Discretion and Conditions Over Raw Courage

“The strength of the Byzantines lay in their heavy cavalry, and this they set up in two lines and a reserve, whose three successive shocks told well. Courage was valued highly, but discretion and a knowledge of how to utilize varying conditions were deemed a better quality.”

“Of war there was much; of art in war there was little – as we understand it, none – until Gustavus Adolphus again infused method into what others had done with no method at all. Strategy had rarely shown itself since the days of Cæsar; tactics was whatever suited each nation or tribe, and never rose to the rank of grand-tactics.”