STRATAGEMS, II. vii. 13-viii. 2
when his side had been defeated and he himself had tied to Dyirhachium, combined falsehood with truth, and while not concealing the outcome of the battle, pretended that the fortunes of the two sides had been equalized in consequence of a severe wound received by Caesar. By this pretence, he created confidence in the other followers of Pomjiey's party. ^
Marcus Cato, having inadvertently landed with a single galley in Ambracia at a time when the allied Heet was blockaded by the Aetolians, although he had no troops with him, began nevertheless to make signals by voice and gesture, in order to give the impression that he was summoning the approaching ships of his own forces. By this earnestness he alarmed the enemy, just as though the troops, whom he pretended to be summoning from near at hand, were visibly appi-oaching. The Aetolians, accord- ingly, fearing that they would be crushed by the arrival of the Roman fleet, abandoned the blockade. ^
']II. On Restoring Morale by Firmness
In the battle in which KingTarquinius encountered the Sabines, Servius Tullius, then a young man, noticing that the standard-bearers fought half- heartedly, seized a standard and hurled it into the ranks of the enemy. To recover it, the Romans fought so furiously that they not onl}- regained the standard, but also won the day.^
The consul Furius Agrippa, when on one occasion his flank gave way, snatched a military standard from a standard-bearer and hurled it into the hostile ranks of the Hernici and Aequi. By this act the
177
VOL. I. N
