ttendants, or any of the rank
and file, who wished to hear what he had to say, would be allowed to
come and listen. When they met, he spoke as follows:

[14] "My friends and allies, I make no secret of the reason I have
called you here. It was because I saw that some of you, when the reports
of the enemy reached us, looked like men who were panic-stricken. But I
must say I am astonished that any of you should feel alarm because the
enemy is mustering his forces, and not be reassured by remembering that
our own is far larger than it was when we conquered him before, and far
better provided, under heaven, with all we need. [15] I ask you how you
would have felt, you who are afraid now, if you had been told that a
force exactly like our own was marching upon us, if you had heard that
men who had conquered us already were coming now, carrying in their
hearts the victory they had won, if you knew that those who made short
work then of all our bows and javelins were advancing again, and others
with them, ten thousand times as many? [16] Suppose you heard that the
very men who had routed our infantry once were coming on now equipt as
before, but this time on horseback, scorning arms and javelins, each man
armed with one stout spear, ready to charge home? [17] Suppose you heard
of chariots, made on a new pattern, not to be kept motionless, standing,
as hitherto, with their backs turned to the foe as if for flight, but
with the horses shielded by armour, and the drivers sheltered by wooden
walls and protected by breastplates and helmets, and the axles fitted
with iron scythes so that they can charge straight into the ranks of the
foe? [18] And suppose you heard that they have camels to ride on, each
one of which would scare a hundred horses, and that they will bring
up towers from which to help their own friends, and overwhelm us with
volleys of darts so that we cannot fight them on level ground? [19] If
this were what you had heard of the enemy, I as you, once again, you who
are now so fearful what would you have done? You who turn pale when
told that Croesus has been chosen commander-in-chief, Croesus who proved
himself so much more cowardly than the Syrians, that when they were
worsted in battle and fled, instead of helping them, his own allies, he
took to his heels himself. [20] We are told, moreover, that the enemy
himself does not feel equal to facing you alone, he is hiring others
to fight for him better than he could for