صفحة 12 من 266

the expenditure at home and at the front, including entertainment

of guests, small items such as glue and paint, and sums spent on

chariots and armour, will reach the total of a thousand ounces of

silver per day. Such is the cost of raising an army of 100,000

men.

2. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in

coming, the men's weapons will grow dull and their ardour will be

damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your

strength.

3. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the

State will not be equal to the strain.

4. Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardour damped, your

strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will

spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man,

however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must

ensue.

5. Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness

has never been seen associated with long delays.