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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: [9] See Thuc. v. 66, 71.
[10] See Thuch. v. 68, and Arnold's note ad loc.; "Hell." VI. iv. 12;
"Anab." II. iv. 26; Rustow and Kochly, op. cit. p. 117.
As to the idea, commonly entertained, that the tactical arrangement of
the Laconian heavy infantry is highly complicated, no conception could
be more opposed to fact. For in the Laconian order the front rank men
are all leaders,[11] so that each file has everything necessary to
play its part efficiently. In fact, this disposition is so easy to
understand that no one who can distinguish one human being from
another could fail to follow it. One set have the privilege of
leaders, the other the duty of followers. The evolutional orders,[12]
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