Quintus Curtius Rufus, History of Alexander 9.2.27

9.2.27

Maiora sunt periculis praemia: dives eadem et inbellis est regio. Itaque non tam ad gloriam vos duco quam ad praedam. Digni estis, qui opes, quas illud mare litoribus invehit, referatis in patriam, digni, qui nihil inexpertum, nihil metu omissum relinquatis.

"As long as it is with you I shall stand in battle, I count not the number either of my own or the enemy's army. Do ye only, I entreat, keep your minds full of alacrity and confidence. We are not standing on the threshold of our enterprise and our labours, but at their very close. We have already reached the sunrise and the ocean, and unless your sloth and cowardice prevent, we shall thence return in triumph to our native land, having conquered the earth to its remotest bounds. Act not then like foolish husbandmen who, when their crops are ripe, loose them out of hand from sheer indolence to gather them. The prizes before you are greater than the risks, for the country to be invaded not only teems with wealth, but is at the same time feebly defended. So then I lead you not so much to glory as to plunder. You have earned the right to carry back to your own country the riches which that sea casts upon its shores; and it would ill become you if through fear you should leave anything unattempted or unperformed. I conjure you then by that glory of yours whereby ye soar above the topmost pinnacle of human greatness—I beseech you by my services unto you, and yours unto me (a strife in which we still contend unconquered), that ye desert not your foster-son, your fellow-soldier, not to say your king, just at the moment when he is approaching the limits of the inhabited world.