STRATAGEMS, IV. v. 9-12
Publius Decius, tribune of the soldiers, urged him to send a small force to occupy a neighbouring hill, and volunteered to act as leader of those who should be sent. The enemy, thus diverted to a different quarter, allowed the consul to escape, but surrounded Decius and besieged him. Decius, however, extri- cated himself from this predicament also by making a sortie at night, and escaped unharmed along with his men and rejoined the consul. ^
Under the consul Atilius Calatinus the same exploit was performed by a man whose name is variously reported. Some say he was called Laberius, some Quintus Caedicius, but most call him Calpurnius Flamma. This man, seeing that the army had entered a valley, the sides and all the commanding parts of which had been occupied by the enemy, asked and received from the consul three hundred soldiers. After exhorting these to save the army by their courage, he hastened to the centre of the valley. To crush him and his followers, the enemy descended from all directions, but being held in check in a long and fierce battle, they thus afforded the consul an opportunity of extricating his army.*
Gaius Caesar, when about to fight the Germans and their king Ariovistus, at a time when his own men had been thrown into panic, called his soldiers together and declared to the assembly that on that day he proposed to employ the services of the tenth legion alone. In this way he caused the soldiers of this legion to be stirred by his tribute to their unique heroism, while the rest were overwhelmed with mortification to think that a reputation for courage should be confined to others.^
A certain Spartan noble, when Philip declared he
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