Flaminius advancing incautiously to oppose Hannibal, the latter took up a post with his army from whence he equally threatened the city of Rome and the army of the Consul. In the endeavor to rectify his error, the Roman general committed a worse and was destroyed with his entire army. * * * * * At Thapsus, April 6, 46 B.C., Caesar took up a post with his army from whence he equally threatened the Roman army under Scipio and the African army under Juba. Scipio having marched off with his troops to a better camp some miles distant, Caesar attacked and annihilated Juba’s army. * * * * * At Pirna, Frederic the Great, captured the Saxon army entire, and at Rossbach, Leuthern and Zorndorf destroyed successively a French, an Austrian and a Russian army merely by occupying a post from whence he equally threatened two or more vital points, awaiting the time when one would become inadequately defended. * * * * * Washington won the Revolutionary War merely by occupying a post from whence he equally threatened the British armies at New York and Philadelphia; refusing battle and building up an army of Continental regular troops enlisted for the war and trained by the Baron von Steuben in the system of Frederic the Great. * * * * * Bonaparte won at Montenotte, Castiglione, Arcola, Rivoli and Austerlitz his most perfect exhibitions of generalship, merely by passively threatening two vital points and in his own words: “By never interrupting an enemy when he is making a false movement.” * * * * * Perfection in Mobility is attained whenever the kindred army is able to act unrestrainedly in any and all directions, while the movements of the hostile army are restricted. NUMBERS _“In warfare the advantage in numbers never is to be despised.”--Von Moltke._ * * * * * _“Arguments avail but little against him whose opinion is voiced by thirty legions.”--Roman Proverb._ * * * * * _“That king who has the most iron is master of those who merely have the more gold.”--Solon._ * * * * * _“It never troubles the wolf how many sheep there are.”--Agesilaus._ NUMBERS _“A handful of troops inured to Warfare proceed to certain victory; while on the contrary, numerous hordes of raw and undisciplined men are but a multitude of victims dragged to slaughter.”--Vegetius._ * * * * * _“Turenne always was victorious with armies infinitely inferior in numbers to those of his enemies; because he moved with expedition, knew how to secure himself from being attacked in every situation and always kept near his enemy.”--Count de Saxe._ * * * * *