Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Plutarch

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

Chabrias used to say that those men commanded an army best who best knew what the enemy were about.

When he was under indictment for treason along with Iphicrates, [*](With Callistratus, rather than Iphicrates, in the year 366 B.C. Cf. Demosthenes, Against Meidias, 65.) Iphicrates rebuked him because, while he was in jeopardy, he went to the gymnasium,

and spent the usual time at his luncheon. His answer was, You may go unwashed and unfed, and I may have had my luncheon and a bath and rub-down, but you may rest assured that, if the Athenians reach any adverse decision regarding us, they will put us both to death.

He was wont to say that an army of deer commanded by a lion is more to be feared than an army of lions commanded by a deer. [*](Ascribed to Philip by Stobaeus, Florilegium, liv. 61.)