side were equal. Wherefore they were invincible in their own
estimation, and established an ascendant over the minds of their
opponents, for they were wont to engage with men who did not
themselves think that with equal force they could be a match for the
same number of Spartans. But this battle first proved to the rest of
Greece that it is not only the Eurotas, and the country between Babuke
and Knacion[11] that nurtures brave and warlike men, but that wherever
the youth of a nation fears disgrace and is willing to risk life for
honour, and shrinks from shame more than from danger, these form the
troops most terrible to their foes.

XVIII. The Sacred Band, they say, was first formed by Gorgidas, of 300
picked men, whom the city drilled and lodged in the Kadmeia when on
service, wherefore they were called the "city" regiment; for people
then generally called the citadel the "city." Some say that this force
was composed of intimate friends, and indeed there is current a saying
of Pammenes, that Homer's Nestor is not a good general when he bids
the Greeks assemble by their tribes and clans:

"That tribe to tribe, and clan to clan give aid,"

whereas he ought to have placed side by side men who loved each other,
for men care little in time of danger for men of the same tribe or
clan, whereas the bond of affection is one that cannot be broken, as
men will stand fast in battle from the strength of their affection for
others, and from feeling shame at showing themselves cowards before
them. Nor is this to be wondered at, seeing that men stand more in awe
of the objects of their love when they are absent than they do of
others when present, as was the case with that man who begged and
entreated one of the enemy to stab him in the breast as he lay