but was cut down with those about him sword in hand. This was the
signal for a flight so extraordinary that dead and dying lined the
road, and the living were captured wholesale, nor was a halt made
until the pursuers reached Mount Narthacius. Here, midway between Pras
and Narthacius, Agesilaus erected a trophy, and here for the moment he
halted in unfeigned satisfaction at his exploit, since it was from an
antagonist boasting the finest cavalry in the world that he had
wrested victory with a body of cavalry organised by himself.

(1) I.e. "Xerxes."

(2) I.e. "the Three hundred." See Thuc. v. 72; "Pol. Lac." xiii. 6.

Next day, crossing the mountain barrier of Achaea Phthiotis, his march
lay through friendly territory for the rest of the way as far as the
frontiers of Boeotia. Here he found the confederates drawn up in
battle line. They consisted of the Thebans, the Athenians, the
Argives, the Corinthians, the Aenianians, the Euboeans, and both
divisions of the Locrians. (3) He did not hesitate, but openly before
their eyes drew out his lines to give them battle. He had with him a
division (4) and a half of Lacedaemonians, and from the seat of war
itself the allied troops of the Phocians and the men of Orchomenus
only, besides the armament which he had brought with him from Asia.

(3) See "Hell." IV. ii. 7.

(4) Lit. "mora."

I am not going to maintain that he ventured on the engagement in spite
of having far fewer and inferior forces. Such an assertion would only
reveal the senselessness of the general (5) and the folly of the writer
who should select as praiseworthy the reckless imperilling of mighty
interests. On the contrary, what I admire is the fact that he had
taken care to provide himself with an army not inferior to that of his
enemy, and had so equipped them that his cohorts literally gleamed
with purple and bronze. (6) He had taken pains to enable his soldiers
to undergo the fatigue of war, he had filled their breasts with a
proud consciousness that they were equal to do battle with any
combatants in the world, and what was more, he had infused a wholesome
rivalry in those about him to prove themselves each better than the
rest. He had filled all hearts with sanguine expectation of great
blessings to descend on all, if they proved themselves good men. Such
incentives, he thought, were best calculated to arouse enthusiasm in
men's souls to engage in battle with the enemy. And in this
expectation he