History of the Peloponnesian War

Brasidas, as soon as he saw the Athenians remove, came down also from Cerdylium and put himself into Amphipolis.

He would not suffer them to make any sally nor to face the Athenians in order of battle, mistrusting his own forces, which he thought inferior, not in number (for they were in a manner equal) but in worth (for such Athenians as were there were pure, and the Lemnians and Imbrians which were amongst them were of the very ablest); but prepared to set upon them by a wile.

For if he should have showed to the enemy both his number and their armour, such as for the present they were forced to use, he thought that thereby he should not so soon get the victory as by keeping them out of sight and out of their contempt till the very point.

Wherefore choosing to himself a hundred and fifty men of arms and committing the charge of the rest to Clearidas, he resolved to set suddenly upon them before they should retire, as not expecting to take them so alone another time if their succours chanced to arrive. And when he had called his soldiers together to encourage them and to make known unto them his design, he said as followeth:

Men of Peloponnesus, as for your country, how by valour it hath ever retained her liberty, and that being Dorians you are now to fight against Ionians, of whom you were ever wont to get the victory, let it suffice that I have touched it thus briefly.

But in what manner I intend to charge, that I am now to inform you of, lest the venturing by few at once, and not all together, should seem to proceed from weakness and so dishearten you.