circumstances,--that hatred is already apparent,--nor with a fear of the
future,--that fear you already have,--but to commend you because of your
own accord you choose to do just what you ought, and to thank you for
cooperating so readily with me and your own selves at once. Be nowise
afraid of the Romans. They are not more numerous than are we nor yet
braver. And the proof is that they have protected themselves with helmets
and breastplates and greaves and furthermore have equipped their camps
with palisades and walls and ditches to make sure that they shall suffer
no harm by any hostile assault. [Footnote: Corruptions in the text emended
by Reiske.] Their fears impel them to choose this method rather than
engage in any active work like us. We enjoy such a superabundance of
bravery that we regard tents as safer than walls and our shields as
affording greater protection than their whole suits of mail. As a
consequence, we when victorious can capture them and when overcome by
force can elude them. And should we ever choose to retreat, we can conceal
ourselves in swamps and mountains so inaccessible that we can be neither
found nor taken. The enemy, however, can neither pursue any one by reason
of their heavy armor nor yet flee. And if they ever should slip away from
us, taking refuge in certain designated spots, there, too, they are sure
to be enclosed as in a trap. These are some of the respects in which they
are vastly inferior to us, and others are their inability to bear up under
hunger, thirst, cold, or heat, as we can; for they require shade and
protection, they require kneaded bread and wine and oil, and if the supply
of any of these things fails them they simply perish. For us, on the other
hand, any root or grass serves as bread, any plant juice as olive oil, any
water as wine, any tree as a house. Indeed, this very region is to us an
acquaintance and ally, but to them unknown and hostile. As for the rivers,
we swim them naked, but they even with boats can not cross easily. Let us
therefore go against them trusting boldly to good fortune. Let us show
them that they are hares and foxes trying to rule dogs and wolves."