The great Achaemenid empire and the conflicts fought between men who challenged it or defended it have inspired many to action and words. The following are quotes and speechs from historians, generals and poets.

Haste is the mother of failure - and for failure we always pay a heavy price.
Artabanus warning the King Xerxes. (Herodotus -The Histories, Bk 7,10)

 

No one is fool enough to choose war instead of peace - in peace, sons bury their fathers but in war fathers bury sons.
Croesus, after being reprieved by Cyrus. (Herodotus -The Histories, Bk 1,87)

 

"Force is always beside the point when subtlety will serve".
Darius I order to kill Oroetes.(Herodotus -The Histories, Bk 3,127)

 

Go tell the Spartans you who read. We took their orders and are dead.
Simonides of Ceos, epitaph to the Spartan dead at the battle of Thermopylae.(Herodotus -The Histories, Bk 7, 227)

 

"Truth-loving Persians do not dwell upon the trivial skirmish fought near Marathon."
Robert Graves, 'The Persian Version', Collected Poems (1975).

 

"Such was the number of the barbarians, that when they shot forth their arrows the sun would be darkened by their multitude." Dieneces, not at all frightened at these words, but making light of the Median numbers, answered "Our Trachinian friend brings us excellent tidings. If the Medes darken the sun, we shall have our fight in the shade." (Herodotus -The Histories, Bk 7,227)

 

"This is the sort of thing we should say by the fireside in the winter-time, as we lie on soft couches after a good meal, drinking sweet wine and crunching chickpeas: "Of what country are you, and how old are you, good sir? And how old were you when the Mede came?"

In reference to the Persian general Harpagus' conquest of Ionia.

 

I added this page after reading Trevor Royle's book "A Dictionary of Military Quotations." 1989, Great Britian.