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What better plan do you see than this?
If I were you, said Cyrus, I should as quickly 1 as possible have armour made for all the Persians who are coming here just like that of the so-called peers who are coming from our country—that is, a corselet to wear about the breast, a small shield upon the left arm, and a scimitar or sabre in the right hand. And if you provide these weapons, you will make it the safest procedure for us to fight at close quarters with the enemy, while for the enemy flight will prove preferable to standing their ground. And it is for us, he continued, to range ourselves against those who hold their ground, while those of them who run away we propose to leave to you and the cavalry, that they may have no chance to stand their ground or to turn back.
What better plan do you see than this?
If I were you, said Cyrus, I should as quickly 1 as possible have armour made for all the Persians who are coming here just like that of the so-called peers who are coming from our country—that is, a corselet to wear about the breast, a small shield upon the left arm, and a scimitar or sabre in the right hand. And if you provide these weapons, you will make it the safest procedure for us to fight at close quarters with the enemy, while for the enemy flight will prove preferable to standing their ground. And it is for us, he continued, to range ourselves against those who hold their ground, while those of them who run away we propose to leave to you and the cavalry, that they may have no chance to stand their ground or to turn back.
Cyropaedia. Xenophon. Walter Miller (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1914.
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