Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/102

 $4 SPEECH OF BRASIDAS [iV companions and are assailed by a host of barbarians, I should think only of encouraging and Brasidas encourages, •' his hoof.s: You are fez, not of instructing you ". But now that against many, but so we are left alone in the face of nunie- you are at home ; and ^^^^^ enemies, I shall endeavour in yon arc fiirfitimrairainst ^, • ^i iuOanans. ho not be ^ few words to uiiprcss upon you the frightened by their out- main points which it concerns you to /andish cries and ges- |j^, informed of and to remember. For tures. They make a i . /- i ^ ti .. i vain flourish but have Jou ought to fight like men not merely no discipline, and, if when you happen to have allies present, 7vithsiood quietly, re- ]^^,j. because couragc is native to you ; nor should 3'ou fear any number of foreign troops. Remember that in the cities from which you come, not the many govern the few, but the few govern the many, and have acquired their supremacy simply by successful fighting. Your enemies are bar- barians, and you in your inexperience fear them. But you ought to know, from your late conflicts with the Macedonian portion of them *'— and any estimate which I can form, or account of them which I receive from others, would lead me to infer— that they will not prove so very formidable. An enemy often has weak points which wear the appearance of strength ; and these, when their nature is explained, encourage rather than frighten their oppo- nents. As, on the other hand, where an army has a real advantage, the adversary who is the most ignorant is also the most fooliiardy. The lllyrians, to those who have no experience of them, do indeed at first sight present a threatening aspect. The spectacle of their numbers is terrible, their cries are intolerable, and the brandishing of their spears in the air has a menacing effect. But in action they are not the men they look, if their opponents will only stand their ground ; for they have no regular order, and therefore are not ashamed of leaving any post in which they are hard pressed ; to fly and to advance being alike " Cp iv-. 17 incd. ; iv. 95 iiiit. ; v. 69 fin. ^ Cp. w. 124 med.