[22]
And as, in addition to this, he had further1 observed that people are much more willing to practise those things in which they have rivalry among themselves, he appointed contests for them in everything that he knew it was important for soldiers to practise. What he proposed was as follows: to the private soldier, that he show himself obedient to the officers, ready for hardship, eager for danger but subject to good discipline, familiar with the duties required of a soldier, neat in the care of his equipment, and ambitious about all such matters; to the corporal, that, besides being himself like the good private, he make his squad of five a model, as far as possible; to the sergeant, that he do likewise with his squad of ten, and the lieutenant with his platoon2; and to the captain, that he be unexceptionable himself and see to it that the officers under him get those whom they command to do their duty.
1 Competitive drill
2 The divisions of Cyrus's army were as follows: 5 men to a corporal's squad πεμπάς); officer: corporal (πεμπάδαρχος); total men: 5. 2 corporals' squads to a 1 sergeant's squad δεκάς; officer: sergeant δεκάδαρχος; total men: 10. 5 sergeants' squads to a platoon λόχος; officer: lieutenant λοχαγός; total men: 50. 2 platoons to a company τάξις; officer: captain ταξίαρχος; total men: 100. 10 companies to a 1 regiment χιλιοστύς; officer: colonel χιλίαρχος; total men: 1,000. 10 regiments to a brigade μυριοστύς; officer: general μυρίαρχος); total men: 10,000.
Xenophon. Xenophon in Seven Volumes, 5 and 6. Walter Miller. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA; William Heinemann, Ltd., London. 1914.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.