[52]
And when he wanted to find out whether the Thebans had passed Oneum, he sent as scouts all the horsemen both of the Athenians and of the Corinthians. And yet a few men would have been quite as efficient for seeing as the many; while if it were necessary to retire, it would be much easier for the few than for the many both to find an easy route and to retire at their leisure. But to employ a force that was numerous and still inferior to the enemy — was this not surely the height of folly? For inasmuch as the horsemen extended their line over a large space because they were a large force, when it was necessary to retire they encountered a large number of difficult places, so that no fewer than twenty horsemen lost their lives. At that time, then, the Thebans returned home as they pleased.
Xenophon. Xenophon in Seven Volumes, 1 and 2. Carleton L. Brownson. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA; William Heinemann, Ltd., London. vol. 1:1918; vol. 2: 1921.
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