Memorabilia

Then if some of your men appear on parade with their horses ailing or suffering from bad feet or sore legs, others with underfed animals that can’t go the pace, others with restive brutes that won’t keep in line, others with such bad kickers that it is impossible to line them up at all, what will you be able to make of your cavalry? how will you be able to do the state any good with a command like that?I am much obliged to you, he replied, and I will try to look after the horses carefully.

Won’t you also try to improve the men? said Socrates.I will.Then will you first train them to mount better?Oh yes, I must, so that if anyone is thrown he may have a better chance of saving himself.

Further, when there is some danger before you, will you order them to draw the enemy into the sandy ground where your manoeuvres are held, or will you try to carry out your training in the kind of country that the enemy occupy?Oh yes, that is the better way.

And again, will you pay much attention to bringing down as many of the enemy as possible without dismounting?Oh yes, that too is the better way.Have you thought of fostering a keen spirit among the men and hatred of the enemy, so as to make them more gallant in action?Well, at any rate, I will try to do so now.

And have you considered how to make the men obey you? Because without that horses and men, however good and gallant, are of no use.True, but what is the best way of encouraging them to obey, Socrates?

Well, I suppose you know that under all conditions human beings are most willing to obey those whom they believe to be the best.[*](Cyropaedia III. i. 20.) Thus in sickness they most readily obey the doctor, on board ship the pilot, on a farm the farmer, whom they think to be most skilled in his business.Yes, certainly.Then it is likely that in horsemanship too, one who clearly knows best what ought to be done will most easily gain the obedience of the others.