Pericles

In his capacity as general, he was famous above all things for his saving caution; he neither undertook of his own accord a battle involving much uncertainty and peril, nor did he envy and imitate those who took great risks, enjoyed brilliant good-fortune, and so were admired as great generals; and he was for ever saying to his fellow-citizens that, so far as lay in his power, they would remain alive forever and be immortals.

So when he saw that Tolmides, son of Tolmaeus, all on account of his previous good-fortune and of the exceeding great honor bestowed upon him for his wars, was getting ready, quite inopportunely, to make an incursion into Boeotia, and that he had persuaded the bravest and most ambitious men of military age to volunteer for the campaign,—as many as a thousand of them, aside from the rest of his forces,—he tried to restrain and dissuade him in the popular assembly, uttering then that well remembered saying, to wit, that if he would not listen to Pericles, he would yet do full well to wait for that wisest of all counsellors, Time.

This saying brought him only moderate repute at the time; but a few days afterwards, when word was brought that Tolmides himself was dead after defeat in battle near Coroneia,[*](447 B.C.) and that many brave citizens were dead likewise, then it brought Pericles great repute as well as goodwill, for that he was a man of discretion and patriotism.