Book 25
4.10
His fortitude is shown by the great number of his battles and by his conduct of wars, as well as by his endurance of excessive cold and heat. And although bodily duty is demanded from a soldier, but mental duty from a general, yet he once boldly met a savage enemy in battle and struck him down,Cf. xxiv. 4, 4. and when our men gave ground, he several times alone checked their flightCf. Suet. Jul. 62. by opposing his breast to them. When destroying the king- doms of the raging Germans and on the burning sands of Persia he added to the confidence of his soldiers by fighting among the foremost.
4.11
There are many notable evidences of his knowledge of military affairs: the sieges of cities and fortresses, undertaken amid the extremest dangers, the varied forms in which he arranged his lines of battle, the choice of safe and healthful places for camps, the wisely planned posting of frontier guards and field pickets.
4.12
His authority was so well established that, being feared as well as deeply loved as one who shared in the dangers and hardships of his men, he both in the heat of fierce battles condemned cowards to punishment, and, while he was still only a Caesar,Under the authority of Constantius; see Introd., p. xxiv. he controlled his men even without pay, when they were fighting with savage tribes, as I have long ago said. And when they were armed and mutinous, he did not fear to address them and threaten to return to private life, if they continued to be insubordinate.
