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[1] Now I come to the bravest and wisest man of all the barbarians, except the two Carthaginians, Hamilcar and Hannibal.
I shall say the more concerning this general, because most of his acts are but little known, and because the undertakings that were attended with success to him, were accomplished, not by vastness of force, but by sagacity, in which he surpassed all of that age; and unless the manner of his proceedings he set forth, his merits cannot be fully understood.
Datames, son of a father named Camissares, a Carian by nation, and of a mother a native of Scythia, served first of all among the soldiers who were guards of the palace to Artaxerxes. His father Camissares, having been found undaunted in fight, active in command, and faithful on many occasions to the king, was granted as a province that portion of Cilicia which borders on Cappadocia, and which the Leucosyrians inhabit.
Datames first showed what sort of man he was, when engaged in military service, in the war which the king carried on against the Cardusii; for in this enterprise, after several thousands of the king's troops were killed, his exertions proved of great value. Hence it happened that, as Camissares lost his life in the war, his father's province was conferred upon him.
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