Sextus Iulius Frontinus, vir consularis de re militari

Alexander of Macedon, when he possessed a powerful army, always chose a state of war that involved joining battle.

On the same.

Caesar, in the Civil War, when he had a veteran army but knew the enemy’s force was composed of raw recruits, always strove to decide the matter in open battle. Fabius Maximus, facing Hannibal, who was insolent from his successes in battle, decided to withdraw from the double risk and merely defend Italy. By this, he earned the name of the cunctator delayer and the reputation of a supreme commander. The Byzantines, avoiding all risk of battle against Philip, abandoned the defense of their lands and withdrew within the fortifications of their city. They achieved their goal, as Philip, impatient with the delay of a siege, withdrew. Hannibal and Hasdrubal, sons of Gisco, Carthaginians. Hasdrubal, son of Gisco, during the Second Punic War, when Publius Scipio was pressing him in Spain with a victorious army, divided his forces among the cities. Thus, it happened that he distracted Scipio with the sieges of many towns and forced him to lead his men into winter quarters. Themistocles, when Xerxes was approaching, because he believed the Athenians could not sustain a land battle, nor the defense of their territory, nor a siege, advised them to send their children and wives to Troezen and other cities. Having left the town, he transferred the state of war to a naval engagement. Pericles did the same in that same city against the Lacedaemonians. Scipio, while Hannibal remained in Italy, transported his army to Africa and imposed a necessity on the Carthaginians to recall Hannibal. Thus, he transferred the hostile war from his own borders. The Athenians, when the Lacedaemonians had fortified the fort of Decelea and were harassing them frequently, sent a fleet to infest the Peloponnese. They achieved their goal, as the Lacedaemonian army that was at Decelea was recalled. Emperor Caesar Domitian Augustus, when the Germans, according to their custom, repeatedly attacked our men from forests and obscure hiding places, and had a safe retreat into the depths of the woods, moved his troops forward one hundred and twenty thousand paces approximately 120 Roman miles. He not only changed the state of the war but also brought under his dominion the enemies whose refuges he had laid bare.

Emilius Paulus the consul, when he was leading his army through a narrow path near the coast in Lucania and the Tarentines were lying in wait for him with their fleet and attacking his column with scorpiones siege engines/heavy crossbows, covered his flanks with captives, out of respect for whom the enemies held back their missiles.