Collection
Wars & Enemies
Hannibal, Pyrrhus, and the strategy Rome used on everyone else.
- 01
Hannibal at the gates (idiom)
A threat so close and so serious that everything else stops mattering.
Hannibal in Italy, 218–203 BC.
- 02
a Pyrrhic victory (idiom)
A win that costs so much it feels almost like a defeat.
Pyrrhus beats Rome and loses anyway.
- 03
divide and conquer (idiom)
To keep opponents from uniting so that each can be dealt with separately.
How Rome handled the defeated.
- 04
fortune favours the bold (idiom)
Luck tends to go to the person willing to take the risk.
Virgil, Aeneid X.
- 05
si vis pacem, para bellum (idiom)
If you want peace, prepare for war — the argument that strength is what prevents attack.
Vegetius on why armies train.
- 06
casus belli (idiom)
The event a side points to as its justification for going to war.
The paperwork of a just war.
- 07
semper fidelis (idiom)
Always faithful — a pledge of loyalty that does not expire.
The soldier's oath.
- 08
the sword of Damocles (idiom)
A constant, looming danger that could strike at any moment, hanging over someone who seems fortunate.
Cicero's story about power.