Cyropaedia

No one, I think, would gain-say[*](Cyrus proposes to have Persian cavalry) me in this statement, that it makes all the difference in the world whether the Persians have their own cavalry or not. But perhaps you are wondering how this may be accomplished. Well then, supposing that we wished to organize a division of cavalry, had we not better consider our resources and our deficiencies?

Here, then, in camp are numbers of horses which we have taken and reins which they obey, and everything else that horses must have before you can use them. Yes, and more, all that a horseman must use we have—breastplates as defensive armour for the body and spears which we may use either to hurl or to thrust.

What then remains? Obviously we must have men. Now these above all other things we have; for nothing is so fully ours as we ourselves are our own. But perhaps some one will say that we do not know how to ride. No, by Zeus; and no one of these who now know how to ride did know before he learned. But, some one may say, they learned when they were boys.

And are boys more clever in learning what is explained to them and what is shown them than are men? And which are better able with bodily strength to put into practice what they have learned, boys or men?

Again, we have more time for learning than either boys or other men; for we have not, like boys, to learn to shoot, for we know how already; or to throw the spear, for we understand that, too. No; nor yet again are we so situated as other men, some of whom are kept busy with their farming, some with their trades, and some with other domestic labours, while we not only have time for military operations, but they are forced upon us.

And this is not like many other branches of military discipline, useful but laborious; nay, when it comes to marching, is not riding more pleasant than tramping along on one’s own two feet? And when speed is required, is it not delightful quickly to reach a friend’s side, if need be, and quickly to overtake a man or an animal, if occasion should require one to give chase? And is this not convenient, that the horse should help you to carry whatever accoutrement you must take along? Surely, to have and to carry are not quite the same thing.

What one might have most of all to fear, however, is that in case it is necessary for us to go into action on horseback before we have thoroughly mastered this task, we shall then be no longer infantrymen and not yet competent cavalrymen. But not even this is an insurmountable difficulty; for whenever we wish, we may at once fight on foot; for in learning to ride we shall not be unlearning any of our infantry tactics.