STRATAGEMS, II. ix. 5-8
midst of a council which the barbai'ians were holding at that very moment, and the sight of it (as though it were some portent) so filled them with consterna- tion that they made haste to surrender. ^
When Hermocrates, the Syracusan, had defeated the Cathaginians in battle, and was afraid that the prisoners, of whom he had taken an enormous number, would be carelessly guarded, since the successful issue of the struggle might prompt the victors to revelry and neglect, he pretended that the cavalry of the enemy were planning an attack on the following night. By instilling this fear, he succeeded in having the guard over the prisoners maintained even more carefully than usual.
When the same Hermocrates had achieved certain successes, and for that reason his men, through a spirit of over-confidence, had abandoned all restraint and were sunk in a drunken stupor, he sent a deserter into the camp of the enemy to prevent their flight by declaring to them, that ambuscades of Syracusans had been j)osted everj^vhere. From fear of these, the enemy remained in camp. Having thus detained them, Hermocrates, on the following- day, when his own men were more fit, gave the enemy over to their mercy and ended the war.^
When Miltiades had defeated a huge host of Persians at Marathon, and the Athenians were losing time in rejoicing over the victory, he forced them to hurry to bear aid to the city, at which the Persian fleet was aiming. Having thus got ahead of the enemy, he filled the walls with warriors, so that the Persians, thinking that the number of the Athenians was enormous and that they themselves had met one army at Marathon while another was now
185
