Kitap 3
3.49
How would it do, Cyrus, Chrysantas thenThe value of exhortations to valour asked, for you to get your men together, too, while yet you may, and exhort them, and see if you also might make your soldiers better men.
3.50
Do not let the exhortations of the Assyrian trouble you in the least, Chrysantas, Cyrus answered; for no speech of admonition can be so fine that it will all at once make those who hear it good men if they are not good already; it would surely not make archers good if they had not had previous practice in shooting; neither could it make lancers good, nor horsemen; it cannot even make men able to endure bodily labour, unless they have been trained to it before.
3.51
But, Cyrus, answered Chrysantas, it is really enough if you make their souls better with your words of exhortation. Do you really think, returned Cyrus, that one word spoken could all at once fill with a sense of honour the souls of those who hear, or keep them from actions that would be wrong, and convince them that for the sake of praise they must undergo every toil and every danger? Could it impress the idea indelibly upon their minds that it is better to die in battle than to save one’s life by running away?