# CHAPTER XXVI.—_That Taunts and Abuse breed Hatred against him who uses them, without yielding him any Advantage._

To abstain from threats and injurious language, is, methinks, one of
the wisest precautions a man can use. For abuse and menace take nothing
from the strength of an adversary; the latter only making him more
cautious, while the former inflames his hatred against you, and leads
him to consider more diligently how he may cause you hurt.

This is seen from the example of the Veientines, of whom I spoke in the
last Chapter, who, to the injury of war against the Romans, added those
verbal injuries from which all prudent commanders should compel their
soldiers to refrain. For these are injuries which stir and kindle your
enemy to vengeance, and yet, as has been said, in no way disable him
from doing you hurt; so that, in truth, they are weapons which wound
those who use them. Of this we find a notable instance in Asia, in
connection with the siege of Amida. For Gabade, the Persian general,
after besieging this town for a great while, wearied out at last by its
protracted defence, determined on withdrawing his army; and had
actually begun to strike his camp, when the whole inhabitants of the
place, elated by their success, came out upon the walls to taunt and
upbraid their enemies with their cowardice and meanness of spirit, and
to load them with every kind of abuse. Stung by these insults, Gabade,
changing his resolution, renewed the siege with such fury that in a few
days he stormed and sacked the town. And the very same thing befell the
Veientines, who, not content, as we have seen, to make war on the
Romans with arms, must needs assail them with foul reproaches,
advancing to the palisade of their camp to revile them, and molesting
them more with their tongues than with their swords, until the Roman
soldiers, who at first were most unwilling to fight, forced the consuls
to lead them to the attack. Whereupon, the Veientines, like those
others of whom mention has just now been made, had to pay the penalty
of their insolence.

Wise captains of armies, therefore, and prudent governors of cities,
should take all fit precautions to prevent such insults and reproaches
from being used by their soldiers and subjects, either amongst
themselves or against an enemy. For when directed against an enemy they
lead to the mischiefs above noticed, while still worse consequences may
follow from our not preventing them among ourselves by such measures as
sensible rulers have always taken for that purpose.

The legions who were left behind for the protection of Capua having, as
shall in its place be told, conspired against the Capuans, their
conspiracy led to a mutiny, which was presently suppressed by Valerius
Corvinus; when, as one of the conditions on which the mutineers made
their submission, it was declared that whosoever should thereafter
upbraid any soldier of these legions with having taken part in this
mutiny, should be visited with the severest punishment. So likewise,
when Tiberius Gracchus was appointed, during the war with Hannibal, to
command a body of slaves, whom the Romans in their straits for soldiers
had furnished with arms, one of his first acts was to pass an order
making it death for any to reproach his men with their servile origin.
So mischievous a thing did the Romans esteem it to use insulting words
to others, or to taunt them with their shame. Whether this be done in
sport or earnest, nothing vexes men more, or rouses them to fiercer
indignation; “_for the biting jest which flavours too much of truth,
leaves always behind it a rankling memory._”[9]

 [9] Nam facetiæ asperæ, quando nimium ex vero traxere, acrem sui
 memoriam relinquunt. _Tacit. An._ xv. 68.