Note 811 — Chapter VIII · CONQUESTS OF SPARTA TOWARDS ARCADIA AND ARGOLIS.
Reading edition
Herodot. vi. 111; Thucyd. vi. 98; Xenoph. Hellen. iv. 2, 19.
The same marshalling of hoplites, according to the civil tribes to which they belonged, is seen in the inhabitants of Messênê in Sicily as well as of Syrakuse (Thucyd. iii. 90; vi. 100).
At Argos, there was a body of one thousand hoplites, who, during the Peloponnesian war, received training in military manœuvres at the cost of the city (Thucyd. v. 67), but there is reason to believe that this arrangement was not introduced until about the period of the peace of Nikias in the tenth or eleventh year of the Peloponnesian war, when the truce between Argos and Sparta was just expiring, and when the former began to entertain schemes of ambition. The Epariti in Arcadia began at a much later time, after the battle of Leuktra (Xenoph. Hellen. vii. 4, 33).
About the Athenian taxiarchs, one to each tribe, see Æschines de Fals. Leg. c. 53, p. 300 R.; Lysias, pro Mantitheo, Or. xvi. p. 147; Demosth. adv. Bœotum pro nomine, p. 999 R. Philippic, i. p. 47.
See the advice given by Xenophon (in his Treatise De Officio Magistri Equitum) for the remodelling of the Athenian cavalry, and for the introduction of small divisions, each with its special commander. The division into tribes is all that he finds recognized (Off. M. E. C. ii. 2-iv. 9); he strongly recommends giving orders,—διὰ παραγγέλσεως, and not ἀπὸ κήρυκος.