eek text into
English using an Oxford English Dictionary alphabet table. The
diacritical marks have been lost.

THE CAVALRY GENERAL

THE DUTIES OF A HIPPARCH (1)

or

Commander of Cavalry at Athens

I

Your first duty is to offer sacrifice, petitioning the gods to grant
you such good gifts (2) as shall enable you in thought, word, and deed
to discharge your office in the manner most acceptable to Heaven, and
with fullest increase to yourself, and friends, and to the state at
large of affection, glory, and wide usefulness. The goodwill of
Heaven (3) so obtained, you shall proceed to mount your troopers,
taking care that the full complement which the law demands is reached,
and that the normal force of cavalry is not diminished. There will
need to be a reserve of remounts, or else a deficiency may occur at
any moment, (4) looking to the fact that some will certainly succumb to
old age, and others, from one reason or another, prove unserviceable.

(1) For the title, etc., see Schneid. "Praemon. de Xeno." {Ipp}.
Boeckh, "P. E. A." 251.

(2) Or, "with sacrifice to ask of Heaven those gifts of thought and
speech and conduct whereby you will exercise your office most
acceptably to the gods themselves, and with..." Cf. Plat.
"Phaedr." 273 E; "Euthr." 14 B.

(3) The Greek phrase is warmer, {theon d' ileon onton}, "the gods
being kindly and propitious." Cf. Plat. "Laws," 712 B.

(4) Lit. "at any moment there will be too few." See "Les Cavaliers
Atheniens," par Albert Martin, p. 308.

But now suppose the complement of cavalry is levied, (5) the duty will
devolve on you of seeing, in the first place, that your horses are
well fed and in condition to stand their work, since a horse which
cannot endure fatigue will clearly be unable to overhaul the foeman or
effect escape; (6) and in the second place, you will have to see to it
the animals are tractable, since, clearly again, a horse that will not
obey is only fighting for the enemy and not his friends. So, again, an
animal that kicks when mounted must be cast; since brutes of that sort
may often do more mischief than the foe himself. Lastly, you must pay
attention to the horses' feet, and see that they will stand being
ridden over rough ground. A horse, one knows, is practically useless
where he cannot be galloped without suffering.

(5) Lit. "in process of being raised."

(6) Or, "to press home a charge a l'