§6.1Sed haec propter hiemale tempus minus prospere procedebant.
But these things proceeded less prosperously because of the winter season.
audit Pisidas quosdam copias adversus se parare.
He heard that certain Pisidians were preparing forces against him.
filium eo Arsidaeum cum exercitu mittit; cadit in proelio adulescens.
He sent his son Arsidaeus there with an army; the young man fell in battle.
proficiscitur eo pater non ita magna cum manu, celans, quantum vulnus accepisset, quod prius ad hostem pervenire cupiebat, quam de male re gesta fama ad suos perveniret, ne cognita filii morte animi debilitarentur militum.
The father set out thither with a not very large force, concealing how great a blow he had received, because he wished to reach the enemy before the rumor of the defeat should reach his own men, lest the courage of the soldiers should be weakened by the knowledge of his son's death.
§6.2quo contenderat, pervenit iisque locis castra ponit, ut neque circumiri multitudine adversariorum posset neque impediri, quominus ipse ad dimicandum manum haberet expeditam.
He arrived where he had directed his course, and pitched his camp in such places that he could neither be surrounded by the multitude of his adversaries, nor be prevented from having his own force ready for battle.
§6.3erat cum eo Mithrobarzanes, socer eius, praefectus equitum.
There was with him Mithrobarzanes, his father-in-law, the commander of the cavalry.
is desperatis generi rebus ad hostes transfugit.
He, despairing of his son-in-law's fortunes, deserted to the enemy.
id Datames ut audivit, sensit, si in turbam exisset ab homine tam necessario se relictum, futurum ut ceteri idem consilium sequerentur; §6.4itaque in vulgus edit suo iussu Mithrobarzanem profectum pro perfuga, quo facilius receptus interficeret hostes: quare relinqui eum par non esse et omnes confestim sequi.
When Datames heard this, he realized that if it should get abroad among the multitude that he had been abandoned by a man so closely related, the rest would follow the same plan; Therefore he spread a report among the common soldiers that Mithrobarzanes had set out by his order under the guise of a deserter, in order that, being received, he might more easily destroy the enemy; and that therefore it was not right that he should be left unsupported, but that all should follow him immediately.
quod si animo strenuo fecissent, futurum ut adversarii non possent resistere, cum et intra vallum et foris caederentur.
If they did this with courage, the result would be that the enemy would not be able to resist, since they would be slaughtered both inside their ramparts and outside.
§6.5hac re probata exercitum educit, Mithrobarzanem persequitur, qui tantum quod ad hostes pervenerat, cum Datames signa inferri iubet.
This plan being approved, he led out the army and pursued Mithrobarzanes, who had only just reached the enemy when Datames ordered the standards to be advanced.
§6.6Pisidae nova re commoti in opinionem adducuntur perfugas mala fide compositoque fecisse, ut recepti maiori essent calamitati.
The Pisidians, disturbed by this unexpected event, were led to the opinion that the deserters had acted in bad faith and by preconcerted plan, so that, once received, they might bring a greater disaster upon them.
primum eos adoriuntur.
They attacked them first.
illi cum, quid ageretur aut quare fieret, ignorarent, coacti sunt cum iis pugnare, ad quos transierant, ab iisque stare, quos reliquerant: quibus cum neutri parcerent, celeriter sunt concisi.
Since the deserters did not know what was going on or why it was being done, they were forced to fight with those to whom they had gone over, and to stand on the side of those whom they had left; and since neither side spared them, they were quickly cut to pieces.
§6.7reliquos Pisidas resistentes Datames invadit: primo impetu pellit, fugientes persequitur, multos interficit, castra hostium capit.
Datames then attacked the rest of the Pisidians who were resisting; at the first onset he routed them, pursued them as they fled, killed many of them, and captured the enemy's camp.
§6.8tali consilio uno tempore et proditores perculit et hostes profligavit, et, quod ad perniciem suam fuerat cogitatum, id ad salutem convertit.
By such a strategy he at one and the same time struck down the traitors and routed the enemy, and turned what had been designed for his own destruction to his own safety.
quo neque acutius ullius imperatoris cogitatum neque celerius factum usquam legimus.
We read nowhere of any general's plan more shrewdly conceived or more rapidly executed.