“Aristotle has always been eminently attackable and eminently attacked throughout history, and shooting down Aristotle's patent absurdities, like shooting fish in a barrel, didn't afford much satisfaction.”

Go Rin No Sho (1645), The Fire Book
Context: "To tread down the sword" is a principle often used in strategy. First, in large-scale strategy, when the enemy first discharges bows and guns and then attacks, it is difficult for us to attack if we are busy loading powder into our guns or notching our arrows. The spirit is to attack quickly while the enemy is still shooting with bows or guns. The spirit is to win by "treading down" as we receive the enemy's attack.
In single combat, we cannot get a decisive victory by cutting, with a "tee-dum tee-dum" feeling, in the wake of the enemy's attacking long sword. We must defeat him at the start of his attack, in the spirit of treading him down with the feet, so that he cannot rise again to the attack.

Source: Democracy Ancient And Modern (Second Edition) (1985), Chapter 2, Athenian Demagogues, p. 43

Burn the Witch
Lyrics, A Moon Shaped Pool (2016)

Wild Wild West http://www.grantstomb.org/news/gif02.html (1999).
In fiction, Wild Wild West (1999)

Source: The Echo of Greece (1957), Chapter 4, "The School Teachers"

Part II, Chapter 10, The Attacker's Advantage, p. 122
2000s, How Life Imitates Chess (2007)

I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.
Grand Street, no. 37 & The War Universe (1992)

Source: Meet Newcomer (and Flipped Star!) Madeline Carroll https://www.seventeen.com/celebrity/a12158/madeline-carroll-flipped-interview/ (August 31, 2010)