triarios

Updated: May 21, 2025

And because whenever this last division, of the triarii, had to be employed, the army was in jeopardy, there arose the proverb, "Res redacta est ad triarios," equivalent to our expression of playing a last stake.

Niccolò Machiavelli - Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius

Still, you fought well.... Third line of defence ad triarios.... I remember a bit of my classics." Gordon was borne out on the stream past the matron's room to the end of the passage, and the rest of Ferrers's speech was lost. From this day the Stoics underwent a complete change. The whole nature of the society was altered.

Alec Waugh - The Loom of Youth