Page:Frontinus - The stratagems, and, the aqueducts of Rome (Bennet et al 1925).djvu/349

 STRATAGEMS, IV. v. 12-16

would cut them ofF from many things, unless the state surrendered to him, asked : " He won't cut us off from dying in defence of our country, will he ? " ^

Leonidas, the Spartan, in reply to the statement that the Persians would create clouds by the multi- tude of their arrows, is re[)orted to have said : " We shall fight all the better in the shade." -

When Gains Aelius, a city praetor, was holding court on one occasion, a woodpecker lighted upon his head. The soothsayers were consulted and made answer that, if the bird should be allowed to go, the victory would fall to the enemy, but that, if it were killed, the Roman people would prevail, though Gains and all his house would perish. Aelius, however, did not hesitate to kill the woodpecker. Our army won the day, but Aelius himself, with fourteen others of the same family, was slain in battle. Certain authorities do not believe that the man referred to was Gains Caelius, but a certain Laelius, and that they were Laelii, not Caelii, who perished.^

Two Romans bearing the name Publius Decius, first the father, later the son, sacrificed their lives to save the State during their tenure of office. By spurring their horses against the foe they won victory for their country.^

When waging war against Aristonicus in Asia somewhere between Elaea and Myrina, Publius Crassus fell into the hands of the enemy and was being led away alive. Scorning the thought of captivity for a Roman consul, he used the stick, with which he had urged on his horse, to gouge out the eye of the Thracian by whom he Avas held captive. The Thracian, infuriated with the pain,

303