HKB
Marcellus never once conquered Hannibal, who in fact remained unbeaten until Scipio’s victory.[276]
XIII (25)
No darkness, no storm however violent, turned him from his purpose. He forced his way through all such obstacles; he overcame even disease by resolute labour, and never once failed in an object or experienced a variation in his uniform good fortune.
XIV (29)
In old times single combats among the Romans were conducted with good faith [but in our days many contrivances have been hit upon].
XV (31)
The horse, from the agony of the wound, first fell forward, and then galloped furiously through the middle of the camp.
XVI (42)
Seeing that the superstitious feelings of the soldiers were roused by these portents, he exerted himself to remove the scruples of the men by means of his own intelligence and strategic skill.
XVII (63)
These vessels appear to be as swift sailers as penteconters, but to be much inferior to triremes; and their construction has been abandoned for many years past. Polybius, however, is supposed to lay down the measurements of such vessels, which the Romans and Carthaginians appear to have often employed in their wars with each other.[277]
XVIII (64)
Getting completely drunk, and all flung on the ground in the various tents, they neither heard any word of command nor took any thought of the future whatever.[278]
XIX (66)
In consultations of war, as in those relating to bodily sickness, one ought to take as much account of the symptoms that have since arisen as of those originally existing.
XX (90)
Cappadocia extends from Mount Taurus and Lycaonia up to the Pontic Sea. The name is Persian and arose thus. A certain Persian [named Cappadocus?] was present at a hunt with Artaxerxes, or some other king, when a lion sprang upon the king’s horse. This Persian happened to be in that part of the hunting company, and drawing his sword rescued the king from his imminent danger and killed the lion. This Persian therefore ascending the highest mountain in the neighbourhood received as a gift from the king as much territory as the human eye could take in, looking east, west, north, and south.[279]
XXI (95)
The Celtiberians have a peculiar manœuvre in war. When they see their infantry hard pressed, they dismount and leave their horses standing in their places. They have small pegs attached to their leading reins, and having fixed them carefully into the ground, they train their horses to keep their places obediently in line until they come back and pull up the pegs.
XXII (96)
The Celtiberians excel the rest of the world in the construction of their swords; for their point is strong and serviceable, and they can deliver a cut with both edges. Wherefore the Romans abandoned their ancestral swords after the Hannibalian war and adopted those of the Iberians. They adopted, I say, the construction of the swords, but they can by no means imitate the excellence of the steel or the other points in which they are so elaborately finished.[280]
XXIII (102)
The Roman praetor Marcus[281] wished to get rid of the war against the Lusitani, and laying aside war altogether, to shirk—as the saying is—“the men’s hall for the women’s bower,” because of the recent defeat of the praetor by the Lusitani.
(103)
But those of the Ligurians who fought against Mago were unable to do anything important or great.
XXIV (113)
A mora consisted of nine hundred men.[282]
XXV (117)
A general needs good sense and boldness; they are the most necessary qualities for dangerous and venturesome undertakings.
XXVI (154)
The second king of Egypt, called Philadelphus, when giving his daughter Berenice in marriage to Antiochus king of Syria, was careful to send her some Nile water, that the young bride might drink no other water.
XXVII (156)