select and rownum and order by

I want select 'n' lines ordered in a select SQL

this select don't work:
select * from thetable where rownum < 10 order by thedate because it's return first the 10 lines and sort.

I want first sort and the 10 lines, but i don't want sort all the table.

I don't want use a cursor because i have a big table.

Have you a solution ????

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Laurent LETANG				mailto:Laurent.Letang_at_ansf.alcatel.fr
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