198 ANTONY, sider strength and youth, or patience and sufferance in labors and fatigues ; but as for the obedience and affec- tionate respect they bore their general, and the unani- mous feeling amongst small and great alike, officers and common soldiers, to prefer his good opinion of them to their very lives and being, in this part of military excel- lence it was not possible that they could have been sur- passed by the very Romans of old. For this devotion, as I have said before, there were many reasons, as the no- bility of his family, his eloquence, his frank and open manners, his liberal and magnificent habits, his familiarity in talking with everybody, and, at this time particularly, his kindness in assisting and pitying the sick, joining in all their pains, and furnishing them with all things necessary, so that the sick and wounded were even more eager to serve than those that were whole and strono;. Nevertheless, this last victory had so encouraged the enemy, that, instead of their former impatience and weariness, they began soon to feel contempt for the Ro- mans, staying all night near the camp, in expectation of plundering their tents and baggage, which they concluded they must abandon ; and in the morning new forces ar- rived in large masses, so that their number was grown to be not less, it is said, than forty thousand horse ; and the king had sent the very guards that attended upon his own person, as to a sure and unquestioned victory. For he himself was never present in any fight. Antony, de- signing to harangue the soldiers, called for a mourning habit, that he might move them the more, but was dis- suaded by his friends ; so he came forward in the gen- eral's scarlet cloak, and addressed them, praising those that had gained the victor}^, and reproaching those that had fled, the former answering him with promises of suc- cess, and the latter excusing themselves, and telling him they were ready to undergo decimation, or any other
