Histories

No, if after the recent calamity which has wrecked four hundred of your ships you send away three hundred more from your fleet to sail round the +Peloponnese [22,37.5] (region), Greece, Europe Peloponnese, your enemies will be enough to do battle with you; while your fleet is united, however, it is invincible, and your enemies will not be so many as to be enough to fight; moreover, all your navy will be a help to your army and your army to your navy, both moving together. If you separate some of your fleet from yourself, you will be of no use to them, nor they to you.

My counsel is rather that you make your own plans well, and take no account of the business of your adversaries, what battlefields they will choose, what they will do, and how many they are. They are able enough to think for themselves, and we similarly for ourselves. As for the Lacedaemonians, if they meet the Persians in the field, they will in no way repair their most recent losses.”