Whither are we fleeing, my most valiant men? Do you not know that flight never leads to safety, but shows the folly of a useless effort? Let us return to our companions, to be at least sharers in their coming glory, if it is without consideration that we are abandoning them as they fight for the Republic.
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Julian, to his fleeing troops at the Battle of Strasbourg, reported in Ammianus, Res gestae, bk. 16, ch. 12, sec. 40 (tr. J. C. Rolfe, i, 1935). His army rallied and defeated the German forces. Here, the term "republic" was used in its literal Latin meaning to denote the Roman state.