ly check themselves to
avoid breaking the phalanx. So long as they remain together each is
protected by his neighbor and all form an impenetrable mass on which
the enemy could secure no hold. These were rude tactics, but
sufficient to overcome a disorderly troop. Isolated men could not
resist such a body. The other Greeks understood this, and all, as far
as they were able, imitated the Spartans; everywhere men were armed
as hoplites and fought in phalanx.

=Gymnastics.=--To rush in orderly array on the enemy and stand the
shock of battle there was need of agile and robust men; every man had
to be an athlete. The Spartans therefore organized athletic exercises,
and in this the other Greeks imitated them; gymnastics became for all
a national art, the highest esteemed of all the arts, the crowning
feature of the great festivals.

In the most remote countries, in the midst of the barbarians of Gaul
or of the Black Sea, a Greek city was recognized by its gymnasium.
There was a great square surrounded by porticoes or walks, usually
near a spring, with baths and halls for exercise. The citizens came
hither to walk and chat: it was a place of association. All the young
men entered the gymnasium; for two years or less they came here every
day; they learned to leap, to run, to throw the disc and the javelin,
to wrestle by seizing about the waist. To harden the muscles and
strengthen the skin they plunged into cold water, dispensed with oil
for the body, and rubbed the flesh with a scraper (the strigil).

=Athletes.=--Many continued these exercises all their lives as a point
of honor and became Athletes. Some became marvels of skill. Milo of
Croton in Italy, it was said, would carry a bull on his shoulders; he
stopped a chariot in its course by seizing it from behind. These
athletes served sometimes in combats as soldiers, or as generals.
Gymnastics were the school of war.

=Role of the Spartiates.=--The Spartans taught the other Greeks to
exercise and to fight. They always remained the most vigorous
wrestlers and the best soldiers, and were recognized as such by the
rest of Greece. Everywhere they were respected. When the rest of the
Greeks had to fight together against the Persians, they unhesitatingly
took the Spartans as chiefs--and with justice, said an Athenian
orator.

FOOTNOTES:

[62] "Hellenica," iii., 3, 6.

[63] See Thucydides, iv., 80.

[64] A collection by Plutarch is still preserved.

[65] A phrase of