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The Cavalry General

by Xenophon (-431–-355)

  • Free to read
  • 55 min read
  • 9 chapters
  • Reading level: 8th & 9th grade

"The Cavalry General" by Xenophon is a treatise written around 350 BC. This ancient Greek military manual focuses on the duties and responsibilities of the cavalry commander, known as the hipparchus. Written by a soldier and historian with firsthand experience, it offers practical guidance on leading mounted forces in battle. For centuries, it stood as the earliest known work on horsemanship until an even older Hittite text was discovered in 1931.

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  • Classical literature
  • Cavalry · Greece · History
  • Military art and science · Greece · Early works to 1800

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Chapter I

Your first duty is to offer sacrifice, petitioning the gods to grant you such good gifts (2) as shall enable you in thought, word, and deed to discharge your office in the manner most acceptable to Heaven, and with fullest increase to yourself, and friends, and to the state at large of affection, glory, and wide usefulness. The goodwill of Heaven (3) so obtained, you shall proceed to mount your troopers, taking care that the full complement which the law demands is reached, and that the normal force of cavalry is not diminished. There will need to be a reserve of remounts, or else a deficiency may occur at any moment, (4) looking to the fact that some will certainly succumb to old age, and others, from one reason or another, prove unserviceable.

(1) For the title, etc., see Schneid. "Praemon. de Xeno." {Ipp}. Boeckh, "P. E. A." 251.

(2) Or, "with sacrifice to ask of Heaven those gifts of thought and speech and conduct whereby you will exercise your office most acceptably to the gods themselves, and with..." Cf. Plat. "Phaedr." 273 E; "Euthr." 14 B.

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Contents

  1. Chapter I
  2. Chapter II
  3. Chapter III
  4. Chapter IV
  5. Chapter V
  6. Chapter VI
  7. Chapter VII
  8. Chapter VIII
  9. Chapter IX

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About this edition

This free edition of The Cavalry General by Xenophon comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #1172, released 1998-01-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: History - Ancient, History - Warfare.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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