Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Plutarch

Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).

When Antigonus was about to engage in a naval battle against Ptolemy’s generals, the pilot said that the ships of the enemy far outnumbered their own. But, said Antigonus, how many ships do you think my own presence here is equivalent to ? [*](Cf. Moralia, 545 B, and Plutarch’s Life of Pelopidas, chap. ii. (278 D), both showing variation in wording and details; also Athenaeus, 209 E, and Gulick’s note in the L.C.L., vol. ii. p. 447.)

Once when he was withdrawing before the advance of the enemy, he said that he was not fleeing, but was following up his advantage, which lay in the rear.