Note 79 — GREECE BEYOND PELOPONNESUS. (continued 4)

“Xenophon’s Hellenica is one of the most corrupt among ancient works; the text is in a very bad condition, and requires a most thorough critical revision; the history itself, though bad, is indispensable to us. In the fifth book, he states that Olynthus had 800 hoplites and an equal number of peltasts, but this is impossible. It has been proposed to read 8000, but this is too much, and is, moreover, not plausible, as the numbers were written in the characters of the alphabet. Demosthenes speaks of 5000 hoplites; his expression πόλις μυρίανδρος only signifies a large town in general.”