Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

When another man showed him a shield beautifully ornamented, he said, A fine shield, young sir; but it is more fitting that a Roman rest his hopes in his right hand rather than in his left. [*](So in Aelian, Varia Historia, xi. 9. Slightly variant versions are to be found in Polyaenus, Strategemata, viii. 16. 4; Frontinus, Strategemata, iv. 1. 5; Livy, Epitome of Book lvii.)

Another carrying a timber for the palisade said that it was awfully heavy. Very likely, said Scipio, for you put more trust in this wood than in your sword. [*](Cf. Polyaenus, Strategemata, viii. 16. 3; Livy, Epitome of Book lvii.)

Observing the recklessness of the enemy, he said that he himself was buying security with time; for a good general, like a physician, needed to operate with steel only as a last resort. [*](Cf. Aulus Gellius, xiii. 3. 6, where Scipio quotes a similar aphorism of his father’s.) Nevertheless he attacked at the proper time and routed the Numantians. [*](Appian relates that Numantia was reduced by systematic siege (Wars in Spain, 89 ff.).)