MILITARY EXAMPLES
“He who has the advantage in Numbers, if he be not a blockhead, incessantly will distract his enemy by detachments, against all of which it is impossible to provide a remedy.”—Frederic the Great.
“He that hath the advantage in Numbers usually should exchange pieces freely, because the fewer that remain the more readily are they oppressed by a superior force.”—Dal Rio.
At Thymbra, Cyrus the Great, king of the Medes and Persians, with 10,000 horse cuirassiers, 20,000 heavy infantry, 300 chariots and 166,000 light troops, conquered Croesus, King of Assyria whose army consisted of 360,000 infantry and 60,000 cavalry. This victory made Persia dominant in Asia.
At Marathon, 10,000 Athenian and 1,000 Plataean heavy infantry, routed 110,000 Medes and Persians. This victory averted the overthrow of Grecian civilization by Asiatic barbarism.
At Leuctra, Epaminondas, general of the Thebans, with 6000 heavy infantry and 400 heavy horse, routed the Lacedaemonean army, composed of 22,000 of the bravest and most skillful soldiers of the known world, and extinguished the military ascendency which for centuries Sparta had exercised over the Grecian commonwealths.