prowess by veteran experience in arms, and who found their
glory not in the flight of the conquered, but in overcoming those whom
they had to conquer. Then there was a second kind of warriors, who were
endowed with stout frame and spirit, but with no jot of compassion, and
who raged with savage and indiscriminate carnage against the backs as
well as the breasts of their foes. Now of this sort were the men carried
away by hot and youthful blood, and striving to grace their first
campaign with good auguries of warfare. They burned as hotly with the
glow of youth as with the glow for glory, and thus rushed headlong into
right or wrong with equal recklessness. There was also the third kind,
who, wavering betwixt shame and fear, could not go forward for terror,
while shame barred retreat. Of distinguished blood, but only notable for
their useless stature, they crowded the ranks with numbers and not with
strength, smote the foe more with their shadows than with their arms,
and were only counted among the throng of warriors as so many bodies
to be seen. These men were lords of great riches, but excelled more in
birth than bravery; hungry for life because owning great possessions,
they were forced to yield to the sway of cowardice rather than
nobleness. There were others, again, who brought show to the war, and
not substance, and who, foisting themselves into the rear of their
comrades, were the first to fly and the last to fight. One sure token
of fear betrayed their feebleness; for they always deliberately sought
excuses to shirk, and followed with timid and sluggish advance in the
rear of the fighters. It must be supposed, therefore, that these were
the reasons why the king had escaped safely; for when he fled he was not
pursued pertinaciously by the men of the front rank; since these made it
their business to preserve the victory, not to arrest the conquered, and
massed their wedges, in order that the fresh-won victory might be duly
and sufficiently guarded, and attain the fulness of triumph.

Now the second class of fighters, whose desire was to cut down
everything in their way, had left Athisl unscathed, from lack not of
will but of opportunity; for they had lacked the chance to hurt him
rather than the daring. Moreover, though the men of the third kind, who
frittered away the very hour of battle by wandering about in a flurried
fashion, and also hampered the success of their own side, had had their
chance of harming the k