 6 above for provision from central funds thereafter. Legal procedure might be necessary in case a man’s eligibility (see
notes 2
and
6
above) were disputed.

9
.
horse’s vicious behaviour… ineffective too:
Cf.
On Horsemanship
3.7–11.

10
.
weight
: An Attic mina weighed 436.6 grams. See also
On Horsemanship
4.4–5 for slightly more detailed directions.

11
.
of war
: If the 1,000 cavalrymen were all on active service and paid 4 obols a day, that would yield the figure of 40 talents per annum (1 talent = 6,000
drachmas; 1 drachma = 6 obols), but that equation is by no means certain. One alternative would be to assume a daily stipend of one drachma per man, with the consequence that in the mid–360s (if that is the date of this treatise) the cavalry was seriously under-strength at only 650 men, owing perhaps to recruitment difficulties. On the cost of cavalry service at Athens, see Spence, pp. 272–86.

12
.
practice yourself
: These scouts (
prodromoi
) were a special body of light-armed cavalry, the successors apparently to the fifth-century horse-archers (
hippotoxotai): Ath. Pol
. 49.1, with Rhodes,
Commentary
, pp. 565–6, cf. pp. 303–4.

13
.
throughout Athens
: Xenophon, like Agesilaus (see e.g.
A History of My Times
3.4.16), was a great believer in the merits of competition; see also 1.21 and 3.5. The following remark about the quality of judges is probably a veiled jibe at Athens’ democratic method of selecting judges for the theatrical competitions at the Great Dionysia, by lot on a totally random basis.

1
.
something done
: Cf. Thucydides’ account (5.66.4) of the Spartan chain-of-command at the Battle of Mantinea in 418, stressing the merit of an army consisting almost entirely of officers.

1
.
as possible
: The Academy and Lyceum were public gymnasia or exercise-grounds, sacred respectively to the hero Academus and to Apollo Lyceius (‘Wolfish’). They are more famous for being the sites of respectively Plato’s and Aristotle’s philosophical schools or institutes of higher learning. Their positions in relation to the Agora (next note) are neatly shown in a reconstructed drawing by Candace H. Smith in A. A. Long and D. N. Sedley,
The Hellenistic Philosophers
, vol. 1 (Cambridge University Press, 1987),
p. 4
. The Hippodrome was probably in the Peiraeus area. The reference to ‘Phalerum’, which does not recur, may well be spurious.

2
.
city square
: The Athenian Agora has been the subject of intensive exploration and excavation by the American School of Classical Studies since 1931; the specifically topographical volumes of the School’s Agora Series (Princeton University Press) are 3 (R. E. Wycherley, 1957) and 14 (H. A. Thompson and Wycherley, 1972). The Herms were located on the north side of the Agora; many or most were deliberately smashed one ill-omened night in 415 as the Athenian armada was about to sail for Sicily (Thucydides 6.27). The
number of shrines and statues was by now very large, including hero shrines such as the Leocoreum, honorific statues of the two Tyrannicides (see
Hiero
chapter 5 note 3
) and the Stoa (portico) of Demeter and Core referred to here as the Eleusinium.

3
.
their wishes
: Nostalgia is not of course peculiar to Xenophon, but the endings of both
Spartan Society
and
Cyropaedia
are extended meditations on the decline of Sparta and Persia from their supposed golden eras, and Xenophon is likely to have shared the hankering of his slightly older contemporary Isocrates for a less or rather a non-democratic order.