Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/473

 SPARTAN DRILLING. 457 Each enomoty had a separate captain, or enomotarch, the strong- est and ablest soldier of the company, Avho always occupied the front rank, and led the enomoty when it marched in single file, giving the order of march, as vell as setting the example. If the enomoty was drawn up in three, or four, or six files, the enomotarch usually occupied the front post on the left, and care was taken that both the front-rank men and the rear-rank men, of each file, should be soldiers of particular merit. 1 It was upon these small companies that the constant and se- vere Lacedaemonian drilling was brought to act. They were taught to march in concert, to change rapidly from line to file, to wheel right or left in such manner as that the enomotarch and the other protostates, or front-rank men, should always be the persons immediately opposed to the enemy. 3 Their step was have consisted of about thirty-two men (Thuc. 1. c.) : at the battle of Leuktra of thirty-six men (Xen. Hellen. I. c.). But the language of Xenophon and Thucydides does not imply that the number of each enomoty was equal. 1 0. Miiller states that the enomotarch, after a -rrapajuyri, or deployment into phalanx, stood on the rigid hand, which is contrary to Xenoph. Rep. Lac. 11, 9. 'Ore 6e 6 upxuv evwvv[io<; yiyvcTai, ov<5' kv TOVTQ fieiovrKTflv ir/ovvrai uTJC eanv ore KOI nhsoveKTeiv, the upx uv was the first enomo- tarch of the lochus, the Trpuroorcm/f (as appears from 11, 5), when the enomoty marched in single file. To put the iiyepvv on the right flank, was done occasionally for special reason, fjv 6e irore evsica Ttvof tony i-vfi- Qcpeiv, rbv #ye//6va 6eiov Kepaf EX ELV > etc - I understand Xenophon's de- scription of the Trapaywy?}, or deployment, differently from Miiller, it rather seems that the enomoties which stood first made a side-movement to the left, so that the first enomotarch still maintained his place on the left, at the same 'time that the opportunity was created for the enomoties in the rear to come up and form equal front, T tvapoTapxy irapey/vuTai sir (IETUTTOV irap' uaxitia Katiiaraadat, the words Trap' uanida have reference, as I ima- gine, to the proceeding of the first enomotarch, who set the example of side-movement to the left-hand, as it is shown by the words which follow, Kai did. TtavTbc ovrof lor' uv r; 0<i/layf ivavria naraaTij. The pha- lanx was constituted when all the lochl formed an equal and continuous front, whether the sixteen enomoties, of which each lochus was composed, might be each in one file, in three files, or in six files. with op&ioi hoxoi, in which case the strongest and best soldiers all came first into conflict. It is to be recollected, however, that the practice of the Cyre- ian troops cannot be safely quoted as authority for the practice at Sparta. Xenophon and his colleagues established lochi. pentekosties, and enomoties VOL. TI. 20
 * See Xenoph. Anab. iv. 8, 10, upon the advantage of attacking the enemy