What they have shared with one another has been defeat, and those who have not fought as yet feel they have traitors to right and left of them, while our recruits know that they enter battle in company with men who help their allies.

[15] Those who trust each other will stand firm and fight without flinching, but when confidence has gone no man thinks of anything but flight.

[16] Forward then, gentlemen, against the foe; drive our scythed chariots against their defenceless cars, let our armed cavalry charge their unprotected horse, and charge them home.

[17] The mass of their infantry you have met before; and as for the Egyptians, they are armed in much the same way as they are marshalled; they carry shields too big to let them stir or see, they are drawn up a hundred deep, which will prevent all but the merest handful fighting.

[18] If they count on forcing us back by their weigh, they must first withstand our steel and the charge of our cavalry.