most efficient in their respective
duties.

(12) B.C. 395; see "Hell." III. iv. 16; Plut. "Marcel." (Clough, ii.
262); Polyb. xii. 20, 7.

Thereupon it was a sight to see the gymnasiums thronged with warriors
going through their exercises, the racecourses crowded with troopers
on prancing steeds, the archers and the javelin men shooting at the
butts. Nay, the whole city in which he lay was transformed into a
spectacle itself, so filled to overflowing was the market-place with
arms and armour of every sort, and horses, all for sale. Here were
coppersmiths and carpenters, ironfounders and cobblers, painters and
decorators--one and all busily engaged in fabricating the implements
of war; so that an onlooker might have thought the city of Ephesus
itself a gigantic arsenal. It would have kindled courage in the breast
of a coward to see the long lines of soldiers, with Agesilaus at their
head, all garlanded as they marched in proud procession from the
gymnasiums and dedicated their wreaths to our Lady Artemis. Since,
where these three elements exist--reverence towards heaven, practice
in military affairs, and obedience to command--all else must needs be
full of happy promise.

But seeing that contempt for the foe is calculated to infuse a certain
strength in face of battle, he ordered his criers to strip naked the
barbarians captured by his foraging parties, and so to sell them. The
soldiers who saw the white skins of these folk, unused to strip for
toil, soft and sleek and lazy-looking, as of people who could only
stir abroad in carriages, concluded that a war with women would
scarcely be more formidable. Then he published a further order to the
soldiers: "I shall lead you at once by the shortest route to the
stronghold (13) of the enemy's territory. Your general asks you to keep
yourselves on the alert in mind and body, as men about to enter the
lists of battle on the instant."

(13) Or, "the richest parts of the country," viz. Lydia; Plut. "Ages."
x.

But Tissaphernes was persuaded that this was all talk on his part for
the purpose of outwitting him a second time: now certainly Agesilaus
would make an incursion into Caria. So once again the satrap
transported his infantry over into that country just has he had done
before, and as before he posted his cavalry in the plain of the
Maeander.

This time, however, Agesilaus was true to his word. In accordance with
his published order he advanced straight upo