attempt; not in numbers--these were not so
unequal--but in quality, the flower of the Athenian army being in the
field, with the best of the Lemnians and Imbrians. He therefore prepared
to assail them by stratagem. By showing the enemy the number of his
troops, and the shifts which he had been put to to to arm them, he
thought that he should have less chance of beating him than by not
letting him have a sight of them, and thus learn how good a right he
had to despise them. He accordingly picked out a hundred and fifty heavy
infantry and, putting the rest under Clearidas, determined to attack
suddenly before the Athenians retired; thinking that he should not have
again such a chance of catching them alone, if their reinforcements were
once allowed to come up; and so calling all his soldiers together in
order to encourage them and explain his intention, spoke as follows:

"Peloponnesians, the character of the country from which we have come,
one which has always owed its freedom to valour, and the fact that you
are Dorians and the enemy you are about to fight Ionians, whom you are
accustomed to beat, are things that do not need further comment. But the
plan of attack that I propose to pursue, this it is as well to explain,
in order that the fact of our adventuring with a part instead of with
the whole of our forces may not damp your courage by the apparent
disadvantage at which it places you. I imagine it is the poor opinion
that he has of us, and the fact that he has no idea of any one coming
out to engage him, that has made the enemy march up to the place and
carelessly look about him as he is doing, without noticing us. But the
most successful soldier will always be the man who most happily detects
a blunder like this, and who carefully consulting his own means makes
his attack not so much by open and regular approaches, as by seizing the
opportunity of the moment; and these stratagems, which do the greatest
service to our friends by most completely deceiving our enemies,
have the most brilliant name in war. Therefore, while their careless
confidence continues, and they are still thinking, as in my judgment
they are now doing, more of retreat than of maintaining their position,
while their spirit is slack and not high-strung with expectation, I with
the men under my command will, if possible, take them by surprise and
fall with a run upon their centre; and do you, Clearidas, afterwards,
when you see me already upon the