Note 20 — Chapter XVII · THE PLANS OF XERXES
Reading edition
[The Romans, in attacking an enemy, so disposed their army, as to be able to rally three different times. This has been thought by many as the great secret of the Roman discipline; because fortune must have failed their efforts three different times before they could be possibly defeated. The Greeks drew up their forces in one extended line, and therefore depended upon the effect of the first charge.f]