Wars & Enemies

Hannibal, Pyrrhus, and the strategy Rome used on everyone else.

• Hannibal at the gates IDIOM A threat so close and so serious that everything else stops mattering. Hannibal in Italy, 218–203 BC.
• a Pyrrhic victory IDIOM A win that costs so much it feels almost like a defeat. Pyrrhus beats Rome and loses anyway.
• divide and conquer IDIOM To keep opponents from uniting so that each can be dealt with separately. How Rome handled the defeated.
• fortune favours the bold IDIOM Luck tends to go to the person willing to take the risk. Virgil, Aeneid X.
• 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.
• casus belli IDIOM The event a side points to as its justification for going to war. The paperwork of a just war.
• semper fidelis IDIOM Always faithful — a pledge of loyalty that does not expire. The soldier's oath.
• 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.