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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: their eyes drew out his lines to give them battle. He had with him a
division[4] and a half of Lacedaemonians, and from the seat of war
itself the allied troops of the Phocians and the men of Orchomenus
only, besides the armament which he had brought with him from Asia.
[3] See "Hell." IV. ii. 7.
[4] Lit. "mora."
I am not going to maintain that he ventured on the engagement in spite
of having far fewer and inferior forces. Such an assertion would only
reveal the senselessness of the general[5] and the folly of the writer
who should select as praiseworthy the reckless imperilling of mighty
interests. On the contrary, what I admire is the fact that he had
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