=The Army.=—­Thanks to this regime, the Spartiates preserved the rude customs of mountaineers; they had no sculptors, no architects, no orators, no philosophers.  They had sacrificed everything to war; they became “adepts in the military art,"[65] and instructors of the other Greeks.  They introduced two innovations especially:  a better method of combat, a better method of athletic exercise.

=The Hoplites.=—­Before them the Greeks marched into battle in disorder; the chiefs, on horseback or in a light chair, rushed ahead, the men following on foot, armed each in his own fashion, helter-skelter, incapable of acting together or of resisting.  A battle reduced itself to a series of duels and to a massacre.  At Sparta all the soldiers had the same arms; for defence, the breastplate covering the chest, the casque which protected the head, the greaves over the legs, the buckler held before the body.  For offence the soldier had a short sword and a long lance.  The man thus armed was called a hoplite.  The Spartan hoplites were drawn up in regiments, battalions, companies, squads, almost like our armies.  An officer commanded each of these groups and transmitted to his men the orders of his superior officer, so that the general in chief might have the same movement executed throughout the whole army.  This organization which appears so simple to us was to the Greeks an astonishing novelty.

=The Phalanx.=—­Come into the presence of the enemy, the soldiers arrange themselves in line, ordinarily eight ranks deep, each man close to his neighbor, forming a compact mass which we call a Phalanx.  The king, who directs the army, sacrifices a goat to the gods; if the entrails of the victim are propitious, he raises a chant which all the army takes up in unison.  Then they advance.  With rapid and measured step, to the sound of the flute, with lance couched and buckler before the body, they meet the enemy in dense array, overwhelm him by their mass and momentum, throw him into rout, and only 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.