Page:Frontinus - The stratagems, and, the aqueducts of Rome (Bennet et al 1925).djvu/141

 STRATAGEMS, II. i. 7-11

When the consul Verginius, in the war with the Volscians, saw the enemy run forward at full stretch from a distance, he commanded liis own men to keep steady and hold their javelins at rest. Then, when the enemy were out of breath, while his own army was still strong and fresh, he attacked and routed them.^

Since Fabius Maximus was well aware that the Gauls and Samnites were strong in the initial attack, while the tireless spirits of his own men actually waxed hotter as the struggle continued, he com- manded his soldiers to rest content with holding the foe at the first encounter and to wear them out by delay. When this succeeded, bringing up reinforcements to his men in the van, and attacking with his full strength, he crushed and routed the enemy.^

At Chaeronea, Philip purposely j)rolonged the engagement, mindful that his own soldiers were seasoned by long experience, while the Athenians were ardent but untrained, and impetuous only in the charge. Then, as the Athenians began to grow weary, Philip attacked more furiously and cut them down.^

When the Spartans learned from scouts that the Messenians had broken out into such fury that they had come down to battle attended by their wives and children, they postponed the engagement.

In the Civil War, when Gaius Caesar held the army of Afranius and Petreius besieged and suffering from thirst, and when their troops, infuriated because of this, had slain all their beasts of burden * and come out for battle, Caesar held back his own soldiers, deeming the occasion ill-suited for an engagement,

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