Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Plutarch

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

Encamped against the Teutons in a place which had little water, when the soldiers said they were thirsty, he pointed out to them a river flowing close by the enemy’s palisade, saying, There is drink for you which can be bought with blood. And they called upon him to lead them on while the blood within them was fluid and not all dried up by their thirst. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of C. Marius, chap. xviii. (416 A); Frontinus, Strategemata, ii. 7. 12; Florus, Epitome of Roman History, i. 38. 8 ff.)

In the Cimbrian wars a thousand men of Camerinum who had acquitted themselves bravely he made Roman citizens, in accord with no law. To those who complained he said that he did not hear the laws because of the clash of arms. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of C. Marius, chap. xxviii. (421 E); Cicero, Oration for Corn. Balbus, 20 (46); Valerius Maximus, v. 2. 8. Cf. also Cicero, Pro Milone, 4 (10), silent enim leges inter arma. )

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).)