Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Plutarch

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

In the Civil War, [*](Usually called the Social War (ὁ συμμαχιὸς πόλεμος), 90-88 B.C.) when he found himself

surrounded by a trench and cut off by the enemy, he held out and bided his own time. Pompaedius [*](Or possibly Poppaedius.) Silo said to him, If you are a great general, Marius, come down and fight it out. Marius replied, If you are a great general, make me fight it out when I do not wish to do so ! [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of C. Marius, chap. xxxiii. (424 D).)

Catulus Lutatius, in the Cimbrian War, was encamped beside the Atiso [*](Presumably the same river which the Roman writers call the Athesis.) River. The Romans, seeing the barbarians crossing to attack, retreated, and he, not being able to check them, made haste to put himself in the front rank of those who were running away so that they might not seem to flee from the enemy, but to be following their commander. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of C. Marius, chap. xxiii. (418 F).)