Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Plutarch

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

Lucullus in Armenia with ten thousand menat-arms and a thousand horsemen was proceeding against Tigranes, who had an army of an hundred and fifty thousand men, on the sixth day of October, the day on which, some years before, [*](In 105 B.C.) the force with Caepio had been annihilated by the Cimbrians. When somebody remarked that the Romans set that day aside as a dread day of expiation, he said, Then let us on this day strive with might and main to make this, instead of an ill-omened and gloomy day, a glad and welcome day to the Romans. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Lucullus, chap. xxviii. (510 C).)

His soldiers feared most the men in full armour,

but he bade them not to be afraid, saying that it would be harder work to strip these men than to defeat them. He was the first to advance against the hill, and observing the movement of the barbarians, he cried out, We are victorious, my men, and, meeting no resistance, he pursued, losing only five Romans who fell, and he slew over an hundred thousand of the enemy. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Lucullus, chap. xxviii. (510 D-511 B).)