IPHICRATES
IPHICRATES. Iphicrates was despised because he was
thought to be a shoemaker's son. The exploit that first
brought him into repute was this: when he was wounded
himself, he caught up one of the enemies and carried him
alive and in his armor to his own ship. He once pitched
his camp in a country belonging to his allies and confederates, and yet he fortified it exactly with a trench and
bulwark. Said one to him, What are ye afraid of? Of all
speeches, said he, none is so dishonorable for a general, as
I should not have thought it. As he marshalled his army
to fight with barbarians, I am afraid, said he, they do not
know Iphicrates, for his very name used to strike terror
into other enemies. Being accused of a capital crime, he
said to the informer: O fellow! what art thou doing, who,
when war is at hand, dost advise the city to consult concerning me, and not with me? To Harmodius, descended
from the ancient Harmodius, when he reviled him for his
mean birth, My nobility, said he, begins in me, but yours
ends in you. A rhetorician asked him in an assembly,
who he was that he took so much upon him,—horseman,
or footman, or archer, or shield-bearer. Neither of them,
said he, but one that understands how to command all
those.