- Date added
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Dec. 18, 2021, 5:56 p.m.
- Description
- On the one hand, the Greeks knew that a smart commander would put his bravest men in front and his oldest and wisest in the rear. The older men would be the least inclined to run, and would keep the rest facing forward; meanwhile the bravest and most eager for glory would lead the way. This was an ancient principle for the deployment of any group of warriors, and it would be formalised in the later Macedonian pike phalanx. As the 4th century BC Athenian general Xenophon put it, "unless its first and its last are brave men, the phalanx is good for nothing" (Education of Cyrus 6.3.25).
