Cyropaedia

The unpacking also is managed in this same manner; and in order to have all the necessaries ready at the right time, each one has assigned to him likewise the part that he is to do. In this way the time required for doing any one part is sufficient for getting all the provisions ready.

And just as the servants in charge of the[*](Cyrus’s perfect organization) provisions had each his proper place, so also his soldiers had when they encamped the places suitable to each sort of troops; they knew their places, too, and so all found them without the slightest friction.

For Cyrus considered orderliness to be a good thing to practise in the management of a household also; for whenever any one wants a thing, he then knows where he must go to find it; but he believed that orderliness in all the departments of an army was a much better thing, inasmuch as the chances of a successful stroke in war come and go more quickly and the losses occasioned by those who are behindhand in military matters are more serious. He also saw that the advantages gained in war by prompt attention to duty were most important. It was for this reason, therefore, that he took especial pains to secure this sort of orderliness.

Accordingly, he himself first took up his[*](The arrangement of his camp) position in the middle of the camp in the belief that this situation was the most secure. Then came his most trusty followers, just as he was accustomed to have them about him at home, and next to them in a circle he had his horsemen and charioteers;

for those troops also, he thought, need a secure position, because when they are in camp they do not have ready at hand any of the arms with which they fight, but need considerable time to arm, if they are to render effective service.

To the right and left from him and the cavalry was the place for the targeteers; before and behind him and the cavalry, the place for the bowmen.

The hoplites and those armed with the large shields he arranged around all the rest like a wall, so that those who could best hold their ground might, by being in front of them, make it possible for the cavalry to arm in safety, if it should be necessary.

Moreover, he had the peltasts and the bowmen sleep on their arms, like the hoplites, in order that, if there should be occasion to go into action even at night, they might be ready for it. And just as the hoplites were prepared to do battle if any one came within arm’s reach of them, so these troops also were to be ready to let fly their lances and arrows over the heads of the hoplites, if any one attacked.