“Contempt for an assailant is best shown by bravery in action.”

— Thucydides , History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VI, 6.34-[9]; "the true contempt of an invader is shown by deeds of valour in the field" ( trans. http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/thucydides/jthucbk6rv2.htm Benjamin Jowett)
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VI

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Thucydides 76

Greek historian and Athenian general

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