Cut and run! Sail home to the fatherland we love!
We’ll never take the broad streets of Troy.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 2, lines 64-65. After nine years laying siege to the city of Troy, Agamemnon shows his weakness as a leader when he commands his army to retreat from the Trojans and sail home. It is hard to find a speech anywhere like it by a battle commander trying to motiviate his troops. Agamemnon is actually testing his troops, using reverse psychology to rally his men, hoping they will disagree with him and demand to fight on. But his test backfires. What do his soldiers do? They run for the ships!