My words are not well chosen; I care little for that. Merit shows well enough in itself. It is they who have need of art, who gloss over their shameful acts with specious words. Nor have I studied Greek letters. I did not care to know them, because they had not taught their teachers virtue. But I have learned by far the most important lesson for the good of my country – to strike down the foe, to keep watch and ward, to fear nothing save ill repute … to sleep on the ground, to bear privation and fatigue at the same time. It is with these lessons that I shall encourage my soldiers.