Note 168 — Chapter VII

Beyond doubt Plutarch in these words (de defectu orac. 8) does not mean to say that Greece was not able at all to furnish 3000 men capable of arms, but that, if burgess–armies of the old sort were to be formed, they would not be in a position to set on foot 3000 “hoplites.” In this sense the expression may well be correct, so far as correctness can be expected at all in the case of general complaints of this sort. The number of communities of the province amounted nearly to a hundred.