Kitap 44
39
"Some might say: 'Even if we had not our battle line in proper formation, had we no fortified camp, no provision for water, no troops to guard the access to it? Had we nothing which we could call our own except the bare ground on which to fight?' Your ancestors looked upon a camp as a safe haven for the army against every mischance, from which they went out to battle, where, after being tossed in the storm of battle, they could find a safe retreat. It was for that reason that after they had fenced it with earthworks, they strengthened it with a powerful guard, for he who lost his camp, even if victorious on the field, was held to be defeated. A camp is a resting-place for the victor, a shelter for the vanquished. How many armies to whom the fortune of battle has proved unkindly have been driven inside their ramparts and then at their own time, sometimes almost immediately, have made a sortie and repulsed their victorious foe? Here is the soldier's second fatherland, here is his abode, with the rampart for its walls; here each finds in his tent, his home and his household gods. Ought we to have fought as homeless wanderers with no place to receive us after our victory?
