Monday, October 07, 2024
Leaders
Livy 7.33.1 (on Marcus Valerius Corvus; tr. B.O. Foster):
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There was never a commander who more endeared himself to his men by cheerfully sharing all their duties with the meanest of the soldiers.Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. J.B. Bury, Vol. V (London: Methuen & Co., 1901), p. 80 (on Heraclius):
non alias militi familiarior dux fuit omnia inter infimos militum haud gravate munia obeundo.
Whatever hardship the emperor imposed on the troops, he inflicted with equal severity on himself; their labour, their diet, their sleep were measured by the inflexible rules of discipline; and, without despising the enemy, they were taught to repose an implicit confidence in their own valour and the wisdom of their leader.Related post: Leadership.
